The Somerset reporter., 1909-08-26

and Vice President of the Worlds w.
G. #. U. Mrs. Stevens was listened
to with great attention and gave an
able and forceful presentation of the
subject of temperance from the stand :
point of total abstinence and prohibit
ton. She said in part:
There was never so much total alb
stinence, sentiment and practice, both
here in America and in other lands,
as there is today. Time was when IL
quor was found in nearly every home.
An old man who was ship builder
said to me that In the ship building
towns along the coast of Maine, it
was once the custom for the employ
ers to serve grog to their men each
day at eleven and four O'Clock. How
is it today? Instead of employ ers
serving liquor to their employees
they are now requiring total alb
stinence from them. CONNER
cialism has come to the help of the
temperance reform. Twenty thon-
sand men have recently signed the to-
tai abstinence pledge in order to keep
their positions in the railroads. 81
"
of the agriculturists require total alb
stinence. President Taft at great
banquet given him after his election
turned down his glasses and declared
he should in the future be total alb
stainer. Eek President Eliot of Har-
ward because of the light shed abroad
In these late days has announced his
intention of giving up wine. A
mother who had two boys in Harvard
two years ago said to me, 80 il
President Eliot had only taken this
stand years ago, how many young
men might have been saved!"
In many foreign countries system
ATTIC Investigations as.to the evil eff
iects of alcohol are being made. liz
France placards are posted by the
government with such telling warn
ings as this which Miss Gordan and
saw in Paris. "Alcohol is dangerous
1t is good for no one. Therefore lei
it alone" The thoughtful sentiment
of many in Germany was expressed
by DIR. Dunbruck when he said to two
Thousand students at the North
Weston University recently, Seer
many must overthrow beer, or beer
will overthrow Germany" England
has just had the great anti alcohol
Congress which met at London to
study not prohibition but the nature
and dangerous character of alcohol
And next June, Glasgow, Scotland
will entertain the Worlds Convention
of the Woman's Christian Temper
apce Union. when representatives
and many of them experts, from fifty
different nations will be gathered to-
gether to consider the value of total
abstinence and how the sale of liquor
may be stopped"
Mrs. Stevens under the head oil
Prohibition gave Cratic account OF
the wave of prohibition that is sweep
ing over the South and other parts OF
our country. "But," said she, 'sthe
wonder is not that Maine, Kansas,
North Dakota, Oklahoma, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina,
and Tennessee have outlawed the sa
loon, but the wonder is that any
state will continue to license the sale
of that which causes 35 per cent of
the insanity, As per cent of the idiocy
and so per cent of the poverty, 80 per
cent of the crime of our land.
"Still we may rejoice that prohibit
ton is advancing by leaps and bounds
particularly in the South which has
taught the North a greater lesson
than the North ever taught the South.
The battle is being waged by the
flower of Southern chivalry."
An extended tour through the South
enabled Mrs. Stevens to speak elo-
quently and convincingly of condi-
tions In Alabama, Tennessee, Ken
lucky, Florida and other south ern
states, and to venture the pre-
diction that In FIVE years there
would be a solid South for prohibit
ton.
Mrs. Stevens paid high tribute
to Maine, which has been the leader
In prohibition for half a hundred
years, Maine with her unusually
large amounts Of money in the saw
ings banks and her unusually small
amount of child labor. She closed
with touching incident illustrating
the crusade spirit of the W. G. T. U.
(which will never die out till all the
shadows caused by the liquor curse
shall fee away"