Why and how: a hand-book for the use of the W.C.T. unions in Canada | Page 5

of the week. On the day of the vote the ladies visited the polls, furnishing lunches to all, and gave out the ballots for the amendment. Over $20,000 was raised in that State during that year for the work undertaken by the W.C.T.U. Although they were not successful in gaining the amendment, the returns show that in many counties fraudulent count had been made, and it is believed by those in a position to know that an honest count would have carried the amendment by a large majority. As it was it received 323,167 votes, while the license amendment received but 98,050. A majority of any votes cast at the general election was necessary for adoption. In Florida the passage of the Local Option Bill was due, as one of their legislators testifies, to the influence of the W.C.T.U.
For five years the women of Iowa, under the leadership of Mrs. J, Ellen Foster, had planned, pleaded and petitioned against the licensed system of that state. On the 27th June, 1882, the people adopted the constitutional prohibition amendment by a majority of 29,759, the Supreme Court however declared that on account of some irregularity in the legislative steps of the passage of the amendment, it was of no effect and void. In March 1884, however, the Iowa Legislature passed a prohibiting law, which came into force on July 4th of the same year. And so another victory has been gained by the temperance women of the United States, and prohibition has been secured to another important state of the Union.
For years the N.W.C.T.U. has been pressing for the insertion of one temperance lesson per quarter in the International series of Sabbath- school lessons, but without success.
At the recent I.S.S. Convention, which met in Louisville, Ky., yielding to the appeal so eloquently urged by Miss Willard, the convention recommended that the committee on preparation of lessons be instructed to include the quarterly temperance lesson in their series.
Temperance text books have been added to the books of the public schools in Michigan, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. This has been done under the management of Mrs. Mary Hunt, aided by the presidents of the different State Unions. This victory was the result of a systematic plan laid down by the N.W.C.T.U., the principal points of which are mentioned.
The N.W.C.T.U. has also established at Chicago, a national organ, "The Union Signal," edited by Mrs. Mary B. Willard, which is considered to be one of the best conducted papers known. These are some of the successes gained by this society of active Christian women, the contemplation of which led J. B. Gough to declare that "after forty years of observation, he believed the W.C.T.U, was doing more real, solid work, than all other temperance societies combined." The work of the N.W.C.T.U. is classed as follows, each department being under the control of an active lady superintendent:--
Heredity and Hygiene. Scientific Temperance Instruction. Sunday-school Work. Juvenile Work. Free Kindergartens. Temperance Literature. Suppression of Impure Literature. Relation of Intemperance to Capital and Labor. Influencing the press--"Signal Service" work. Conference with Influential Bodies. Inducing Physicians not to Prescribe Alcoholic Stimulants. Efforts to Overthrow the Tobacco Habit. Suppression of the Social Evil. Evangelistic. Prison and Police Stations. Work among Railroad Employees, Soldiers and Sailors. Use of the Unfermented Juice of the Grape at the Lord's Table. Young Woman's Work. Parlor Meetings. Kitchen Gardens. Flower Mission. State and County Fairs. Legislature and Petitions. Franchise. Southern Work. Work among Foreigners. Work on the Pacific Coast. Work among the Colored People of the North. National Organization.
IN GREAT BRITAIN.
The influence of the "Woman's Crusade," and subsequently of the N.W.C.T.U., spread rapidly to other countries and led to the foundation of Women's Christian Temperance Unions in Great Britain, Canada, Australia, India and Japan.
In Dundee, Scotland, the first British W.C.T.U. was formed. As the news of the whiskey war in America reached the women of that city, they, too, resolved to do something in this work. Under the leadership of Mrs. M. E. Parker, they obtained, in six days, the names of 9,800 women of the city to a petition, asking that no fresh licenses be granted and that many be withdrawn. Marching in procession to the Court House, they presented their petition, a scene never before witnessed in Great Britain. Four hundred members were immediately enrolled as members of a working society, and the influence of the Dundee W.C.T.U. was felt far and near. Afterwards, a British Woman's Temperance Association was formed, of which Mrs. Parker was president. This Association now has, in England, 195 branches, with a membership of more than 10,000; in Scotland, fifty branches; in Ireland, about the same number, and a few also in Wales.
Their work has been to use their influence in every possible way, in favor of temperance,