Temperance Column

Mrs. Mary T. Lathrap's annual address before the W. C. T. U. state convention, beid in Grand Rapids on June 2, 3, 4 and 5, was a masterly efibrt, and dealt with every subject connected with the cause of temperance, both pro and con. We regret that our readers could not have had the privilege of listening to the most noted woman in their state, but through the kindness of the editor we are allowed more than our usual place in which to give parts of the address. Where all is so good it is very hard to select parts, and after deliberation I have chosen the following, as perhaps being amongthe mostinstructive and interesting, as they deal with questions of the hour. "The local option bill, introduced early in the legislature, reversing tüe present order }y considering every county under prohibition at the outset and requiring a vote before license and selling could obtain, has been defeatedin the senate by a vote of eleven to twenty . The serpent wisdom which runs througb saloon politics takes care to keep the state on the side of the trafile, so that in any contest the people must fight not only the saloon, but the powers of government. Thelocal option lawnow on our statute books can never be made effective. and was not intended tobe; the one defeated was just in principie and method. The legislators are, however, doing some work for their masters by a bill which reduces the "high license" which was to give the state such a revenue and regúlate intoa blessing the Michigan saloon. While this is going on, the saloons of Detroit, Jackson, Lanaing and indeed over the state have been running without license, until it is settied what will be done at Lansing." "Out of this wide world women have made several discoveries, viz: That men have seen their own side in making laws, and that in marriage, property, control of children, and rights of taxpaying citizens, government is largely on one side. Girls are lawful prey from seven years up in this Christian nation, and in but one state is the age of consent the same as the age of majority. With all the talk we have in pulpit and press about the motherhood being woman's highest vocation and privilege, the Ilegitímate child is the only one in which the mother bas ownership, the married mother has no right to her own. Thegraspandgreed of monopoly, againsi which the industrial classes fret and chafe this hour as angry waves against the shore, holds the wages of women at starvation, or virtue destroying lévele, until need and opportunity eat like a canker among these unprotected toilers in the city and town. Then the liquor saloon Iets loose on helpless, homeless women and their little babes the savagery of drunkards, and the unfaithfulnees of the self indulgont married debauchee who demand3 his wife shall be an angel while hegoesto the devil. All this is being revealed to the gent Ier side of humanity, until they are asking why. Men meet this awakened energy and thought in three ways: Brutality puts its foot down on the half lifted neckandsays: "keep in your place." Fogyism cries out that the foundations are being moved, and hurls the curse of Eden, the thunders of Sinai, and the traditions of barbarism at the devoted heails that dare take issue with old wronge; even the doctors of divinity sit down on the safety-valve of this new movement, and whistle down brakes, only to find the engine is not exactly under their control." fEDITED By UNIVERSITY PROHIBITION CLUB. The students will not be here much longer to edit this column, but before they go, they suggest that the temperance forces organiza a temperance educational bureau to disseminate literature to all who need temperance information in Ann Arbor. This bureau would only carry out the educational idea suggested by Eev. Dr. Bradshaw at the last temperance meeting, ánd at once seems feasible and practicable. Judge J. D. Cowles, of Virginia, scores a victory for prohibition by refusing liquor licenses to all dealers whose places of business are at stations on the Richmond & DanvilleR. R.,and its branches under his jurisdiction. The judge said that nine-tenths of the indictments made in his court from these railway paints were due to whiskey, and that numbers of the deaths on the railroad recently were crfüsed by the same agencyat and about these stations, and that the public safety and welfare of the traveling public demanded that the sale of liquor at points where railroad employees could get it should be suppressed. - Raleigh Advocate. The alltgorical figure of Trade on one of the state seals had apparently uot tired of its honorable position, for it had .sat down among the balesand boxes and was weeping copiously. Liberty lcaned over the Escutcheon, took her Phrygian cap off the pole and wiped Trade's eye with it, and asked her wliat migïit be the matter. "Ah," said Trade with a sob, "we have together held up the Escutcheon for over a century, but I think I will have to step down and out, for I heard a red-nosed taloonkeeper speak of his malodorous business as being in the Trade. Ifl represent hini," said Trade with a sob the only state I want to adorn is a state of intoxication." "Ah,"' said Liberty " I wasafraidyou would hear of it, anc we ail know how sensitive Trade is. 1 believe our Government also alluded t( the license nuisance as the Trade. But brace up, my sister, Germany, England Switzerland, and all Europe is beginning to classify it as Crime instead o Trade, and in a few years, with God's blessing and the Prohibitionist's help instead of being in the Trade- excuse the slang- they will be in the soup." And they joined hands again over the Es cuteheon and wondered how a new sea with a distillery in the foreground with six peagreen snakes pendent, anc a dilirium tremens patiënt rampant would look. with this motto, "Un fai