The Topeka state journal., 1913-08-09
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.


[ this sort there are f1esh-and-blood
men and women. Reforms do not
happen They are the effect of ascer-
: tainable causes. Nothing is more Ger
tain than that it takes real people to
} bring to pass any change in public
thinking Somebody has put blood and
sweat into every great movement
, which the public sees only in its broad
er phases. If our day is one of victory or
temperance, the cause may be found in
men and women who, with lofty vision
and tireless patience. gave themselves
through weary years to espousing an
unpopular propaganda. Most of them
have not lived to see this day of
triumph; but by faith, they perceived
it from afar, crying with the poet:
+ Ring bells in distant steepIes,
The joy of unborn peoples:
i Sound, trumphets far-off blown.
Your triumph is my own"
! The most effective servant of the
| temperance cause is the woman or man
who teaches a boy or girl to abstain
! from strong drink, and to oppose the
| liquor traffic.
| The distinguished ex-president Of the
| United States, who proved in court
and the front pages of the news
! papers, that he is not addicted to in
| temperance, powerfully served the
/ cause of temperance by the Importance
| he attached to a reputation for sob
| riety. A generation ago it scarcely
| hurt public man to be known as one
| who used liquor to excess. Now it /
! has become disgrace for any man, !
! in public or in private, to be known /
as a hard drinker Once the abstem- /!
! iousness of a 'cold-water fanatic was |
! sneered at; now it is reputation |
which every candidate for popular suf- |
frage covets.
The blood of brotherhood runs red
in grape juice diplomacy
Wars are won by private soldiers |
The strength of the commanding Of
ficer is the number and character of |
the men in the rankZ The most eff
1ectlVe servants OF the temperance
cause will never be enshrined in any |
hall of fame. They are the plain peo-
pie, of conviction and altruistic passion
who have not enjoyed the applause
which comes to public speakers, and |
who have not had the distinction of Of
flee bearing; but who, in muItiform
ways, and most of all by example,
nave consistently fought this great
curse of our civilization. The first quail
1ty Of sincere devotion to any cause is
Willingness to merge ones self and Ia
bors into the general prosperity of
the enterprise. By this standard the
heroes and heroines of temperance
have been legion. We see mothers
and teachers, in countless host, lead
ing the van
For boy Or young man to come
into touch with a great woman Is 10
inherit a priceless treasure of
chivalry. Frances Willard had this eff
feet upon legions. She was a queenIy
woman, gifted in all the graces that
make womanhood beautiful. Her Ler-
sonality touched with inspiration
countless lives. especially of young
men: To know her was to believe in the
idealism of womanhood One look into
her great, beautiful eyes, filed with
tears as she pleaded for the cause to
which she had devoted her life. was
enough to consecrate a man to the SER
vice of his fellows in fighting intcrn-
perance. If this impirational quality
which was the rich inheritance
bequeated to the temperance
movement by Miss Willard. could be I
shared by all women there would he i
no woman question" in our time
Frances Willard made knights errant {
of men.
Tongue, pen and ballot are the I
weapons that will win the new tenn
perance war.
All who look beneath the surface {
OF Things see a new formida bIeness in
the temperance movement because it
mas become one with the whole vast
social
fare- More dfspassionate than the old
crusaders and welding new forces of
scientific knowledge, the present-dav
sociologist is condemning internperance
because it is an anti-social force II
hurtS the common good. 1t is of a ,
piece with vile tenements sweatshons
childlabor and white slavery. The in
eXorable social surveys, with their re-
lentless facts, are proving anew the
case against the saloon, that it is link {
ed up with crime and poverty, and that
1t Is wholly uneconomic. wasting both I
the money and the physical vitality of l
the worker If the days program OF .
social amelioration is to win, and no
observing person doubts this, then the
saloon is doomed. So We should add to :
the roll of the noble servants of tenn !
perance all the social reformers. whose /
number is legion. I
Self-denial is the first characterfs- /
tic of heroism. Anybody who disre- c
CARDS his own taste and comfort for
another's sake belongs in the ranks of I
temperance heroes.
Lagging somewhat behind inu.viduaI
reformers. the church has yet swung j.
into line for the temperance cause. One |
of the great occasions of the recent !,
Presbyterian congress in Toronto was :
when that vast body of leaders put :
itself enthusiastically on record as
committed unreservedly to an aggres- i,
sive temperance warfare In the TTni- a
ted States the most definitely effective c
of all TEN .1erance agencies has come to L
be the Anti-SalOOn League, which is a c
league of the churches, having no life I
apart from the churches. It was repeat f
edly demonstrated that when the .
churches of any community are united v
and aroused they are irresistible. UI- {
timately. all moral battles are I'D to d
the church When the temperance -