Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-05-03

ton, spoke TUESDAY evening 10 a large
gathering at City hall. His subject
was THE New India" and he gave his
audience remarkable insight into the
conditions in that country and the
work which has already been done
there.
1t was intended that an informal
reception should be held before the
speech. but as Mr.. johnson was late
| this reception was held after the
speech, instead. This time was pleas
| ingly passed with selections by the
| Minnie NJ. Dennis Ladies' Orchestra.
George c. Clarke. secretary of the To-
cal Chamber Of Commerce acted as
| temporary chairman and l. meeting
was opened with the singing of the
| Battle Hymn of the Republic" May
or sanford l.. Fogg then took the chair
and in a few brief words introduced
the first speaker Of the evening, DR..
George w. Morrow OF Detroit, h.
| DR.. Morrow began by telling Of the
work which Mr.. Johnson was doing and
of the fact that he was Lusy all of the
| time with the many details of the
work. He said that -1r Johnson is on
the platform every evening and some
times in the daytime. Sundays he
often speaks twice and in between
these address he is continually moving
from one town to another. He also
| has many things, such as his CORE
spondence and interviews with news
paper men. to take care of. These,
| coupled with the many trying incidents
which occur require man of iron
constitution to stand UP under them
and keep on with the work.
| He told of the various things that
have happened in the course of the
work, such as the bomb which was
thrown At Mr.. Johnson in Wisconsin.
and the times when he was mobbed in
Canada and in London. In the latter
! trouble lie lost his right eye.
DR.. Morrow spoke of the fact that
prohibition or the Maine law" as
it known in many parts of the world,
was a recognized fact in the United
States and that now the Worla League
| Against Alcoholism was turning it's at
! tention to the rest of the world These
men were both here under The aus
piccs of the league.
! He closed his talk with a plea for
those who could, to pledge money to
this work as the hope of the world in
this work is this country which has
the money and can use it as no other
nation can.
"Pussyfoot" johnson Speaks
! "Pussyfoot" Johnson was then intro
duced. He spoke of his pleasure at
being in the capital of the State which
had first ad pied the prohibition law
and from which it had spread until
new it was world issue. He said
that every parliament in the civilized
world, with perhaps an exception or
! two, had been called upon to deal with
this question in the past two years. He
further said that he was not in this
State to generate belief in this law,
but to get the people to back up a law
which they ahad already accepted.
Some tinIe ago, a committee of
three men Mas sent to England from
India to see the conditions of the
5000 Indian students in that coun-
try. Just before sailing for this
country, johnson asked one Of the
men on the committee how many
Indian students there We're in the
United States and he was told that
there were about 1000. He then
asked if they were not going to look
into the conditions in the United
States as they had in Great Britain.
He was much astonished to hear that
they did not feel that this was nee
essary as we had national prohibit
ton.
India is about the size Of the
United States east of the Rocky
Mountains, but 1t has three times the
population of our country. OF the
population of 320,000,UU0 the ma
iority live in villages and cities.
There are 100000 villages in the
country After figuring how long it
would take him to speak in each of
these villages, making one speech a
day, he decided that ne had not suf-
ficient time at his command to I'M
dertake that work.
There are in India three religious
sccts, 1Iindoos. Budhists and Mos
lens. These three sects are broken
up into different denominations and
they are further broken up into
| castles. There are castles of all kinds.
! A man born into a caste must follow
! the trade of that caste. Then, too,
Il member of a high caste is defiled
if he touches member of a low
caste and in this way they are more
or less broken ''p.
But now the people of that coun-
| try are waking to the results of pro-
hibition and they are working hard
! to accomplish it. There have been
caste laws made against drinking
and these are very effective as 1t is
crime to break a caste law. A re-
quest was made for a man to go to
India in the interests of prohibition
and Mr.. johnson went there.
His accounts of his receptions in
the different parts of India sound
almost like fairy tales. Everywhere
he was treated with the greatest
OF respect. This he lays to the conn-
try which he represents rather than
to any personal claims for greatness
In one place, he was forced to leave
| his Pullman berth for a short time
to deliver a talk to about 1000 ma
tives who had come to the station to
see him. This was in the middle of
the night and his train was but
passing through the town. At 2 in
tie morning in another town, a
crowd of like size came to the car
and as he had been very busy and