The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1915-12-25

MEhsREY0TES
SG4&
Conducted by the National Woman's
Christian Temperance Union.l
PROHIBITION VICTORIES.

iOiN OhlEOs
Excerpts from the address of Miss
Anna A. Gordon, president National
Woman's Christian Temperance union,
before the forty-second annual CONVEX
ton of that organization, held in Sc
attic, Wash, October GA, 1850
Looking backward over the past
twenty months and forward to the
year 1916 one might epitomize the
temperance movement in retrospect as
"a movement of victorious yesterdays
and confident tomorrows." These
months chronicle an unprecedented
number of prohibition victories. The
temperance transformation of Russia;
the antiliquor measures in effect in
German, French and English military
circles; the complete abolition of al
cohol in the United States navy and
in the Panama Canal zone; the out
having of the liquor traffic in Virginia,
Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Ari-
iona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Alabama
and South Carolina; the majority vote
for statewide prohibition in both
branches of Utah's legislature; the
triumph of the enemies of the saloon
in a large number of counties and
cities; the UNFOLDING by the United
States Supreme court of the constitu-
tionality of the prohibition provision
of the Indian understanding one
fifth of Minnesota dry; the victorious
prohibition elections in forty-f1ve of
Minnesota's counties; the battle royal
for prohibition in the District of Co.
lumbia; the total abstinence rules en-
forced by many industrial and railroad
corporations; the decrease at the rate
of $1.250,000 a month of the internal
revenue collections on distilled spirits
despite the fact that wines are paying
a high tax as a result of the emer-
gency wal tax enacted by the last con-
gress; the enactment in prohibition
states of s~tricter enforcement laws;
the discussion of total abstinence and
prohibition by press end popular mag
azines, and the marked decrease of
their liquor advertising; the growth
of antialeohol sentiment in the med
ical world-these, with the indorse-
ment of national constitutional pro-
hibition by hundreds of influential or
CARNATIONS and the outspoken decla-
rations of men prominent in the off,
cial and political life of the United
States and other nations in favor of
prohibition and total abstinence, have
given a marvellous impetus to the
movement for the Punishment of John
Barleycorn from the business, the So
cial, and the political life of the civil
lized world. The majority vote on the
Sheppard-Hobson bill in the United
States house of representatives on
December %, 1914, even though it fell
short of a decisive victory, was a
triumph for nationwide prohibition.
Because the alcohol disease is the
deepest-seated, most chronic organic
disease known to the body polite and
body social, the permanent cure must
be not only organic state legislation,
but organic national legislation. The
object of a national prohibition amend
ment is to destroy the agency that
debauches the youth of the land. The
W. c. T. u. agrees with Congressman
Richmond Pearson Hobson when he
asserts: THE liquor trust is wise
enough to know that it cannot per-
petuate its sway by depending on de-
bauching grown people, so it uses an
organic method of teaching the young
to drink. We apply exactly the same
method to destroy the traffic. We do
not try to make old drinkers stop
drinking. but we do aim to put a stop
to the systematic, organized debauch-
ing of our youth through thousands
and tens of thousands of agencies
throughout the land"