The Washington herald., 1913-12-08
DRY nation
IS DEMANDED
Mass Meetings Approve Plan
for March of Women
to Capitol.
W. T. U. HEADS PRESIDE
Mrs. ArmOr, Georgia Cyclone" Strs
Her Many Hearers-ChiIdren
Give Songs.

Loudly Voicing their approval of the
plan to hold mass meeting Wednesday
when about one thousand women will
march TO the Capitol and demand a
constitutional amendment stamping out
the sale of liquor all over the country,
audiences which crowded the Columbia
Theater, First congregational Church,
and st. Pauls Lutheran Church, yester-
day afternoon provided fitting climax
to the greatest anti-liquor manif festation
ever seen in Washington.
The mass meetings were carefully
planned. and worked out by Mrs. Emma
Sanford Shelton, president Of the Wash
ington W. c. 7. u, and were attended
by women temperance workers of ma
tiOnal and worldwide fame, national
officers of the organization presiding
over the three meetings. Mrs. Lillian
NJ. n. Stevens, president Of the national
organization, presided at the Columbia
Theater meeting:
Mrs Mary Harris Armor, of Georgia,
called the Georgia cyclone whose
words literally took Eer audience of their
feet. was the princapal speaker at the
meetings. Tears, laughter, and applause,
marked the rapid course of her words,
her oratory, magnetism. and stage pres
gnce holding her hearts.
March to Meeting Places.
Most OF those present at the meetings
had assembled at Fourteenth Street and
New York avenue, and marched TO the
meeting places, preceded by squad Of
mounted police and a section of the
Marine Band. The speakers and others
on the program divided their time be-
tween the three places of meeting.
Selections by the Marine Band and the
singing of hymns opened the meetings.
Miss Anna A Gordon, national vice
president of the organization. who was to
Ial in ENfr1t
Congregational Church. informed the au-
dience that she would be needed no the
Columbia Theater, and presented Mrs
Frances P. Parks, national corresponding
secretary. who oficiatsd.
Miss Gladys D. Emig, of this city. re-
cited at both meetings the Prohibition
Proclamation" written two years ago
by Mrs. Lillian NJ. n. Stevens, when
Maine voted to uphold its dry" law.
representative Hobson's resolution intro
duced in the House last summer, provid-
ing for a constitutional amendment max
ing prohibition nationwide, was read by
L. Stanton Henry at both meetings
Mrs. Armor chose for the subject of
her forceful remarks "Nation-Wide Pro-
hibition in 1920, and Why" She said that
while God always had been opposed to the
liquor traffic, it was not until late years
that the church had united against it
Issues n Challenge.
Mrs. Armor declares that common sense
was opposed to continuation OF the traffic
in alcohol, and she openly challenged
any one in the city, particularly repre-
sentative of the liquor interests, to meet
her in open debate any time this week,
and she would prove that what she said
was true in theory and fact.
The liquor people have only three ar
Euments," Mrs. Armor declared. They
twist them around, and advance varia-
tiNns of them, but they have only three,
and they are pitiably weak. They say
that the liquor traffic pays. 1t pays no
one but those engaged in selling it."
Mrs. Armor SAID another argument ad-
vanced by the interests is that ''prohibi-
tion doesn't prohibit
. IF that is so why do they spend mil
lions of dollars fighting prohibition? 1t
seems silly"
The only other argument they have
Mrs Armor went on, is the personal
rights" argument, the declaration that a
man has a right to drink If he wants to
do it.
He hasn't" she declared Has
man a right to kill himself? II there is
a man here with some deadly poison in
his pocket, and he tries to take it, he
ran be arrested for breaking the law.
He hasn't the right to poison himself,
and people are beginning to realize that
liquor is a poison
Support of Mr.. Hobson's resolution for
prohibition was accorded a unanimous
standing vote, on the motion of Mrs.
Florence Richards, president of the Ohio
organization.
Leo Lyon, a boy with a beautiful voice
who sang in all parts of Maine during
the fight to maintain prohibition there,
sang two prohibition songs. with eight
little girls, bearing huge ribbon, stand
Il
sang Some Glad Day. by Katherine L. |
Stevenson.
Mrs Richards, in an address at the |
Congregational Church declared the or
ganiZs ton will not rest until the nation |
is completely dry" Mrs. Lulu Shepard. |
of Utah. spoke of the home influence in |
dealing with the question, and the bale |
full influence of the saloon.
Platforms Are Decorated.
The platforms on which the speakers |
sat at the theater and churches were |
decorated: and bore huge emblems above |
them, with the words National Prohibi- |
ton in 1920. But Long Before That There |
VIII Be no Saloons in Washington
Presidents of State organizations |
present were: Mrs. Sara II. Hoge, Vir- |
ginia; Mrs. SiIena Holman, Tennessee; |
Mrs. Frances E. Beauchamp, Kentucky; I
Mrs. Mary Harris Armor. Georgia; Mrs. |
Florence E. Richards, Ohio; Mrs. Culla |
]. Vayhinger, Indiana; Mrs. Pauline w.
Holme. Maryland; Mrs. Ella NJ. George, |
Pennsylvania; Mrs. Jennie L. W. Rookie, |
Rhode Island; Mrs. Lulu NJ. Shepard, |
Utah; Mrs. Ella A. Boole, Brooklyn, N.
Y, and Miss Hardynia Norville, Ala
bama.
Others who attended were Mrs Ella
Hoover Thatcher, superintendent of the
department of soldiers and sailors,
Worlds and National w. c. T. U; Mrs
Margaret Dye Ellis, superintendent of the
Legislative department; Miss Ellen NJ.
Stone, Miss Amy a. Swankie-Cameron,
London, England.