The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-10-06


was followed by a solo by Mrs. Ida
johnson of Worcester, after which the
president, Mrs. Stevenson, introduced
Rev Anna H. Shaw. vice president of
the National American Woman's Suf-
frage Association. Mrs, Stevenson
told of her first meeting with Rev. Mrs
Shaw at Boston university school of
theology, and referred to the speakers
work.
REV MRS. SHAW'S ADDRESS.
Rev. Anna H. Shaw said in part:
Twenty years does not seem so long
when we look back as when We look
forward. Twenty years is not all the
time that we as an organization have
been treating the paths we are now in.
No human being can look back 26 years
without seeing many things which he
would not have done. and the same is
true of an organization.
1T would be wrong to say that we
have always taken the right step, or
always done the wisest things. While
that is true of us and Of all organiZa
tions, there are two things which we
will not change, for these are as eter
naliy true today as the day when We
laid the foundation of the W. G. T. U.
f"Twenty-six years ago was still a
college girl, when this work was born;
born of the spirit of God The legiti-
mate companion of war has ever been
strong drink it has been the curse of
the people who wage the war. and of
those against whom the war is waged
This curse reused the women to save
the homes of manhood from that sla-
very which enslaves the soul as well
as the body. Men then. as today, were
busy building up the material things
of the nation. When the women were
driven into a corner, forgotten as it
seemed of God, out from that little
Presbyterian church went forth the
band of women to this work. They
went as all temperance societies did, for
the reformation of the drunkard. Wo-
men, like men, are always moreaffect-
ed by the external evidences of disease
than they are of abstract principles
which prevent disease. All the exter-
nal signs appealed to us then, and we
went out into the saloons to get men to
sign the pledge. That was legiti-
mate way to begin, but it is not the
legitimate way to continue.
We had to unlearn many things and
learn more. We had heard that men
were very brave and women were very
timid. There were about so men in the
first saloon we entered, but before we
had got through the door there was
not a. man left. We routed them with
nothing more than pledge of lead
pencil. Then the desire for research
overcame the men, and they peeped in.
When they found 1t was nothing more
than a prayer meeting they came in.
Before that week of crusade was over
l had the signatures of 100 men, and
was very happy. But in five weeks 95
of them were back in the saloon again,
and in eight weeks SO were back They
| didn't sign that pledge to get rid OF
us.
They were men who realized what
| the curse of strong drink had been to
them, and they saw in our pledge a
promise to change. But why didn't
| they keep it? Take a man with blunt
ed moral and spiritual nature and an
abnormal appetite, and he cannot do
right, however much he wishes.
| Women are not so bound up with red
| tape that when they see they are not
! going right they cannot change around.
We saw that we should shut up the
saloon that was making drunkards.
| When these men could not keep the
| pledge, we said the saloons must get
out of the way
| When we were in the saloons good
men stood back of us and blessed us,
| but when we started out to destroy the
| saloon 1t was different. OF all I'M
fathered things, it is the saloon-it was
never mothered. 1t was not owned by
| anybody. No one would acknowledge
! it.
| We.went to saloonkeeper, an Amer
! lean gentleman named Patrick Muir
| ply, and asked him how we could
make him stop selling liquor, and welo
| was responsible for the saloon. To the
| first question he said we could do moth
! ing. He said we should work with the
other fellows in the business, and point
| ing to the license, he said: Read
| that" and by it we saw that the Unit
ed States, the state, the city and the
| saloonkeeper were all in the business
Mr. Murphy said: Get the govern
ment out of it, for the people wouldn't
stand 1t six months if the government
| did not get a profit out of it." The
drink evil rests in the attitude of the
government toward 1t. Let the attitude
! OF the government change, and then
| will the power of the liquor traffic be
! broken. We have been after the other
! fellows in the business, and the men
haven't blessed us They have said:
! Look out. dear sisters, you will get
out of your proper sphere of activity
You will get into politics. There was
| little girl in Massachusetts once who
said If the law meddled with her she
| would NEEDLE with the law. That little
| girl was Lucy Stone, and she has med
| died good deal since.
| II we are to get rid of the saloons
and have to get into politics to do it,
| then we shall get into politics The
papers said a great deal about us. In
| one paper there was a column and a
half editorial, showing that the woman
was to blame. 1t must have been
| young man who wrote il. When you
see column and half editorial on the
| duties Of wife and mother, it is writ
ten by Edward Box or some one like
| him.
The great need of America is good
mothers But If there is any organiza-
ton in the last rs years that has done
more to make good mothers than the
Womens Christian Temperance union,
| don't know what it Is.
We like TO hear a man say: 1.-THE
hand that rocks the cradle rules the
world" We know It isn't true. but we
like it. 1t is true just as long as the
world stays in the cradle No saloon