Devils Lake inter-ocean and Devils Lake free press. (Devils Lake, Ramsey County, N.D.) 1905-1909, 1907-07-12
Temperance Day

temperance Day
Saturday, John G. Wooley, the
noted temperance orator from
Chicago, was the principal
speaker of Temperance Rally
Day" at Chautauqua. In an ap-
peal to the intelligent voters and
Christian men of the country,
the speaker put forth a strong
argument against the liquor traf-
fc in the United States. A
large audience greeted him, when
he stepped upon the platform
after an enjoyable half hours
entertainment by Mr.. and Mrs.
Beilharz. The Beilharz's, be-
sides being readers and vocalists
of some ability, perform pleas
ing and musical duets on an in
strument which consists of 8
octaves of brass pipes, giving
forth a soft, mellow tone.
The speaker was introduced
by the state president of the w.
C. T. u. He said in part, that
he had come to discuss the great
liquor problem in it's relation to
the state and the nation. He
looked to the men and women
who compose the church of Jesus
Christ to wage the war against
it, and he looked to them to wage
it to a successful termination.
He compared the time when he
first started on his tenn
perance crusade, twenty years
ago to the present. Then, he
said, prohibition meetings often
broke up in a row and the tent
in which the meeting was held
was often cut down on the heads
Of the speakers. Now times
have greatly changed. The per-
iod of agitation has passed
away, and the time has come
when we can appeal to the in
telligence and conscience Of the
Christian people. Labor will
eventually win this fight; capital
Twill eventually win it; so will
the common business interests
of the country eventually turn
against the liquor traffic. But
the speakers idea was for the
overcome this evil by exercising
their prerogative at the polls.
Mr.. Wooley congratulated the
people of the state of North Da-
kota on the prohibition laws of
the state, and said that by rea-
son of it no man dare offer to
buy the public virtue. He con-
tended that the drink problem
is no local or state problem, but
it is a national question. He pre-
dicted that the Christian church
would some day win the fight
on this question at our national
election. By rough calculation
$14,000,000 goes annually into
the Golfers of the liquor dealers
in the United States. It is stat
led by conservative statisticians
that $500 babies are killed an
nually by reason of rough hand
ling of nursing at the hands of
drunken fathers and mothers.
This, he contended, is the great
est humanitarian question pro-
pounded to a Christian people.
Under the present regime the
saloon is as lawful as the school
house and as politically respect
able as the church. The spirit
| of criticism is rampant in the
great reform. Blame is attrib-
uted to the government, to our
ministers, the republicans blame
the democrats, and vice versa,
> the democrats the republicans,
but the real blame lies with the
people themselves. If you want
the legislature of the state clean
, ed up, take a bath yourself, he
said. Selling liquor is precisely
as good a business as selling a
, license to do so.
The lecturer contended that
, the main difference between
drunkenness and other crime or
failing is that both intoxication
and inebriates are snowy things.
That is the reason that it ex-
cites so much criticism. 1t does
mot lie in our mouths to criticise
! the drunkard. If all our failings
? would show up as plain and as
2 luminous as the drunkard's red
! nose what a looking crowd we
would be!