Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1894 — IS A MIGHTY POWER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IS A MIGHTY POWER.

GROWTH OF THE CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. 80-*ii in Ohio Twenty-ono Tears Ago, the Woman's Temperance Crusade Is Now a Great Organization, Exerting an Influence In Every Civilized Land* In a Noble Cause. A potent force in the elevation, emancipation and education of the mothers of the race that is yet to be

born is the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. It is a link in the chain along which humanity is feeling its way to a nobler and better life, and of the few organizations which work ‘throughout the Engl is h-speaking world it is, perJia ps, the strongest But its influence is not confined

to the world that speaks the English tongue; there are branch organizations in the Sandwich Islands, in China, India and Japan. It is almost universal in scope, recognizing no sectarianism in religion, no sectionalism in politics, and no sex in citizenship. Of an organization so powerful and so widely extended it is interesting to glance at the history. Back in’ 1873 a singular crusade swept over a large section of the West. It was a crusade of prayer,

women relying on that spiritual weapon to bring the saloon down. Starting in Hillsboro, Ohio, the crusade swept in the shortspace of seven weeks over as many States, obliterating thousands upon thousands of barrooms and saloons. Women besieged ,such places, praying and singing

psalms; religious enthusiasm was kindled, and thousands signed the pledge and professed conversion. Church tells pealed in steeples and the sound of jubilant thanksgiving rose from the street as the crusading ladies were asked by reformed publicans to stave in casks of liquors and empty the contents into the gutters. Birth of the W. C. T. C. But the pace was too fast and the inevitable reaction came. Other saloons sprang into existence and the traffic flourished as before. The

I principle of the cru- ! sade, howe ve r, ! lived, and in 1874 a number of ladies met in conference in Cleveland and adopted the name of the Woman’s Christian Temper-; ance Union. A plan of organization was adopted, an appeal made to the women of the globe and a pub- 1

U * e of the tablished in Chica- British w. c. t. u. go. That house now issues no fewer than 130,000,000 pages of printed matter yearly, all directed to the objects of the union. Out of the appeal made to womankind has grown the World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, a society which comprises, besides our own order, the British Temperance Association, the Canadian Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and organizations in the Sandwich Islands, Japan, India and China. Its first president was Mrs. Margaret Bright Lucas, a sister of John Bright, one of England’s great statesmen. A. Wonderful Growth. In 1876 at a convention of the W. C. T. U. in Newark, the question of woman suffrage was first broached and was advocated by the “Uncrowned Queen of American Democracy, “Miss

Frances E. Wiliard, Secretary of the Woman’s National Christian Temperance Union and president of the local union in Chicago. Upon the platform of equal woman s' rights Miss Willard was elected president of the Woman's National W. C. T. U. in 1879—a post she has since tilled with credit to herself and profit to the society. Under her direction- the work of the society was divided into prevent tive, educational, evangelistic, social, legal and organizing departments and thereafter the society wielded an immense power in the nation. In the nurseries and schoolrooms, in the reformatories and in the home, at encampments and at fairs, in the halls of Congress and in the dives of great cities the influence of these indefatigable workers for humanity’s sake is constantly felt. All over the globe t ey have dispatched missionaries to educate, to preach, to purify. Now the membership is nearly half a mill lon and is ever growing. In Chicago the national headquarters are in a building which was erected by the society at a cost of $1,100,000.

[?]ISS FRANCES WILLARD

MRS MARGARET BRIGHT LUCAS, First President of the W. C. T. U.

LADY HENRY SOMERSET.

WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE TEMPLE CHICAGO