The Prescott daily news., 1918-01-04
W. c. T. U.

1eSteruayS meeting With Mrs. Sykes was full of enthusiasm, and no wonder. The Honor Roll of 1917 was enough to put spirit in the most lan- guld worker, and the prohibition legis- lation of the 64th Congress was enough to bring the coveted goal in sight of the dullest advocate. Mir. Pershing's letter in which he excused the use of light wine and beer re- ceived its share of airing and action was taken in sending a message to the president begging for the enforce ment of the anti-canteen law with our soldiers in France as we'll as in ! America.
 The following article was read by Mrs Sykes who has two sons enlisted in the army. The article is by Miss Wintringer, writer for the Sunday School Times, and who was once na- tional secretary of the Young Peoples work in the w. c. T. U. We want to share this article with every mother, and trust that each one will send a message to the president, as Miss Wintringer urges, and also come and join the w. c. T. U, which is doing so much to keep the temperance and purity lights burning. The article is entitled,
 ha
 At patriotic play written and staged by the children of Hull House settlement, the story of the making of the flag was recently given. Wash ington came on the stage followed by Betsy Ross carrying baby.
 "Ain't it ferce," said Washington, turning to Betsy Ross, "that we ain't got no flag to fight fer?"
 "Sure,' said Betsy, and then plac- ing the baby in Washingtons arms, she said, ''there George, you take care of the baby and I'll make the flag" Nothing to me is more pathetic or pregnant with meaning than this childish version of the making of the | flag.
 With sublimest patriotism, Amer- can mothers have responded to their country's call and have offered their sons on the altar of humanity. They have furnished the army; from the home have gone their sons and daugh- ters, the boys in the trenches, the girls to hospital and munition works. Thus they have given the nation its | flag, the fairest, most beautiful flag in all the world-a living flag.
 To make that flag, the mother has placed her baby into the arms of the commander-in-ch of our army. For though the lips smile farewell to the soldier son, the blurred eyes of the mothers fail to distinguish the uni form and see only the baby for whose coming she met death face to face, and in struggle braver than that on any battlefield, wrested young life.
 Ever since, warmed at her heart, fed at her breast, she has woven into that young life the red of patriotism, the white of purity, the undying blue of the eternal principles of righteous ness.
 Must she suffer that living flag to be debased, degraded and ruined by an order contrary to the law for which they struggled and which they won in 1900 Has the president-the com mander-in-chief of the United States the right to demand such sacri- flee?
 1 found, when touring France and England in 1916, that American sol diers serving in the French and Eng fish armies had been taught to regard alcoholic drinks as a necessity. From what saw and heard in Great Britain and France (and my observations have been confirmed by scores of in- vestigators, it is even rumored that Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., has become prohibitionist through what he has seen of the drinking of our American soldiers abroad), I am constrained to urge that the mothers of the United States must speak out now in the strongest terms, or there will be AN