Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1913-07-17
TO DESTROY LIQUOR TRAFFIC
Petition Addressed to Governments Of
World Asks Prohibition Of Curoes
Of All Nations.

E'rom an address by Mrs. Frances p.
Parks. Corresponding Secretary Ma
tiunal ". G. r. "
The story Of the Polyglot petition is
in part the story Of the Worlds Wo-
mans Christian Temperance Union, a
multitude Of Christian women Of all
races and co!crs banded together to
destroy the leFalizod liquor traffic.
This petition, addressed to the gov
ornments OF the world. WAS started
on its long Journey in 1885. The con-
Guiding paragraph reads:
We, (your petitioners como to
yea with the united voices of rep
resentatiye women Of every land,
besCeching YOU TO raise the stand
ard of the law 10 that of Chris
tian morals, to strip away the
safeguards and sanctions OF the
state from the liquor traffic and
the opium trade and to protect
our homes By the total prohibition
OF these curses OF civilization
throughout all the territory over
which your government extends.
ITO enumerate the languages in
whose characters tho beliefs of women
have been nodded to action by this
far reaching document would be to
make list OF almost every tongue
that has survived the confusion Of
Babel. There are columns of Chinese
wCmon's signatures that look like
houses that Jack built There Is a
list of Burmese signatures that looks
like lunches Of tangled worms" The
thousands upon thousands from the
spacy Isle OF Ccylon are enough to
make a shorthand writer shudder.
The iacomprchensble but liquid tow
els Of the Hawaiian Kanaka jostle the
proud names Of English ladies of high
degree: the name of the naughty Sc
nora Of Madrid makes the same plea
az her raark" of the converted wo-
man Of the Congo. There are Span
ish names from Mexico and the South
American republics, French from Mar
tilQuC, Dutch from Natal, and Eng
lish from New Zealand, besides the
great homo petition from the greater
nations. The total counting mems
and womeu's signatures and attegta-
tons, aggregate seven and one-haif
millions. The petition is mounted on
cloth and II the names were written
one under the other it would be more
than five miles ling"
BY legislative enactment secured
through tho Womaus Christian TEN
perance Union scientific temperance
instruction io compulsory in all pub
l!c schools of the United States, and
is optional Or compulsory In the
schools OF Great Britain, Canada,
France. Holland. Denmark. Belgium,
Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Ger
many Sweden, Finland, Australia,
New Zealand South Africa. Mexico and
Japan.
l. Is not strange that the sanity OF
temperance should be seen when two
generations OF our people have been
trained from the kindergarten tc uni
varslty IN the belief that alcohol is a
poison.
Il Is not strange that women, build
ing for all time, have put great EN-.
phasls upon the spread Of the scienti-
hc temperance instruction. believing
that there can be no permanent pro-
hibition Of the sale OF alcoholic liquor
which does rot rest upon the founda-
ton of knowledge OF the true nature
and effect of alcohol.
Fifty countries are federated with
the Worlds Woman's Christian Tenn
perance Union and will send delegates
to its ninth triennial convention to be
held in Brooklyn, y. Y. in October.
The Countess Of Carlisle is president.