The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1922-12-15
(By Albert Porter, D. Lit.)


In assigning TO the Rev. r. B. s. Ham
mond the closing address at the Inter
national Convention OF the World League
Against Alcoholism at Toronto the com
mittee responsible for the program ar
rangements made happy selection. Mr..
Hammond, who had come from Sydney,
Australia, in which city he is rector OF
st. Barnabas' Episcopal church. is a
prophet not without honor in his own
country, where he is president Of the
Australian Prohibition Council and OF
the New South Wales Alliance. Build
ing, as he himself states, upon the
splendid foundations laid by Archdeacon
Boyce, he has lifted the Prohibition
movement to preeminent position
among the big politica tissues OF the
state. AS Australian papers have said
of him: His remarkable gifts OF elo-
quence have won tributes from friend
and foe. The greatest passion of his
life is seeking and saving those who
have fallen by the wayside He is known
and loved throughout Australia as a
mender of broken men; and he has in
vested all his powers in the fight for
Prohibition"
For eight full days the delegates at
tending the Convention had listened to
representatives of sixtyfiye nations,
from various parts OF the world, as we'll
as to the home workers in the United
States and Canada. The address of DIR.
Ernest H. Cherrington, the general sec
rotary of the League, on the opening day.
with its masterful and startling array
! of conclusive and fundamental facts,
showing why the United States had been
compelled to adopt Prohibition and why
it must uphold it, sounded the keynote
of the Congress; and every session that
followed contributed convincing testi-
mony that the whole world was looking
to America in this matter. The appeal
Come over and help us" was made by
delegates from China and Japan and
from Argentina and Peru. The woes OF
little Iceland oppressed by Spain, the
hopes and fears of France and the com-
tries of central Europe, the yicissitudes
of temperance work in Canada, bootleg
ging and rum-runnng in the United
States, the advancement OF scientific
temperance instruction in the schools of
various nations, the wonderful work of
the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union in the five continents, echoes of
''Pussyfoot" Johnson's visit to India and
Ceylon supplied by turbaned Hindus,
England's experiment in Government con-
troll of the liquor traffic at Carlisle, the
views of organized labor concerning Pro-
hibition, the responsibility OF the Church
in the great conflict against alcoholism
all these and many other equally i'm
portant and interesting topics had
formed the subjects of addresses which
had provided ample food for sober
thought and hopeful anticipation. 1t
had been great Convention, the first
of its kind in the history of the world
and now the closing hour of the closing
session had come, and the delegates set
tied themselves to listen to the final
speaker, the Rev. r. B. S. Hammond,
whose announced subject was 'World
Prohibition, the Solution of the Liquor
Problem"
There seemed to be an unusual atmos-
phere surrounding this particular ses-
sion,--a feeling that "it is good for us
TO be here; and the capacity audience
in Massey Hall fully agreed with the
speakers opening words: "Those of us
who have been fortunate enough to at
tend this great and wonderful conven-
tion have been upon the mountain tops"
He reminded his hearers that there
we're others who were still down in the |
valley, to whom they must carry the
message. He went on to say that the |
greatest hindrance to every reform move
ment had always been the little, narrow
person. Among lawmakers this little,
narrow person was a politician; among
churchmen he was bigot and among
citizens he was a dwarfed man, having
a heart, but small one; sympathy but
for his own kind only; ideas, but always
selfish ones, and sense of duty, but !
limited to his own immediate circle.
Don't be little or narrow" said the
speaker. "The need OF the world to-day
is men of vision, with the desire of serv-
ice to others; of men Of whom it might
be said in the words of the Book OF
Ecclesiastes iii. ~: He hath set the
world in their heart. 'How many of