The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-10-25
N. {. I. i,
FOR 4 YEAR
Annua! Meeting Held
at Presidents
Home.

The annual meeting of the Woman's
| Christian Temperance Union was held
yesterday afternoon at the residence of
| the president, Mrs. J. NJ. Whitney. The
afternoon was devoted to the presen-
tation of reports by the president, Sec
rotary, treasurer, and superintendent
of the various departments, including
the flower mission, literature bureau,
and the Hilo branch After the bust
ness meeting, which was well-attend-
ed, a social session was held, when re-
freshments We're served. The newly
elected officers are as follows:
President, Mrs. ]. NJ Whitney; vice
presidents, Mrs. Kincaid, Mrs: A. F.
Judd, Mrs. P. c. Jones.
Recording secretary, Mrs. c. L. Aus
tin; treasurer, Mrs L. B. Coan; cor
responding secretary, Mrs. E. w. Jor-
dan; Flower Mission, Mrs. C. w.
Dickey, Miss Pinder, Mrs. Carlton;
Loyal Temperance League, Mrs. l..
Ryder; Seamen's Literature, Mrs. L.
Bray; Temperance Literature, Miss
Jane Johnson; Superintendent Sunday
School Work, Mrs. T. G. Thrum.
The report of the president, Mrs. j.
NJ. Whitney. was in part as follows:
AN OUTLOOK
We women who have gathered here
this afternoon doubtless are willing
to admit that we are interested in the
temperance question, that we know
something of the evils of liquor drink
ing, that we deplore its use and should
be glad if We could do anything to
lessen it's horrors. But one who has
seriously surveyed the situation and in
any measure tried to arouse men and
women to a sense of the blackness of
the guilt, the despair, the agony of the
drink habit, must wonder with every
faculty of the soul at the Indifference
of parents and teachers, of. officers of
the law and voters, of patriots and law
makers and preachers, in view of the
growing evils we can alleviate, but
liStlesSly do not try to influence. Why
does not the Christian church arise as
one man and demand an abatement
and ultimate abolishing of this iniqui-
ty? No one the world over is hardy
enough to apologize for this destroyer
except upon purely selfish grounds, and
yet out of sheer Indifference we go on
our own way, hoping if anything is
done that someone else will do it, and
we may not be disturbed in our money
getting and our pleasures by the
drunkard's ribaldry, the danger to our
boys. yes. and girls too, and the cry OF
the worse than widowed mother: How
long, O Lord, how long!"
The collapse of the Subway Tavern
enterprise in New York City, in which
a good man failed to show the posi-
bility of making the saloon respect
able, even under the most favorable
conditions; the disclosures concerning
the South Carolina Dispensary Law,
showing that the whole liquor business
is So vile that not even state can
touch it without being smirched in
name and character; the recent ruling
of the U. S. Commissioner of Internal
Revenue that, after December L, pat
ent medicines that are found to contain
a large percentage of alcohol will be
placed in the same category as other
intoxicants, the manufacturers of
such medicines to be classed with
rectiffers and liquor dealers, and drug
giSts who handle them to be requir-
ed to take out the regular saloonkeep-
er'S license: these and many more signs
of the times might be mentioned to show
the leaven is working. To such an ex-
tent is this true, that this statement
is made in Munsey's Magazine for Au-
gust: 1T may almost be said that to-
day the public sale of liquors finds no
defenders outside the men who make
profit from it and the men whose ap-
petite calls for it."
Alas! that in our dear little island
home a company of legislators would
be found who would throw down the
bars to this iniquity even wider than
their predecessors had donel While it
is said that in the United States more
than half the people are under some
kind of prohibitory law, we here are
Sc far behind the times that there is
hardly any limit to the extent to
which liquors of almost all kinds may
be made and sold and drunk. Who is
to blame? Have we used all our in
f1Uence as individuals and as a So
ciety? Does public sentiment in Homo
tain the liquor faction or those who are
working for a clean government? Shall
the drunkard maker and the liquor
drinker have the sole right of way, and
must we who want to have safe homes
and live clean lives and see our chill
matters always have our wishes and
rights disregarded by those who make
our laws?