The Portland daily press., 1898-08-09

~SS
Temperance work effective. The enthu-
siasin of the Union, which had always
been directed toward work for the
avowed object of the society, the cause
of temperance. was turned toward the
building of the Temple. The Temple be-
came the main thing. The Union ~,
suffered and temperance suffered; lnei,
about a year ago, we came TO reaills ous.U
after ali this Mr. Field, an outsider,
man NOT directly identified otherwise
with the interests of the Union, was
more interested in the Temple than we
were ourselves.
At the Buffalo convention last year tne
temple question was the main one us
cussed. Mrs. Carse believed that II the
society could raise 100000 to buy bacK
the bonds and get control of the capital
easily carried on. Miss Willard, after
the whole matter had been thoroughly
discussed, stood up before the convention
and announced that she intended to de-
vote the next year of her life, the fifty
ninth of her age, to an effort to raise that
$500, 600 and put the Temple into the con-
troll of the Union. She believed that by
appeals to wealthy and philanthropic peo-
pie throughout the country this might be
accomplished. There was not lacking
the advice of men supposed to be thor
onghly versed in financial and business
affails to support her in her belief that il
the Union could secure control of the
stock all would go we'll thereafter. A
committee was made up of prominent
business men of Chicago, among them
Lyman ]. Gage, now Secretary of the
Treasury, and H. H.. Kohlsaat. Its re-
port, made after examining the books of
the building association, was in part as
follows:
"We find that responsible business men
subscribed and paid for all the capital
stock at par, and that you secured an
option on a large part of the stock for
twelve years at par and five per cent in
terest, and that at about the time of the
completion of the building wealthy gen.
tIaman of this city purchased sufficient
stock at par to have a controlling power
in the association, and that you pur-
chased from him sufficient stock to give
you control in the associ alton and issued
and sold 100000 six per cent bonds to
pay for the same"
The committee concluded that if the
association could manage 10 cancel those
bonds and thus avoid the necessity for
paving interest on them any longer,
there was no reason why the building
should not be self supporting and even
profitable.
Miss Willard went bravely into the
work of soliciting subscriptions. She
ly by the people to whom she went. She
did not make any attempt to raise the
money among temperance people, for
when she announced her determination
to devote herself to the, work she had
said: 81 shall not come around making
any soft words to the local unions nor
the white ribboners They have done
shall only try to help get enough to re-
tire the $500, 100 Temple trust bonds, thus
holding the balance of votes. but shall
not try to to own the whole Temple. The
white ribboners shall not he disturbed,
They have done nobly. They have be-
come weary. do not wonder that they
are a little discouraged, and what would
like to do is to lift the burd en-
In the midst of her discouragement
over her failure to collect money as fast
as she had hoped. Miss Wizards health
failed and she died in tins city. The
committee attempted to carry on the work
under her name in the hope that what
she had not been able to do in life might
be done as memorial to her when she
was dead. This attempt failed too. The
general officers of the association met in
July. this year and studied this state
ment:
''The building is erected on leased
ground owned by Mr.. Marshal Field, for
which an annual rental of $4,000 must
be paid for 1873 years without possibility
of revaluation.
s'Six hundred thousand dollars of build
ing bonds were issued as a lien upon the
building, and are held by the Field Muse
UNI Of Chicago These could be pur-
chased only at par value.
ssThree hundred thousand dollars worth
of stock is held by the American Trust
and Savings Bank as security for
$500, 600 Temple trust bonds.
"Two hundred and eighty-four thou
sand and seven hundred dollars worth of
stock is owned by capitalists in Chicago,
of which amount Mr.. Field hold Sis, 400
worth.
Fifteen thousand three hundred dol
lars is held by Mrs. Matilda B. Carse for
the National Woman's Christian Temper
ance Union.
$40 secure the entire Temple (Which
would still stand upon leased ground
and SO could not in reality be owned), we
would require in addition to the SIS, 300
of stock now held, S975, 200.
s'From reports received from States and
from foreign lands the general officers
have reason to believe that $15, 600 addi-
tional might be raised before Nov. 1.
Our women have done their utmost, and
stern reality causes us to face the conclu-
sion that the money will not come from
the rich people in the nation. If this
main S142, 500 deficit on Temple trust
bonds, to say nothing of the other large
sums which must be raised before the
Temple can go on.
The general officers decided that, while
they appreciated the brave spirit and in
domitabIe efforts of Mrs. Carse, the at
tempt to own the Temple was hopeless,
and there was decided lack of under
standing regarding the situation among
Woman's Christian Temperance Union
women as we'll as on the part of the gen.
eral public. They therefore decided to
Law the matter before the Executive
Committee. with the understanding that
the committee should take it before the
Minneapolis convention for final settle-
ment. The final recommendation was In
these words:
s'If favorable terms could be secured 1t
would be far more economical and fully
as effective in the end for the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union to lease
Willard hall and pay rent for national
headquarters in the Temple, which it
had been doing since the completion OF
the building, than to go on with the
hopeless effort to own the building"
The Executive Committee n ct on July
1 last, and adopted resolutions saying
that the effort to raise money with view
of owning the Temple should be discon-
4