Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-11-12
POVERTY IS GIVEN
AS ONE Of CAUSES
OF |NTEMPERANCE
National President of w. c. T.
u. Tells Convention Drink and
Pauperism Are Reciprocal.

BALTIMORE, Nov. 12.-Drinking and
cigarette smoking are not on the in
crease among the women of America,
according to Lillian NJ. H. Stevens,
president of the National Women's
Christian Temperance Union. Address
ing the annual convention of the or
ganization here today. she said in part:
I'VE are sometimes told tha drink
among women is On the increase. 1t
can hardly be SO among the outcasts
and lower classes, for 1t is largely
drink which has brought them where
justly, wen among women. be called
a class drink, for alcohol in the costly
wine glass is as deadly and dangerous
as it is in the dingy whiskey mug.
I'VE are sometimes told that there is
much cigarette smoking among women.
In the course of my travels in England
m America l have never seen a woman
with a cigarette in her mouth, except
in certain localities in New Mexico.
where the surroundings were not at all
pleasant to contemplate. There is rea-
son to believe hat some women in Eng
land do smoke cigarettes, and we are
told that there are some in America of
like habit. 1 have seen now and then
a woman in a howell smoking a pipe.
Il am glad that the National and
Worlds w. C. It. u. has a department
of -anti-narcotics and 1 am happy in be-
lieving that the number of women who
smoke cigarettes in elegant homes or
who smoke tobacco in any form in the
tramp lodging-house are very few In
this country, n 1 am particularly
glad that the youths are being taught
to shun the nicotine poison, and this
teaching is greatly helped by the re-
quirement of many business firms that
their employees shall not use cigar
ettes.''
Girls in Babyhood Sold Into Dens.
Referring to the traffic in women, the
speaker reviewed recent Federal, State
and city attempts to stile 1t, and con-
tinued.
1T matters little whether the traffic
is organized or not. The fact that it
exists in New York and elsewhere is
sufficient to arouse humanity loving
people. Without any exaggeration, it
Is appalling enough to arouse the most
| dDdtlttlACs dIu llftSllSdllOIl III SOIlG
cities have revealed that even little
girls in their infancy are sold into
these dens of infamy."
Mrs. Stevens vigorously recommend
ed an amendment to the Fedora con-
stitution prohibiting polygamy and
giving to Congress power to enforce
such prohibition by suitable legislation.
The Jeffries-Johnson prize fight came
l.. g. - @IarA ~ a-4tfn,er- an1 M
Stevens urged adoption of the bill now
pending in Congress prohibiting the
Interstate transportation of fight pic
lures. Linking woman suffrage with
the cause of temperance, she said:
ut is an encouraging sign of the
times that many prominent news
papers and journals recently have
printed so much that is favorable to
woman suffrage"
Mrs. Stevens repeated her charge of
last year that drink not only induces
poverty, but poverty induces drink.
Poverty One Cause of Intempernnce.
Much criticism has been expended
on me for declaring in my third BIZ
ennial address before the Worlds w.
C. 7. U. in Tune last" she said, that
intemperance caused poverty. l am
now READY not OHiy 10 TelteIdte that
cardinal doctrine. but to add that pow
erty causes intemperance. BY that
declaration l am ready to stand or
fall. I did not say that poverty causes
intemperance In the same degree thai
intemperance causes poverty; nor do l
think it does, but as we have not been
wont to recognize poverty at all among
the procuring causes of intemperance,
it seems to me high time that We
did so.
Zone reason why poverty may cause
lintemperance is hat the saloon, the
blind tiger or other liquor-selling
places are not usually located in the
districts where the rich or well-to-do
live. but they are often nearby or in
f the midst of abodes of the poverty
class, and the poor as we'll as the
rich often yield to the temptation of
the saloon"
The American people should frown
on the proposal of drinking the Presl-
dents health in an alcoholic bever-
age. in the w. C. T. U. presidents
opinion.