The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-16


 sachusetts for comparison. because they were formerly one State. settled by people whose interests were once the same. Where Maine has 12:5S tn- sane to every ten thousand of the population, Massachusetts has 2S.S5; where Maine has TIA prisoners to ev- cry one hundred thousand of the pop ulation, Massachusetts has 2.355. It is said that when there are 120 prison CTS for drunkenness in Maine, that Massachusetts has 2,010. In Maine the death rate per hundred thousand from alcoholism Is 2.2, in Massachusetts 1t Is 6.S
 We believe that God created both man and woman in His own image, and therefore we believe In one stand ard of purity for both men and wo- men," says the creed of the order. The members are proving their faith by their works. They have found, with other students of social problems that the greatest evils are intemperance and impurity. They have rescued hun dreds of girls from a fate worse than death. girls who are the victims of traffic between this country and Flu. rope. China, and Japan, and they have called the attention of the President to the alleged traffic in Eskimo women on whaling vessels of the Alaskan coast. They have put q matron at kAc 0cRDIS III many CLUES ana towns to watch for the incoming country girl. ignorant of the ways of the city, and to look after her until she finds work. They have department devot ed to the purifying of literature and art. and are making crusade that will tend to exclude from public places questionable art works, and that will establish a more elevated standard of Journalism.
 We believe in a living wage; in an eight-hour day; in courts of concilIa- ton and arbitration" say the women of the ". c. T. U. Toward this end they have affiliated themselves with the labor unions in an effort to over throw liquor traffic. they have studied no little the various sociological prob- lems of the day, have formed circles to study the labor questions of the day. and by petition to the Hague Conference stand as advocates of a general arbitration treaty.
 Wherever human interest and activ- itys centers, there. the W. C. T. U. women find opportunity for work They have gone among soldiers and sailors. railroad employees, lumbrmen and miners. Bands of mercy have been formed among the little people of the land to teach kindness to dumb animals. They encourage State and county fairs, because in eighteen Gl@kGh =tAAP &aW PEOAiUAlS t4AG 8dlB OI fntoxicants on fair grounds, and they know the pleasures and sports will be clean and wholesome. Where there are fairs In States not having these protecting laws. the W. c. T. U. members have open air services and urge the enactment of laws prohibit ing liquor sales. They establish day nurseries, emergency hospitals and rest rooms on the fair grounds and off, fer other inducements for the farmers wives to come for a bit of recreation. In several mn towns of the South they have established day nurseries and kindergartens.
 When Maine went dry, back in 1851, there was a great hue and cry that prohibition would injure the business of the State. The women of the W, C. T. U. have gathered facts to prove that. on the contrary, business was made by 1t. They show that where in 1851 there were no savings banks in Maine, there are now deposited in the savings banks, about SS1,000, 900; that Maine Is the only State in the Union which has more bank depositors than it has voters, that one-third of the en- tire population of the State. including men. women and children, have a sav- ings bank account; that within the six months preceding the latest report of the bank examiner, $2,750,000 have heen deposited in savings banks; and that the valuation of cities, towns, and farms increasd $72,5o0.00 in the past decade It is argued that the success that Maine has had Is in reach of any other State.
 Possibly the work of the W. c. T.U. that has caused most controversy was that of helping abolish the canteen from the various army posts. Advo- cates for the re-establishment of the canteen argue that where once the men could order their drinks, get good brand and tipple most temper ately. they are now driven to go out side the posts and get what the low saloons and dives offer, and, as a con- sequence. are worse off than before The women of the W. c. T. U. point out the fact that since the abolition of the sale of liquor in the army, Con- gress has appropriated about $2,00O.- 900 for libraries gymnasiums, etc., for the soldiers, and that as a whole. healthier. more moral atmosphere pre- walls.
 It was in December 1873 that the women of Hillsboro. Washington Court House and other Ohio towns. heard Dr. Lewis of Boston preach a temperance address and were moved to wage war on saloons. They prayed in the streets and saloons. and within fifty days time they had swept as whirlwind through that section and the Iiquor traffic was wiped from 250 towns. That was the beginning of this great move ment of the W. c. T. U.. whose greatest leader Is distinguished by a statue placed in the Statuary Hail of Congress-the only woman there: