The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923, December 01, 1914, Page 19, Image 19
vt The Commoner DECEMBER, 1914- ID Urges Signing Abstinence Pledge Following is the report, taken from the Detroit Times, of the meeting at Ann Arbor in which Mr. Bryan urged tho signing of the total abstinence pledge: Ann Arbor, Mich., Nov. 30. The American premier, who thrilled and inspired 5,000 university and high school boys in the Hill auditorium, Saturday night as the outstanding feature of the largest Y. M. C. A. boys' conference ever hold disclosed a new national field of activity in which ho proposes to enlist the most powerfully persuasive voice in the public life of America today. This new moral project, suggested to Mr. 'Bryan by the phrasing of the appeal of 4,000 Michigan boys for his presence at their conrerence, was re vealed by the secretary of state in a digression from his address, "The Making of a Man." The foremost peace advocate of the world has se cured the signatures of 30 govern ments to his arbitration proposal; he now proposes to get the youth of America to "sign up" with him in a covenant of abstention from alco holic beverages. Fully three-fourths or the great body of young men arose when ho called for an expression. The pledges, headed by the signature of the secretary of state, will be cir culated by the 4,000 Y. M. C. A. boys of Michigan, who invited Mr. Bryan to the conference. Mr. Bryan's significant "digression" was as follows: "Having told you something that my mother stamped upon my miner before I was 10, and something that my father stamped upon my mind be fore I was 15, I come to a third, thing that they united in impressing upon me when I was so young that I can not remember. "I do not remember when I first signed th,e pledge. If riiad to guess I should say that it' was the day that I learned to sign my name, but I may have signed it a few times be fore that with my mark. But what I do know is that I have been signing the pledge all my life. And I know further that, as long as I live, I shall sign the pledge any day if, by signing, I can get one human being to sign with me. (Applause.) ,. "I believe in signing the pledge. It has been a protection to me. When I went into public life they told me a man had to drink in order to be in politics. If is a lie. A man does not have to drink to be in politics. There is no position that a sober man can not fill better than a drinking man. (Loud applause.) "When the president asked me to become a member of his cabinet I told him that I knew of but one ob jection that could be raised against me, and that was that we did not use wine and would not serve it. He left it for my wife and I to decide, and it did not take us long to do it. (Ap plause.) We have not found it neces sary to use wine in extending hos pitality to those who represent other nations; this nation's diplomacy is not of the kind that makes it neces sary to give a man drink in order to deal with him." (Applause.) ".May I digress just a moment? The. day before I left home I met a friend who was drinking and I asked him if he would sign the pledge with me and he said that he would. I drew up the pledge and it read: We, the undersigned promise, God helping us, never to use intoxicating liquor as a beverage.'- After he had signed it I saidto;iiim: 'We will have two copies of it, Twill keep one and give your wife the other. He replied to me, Do you know that my wife will think more of that pledge that if you gave her a thousand dollars? I said, 'It is worth more to her than a thousand dollars.' I had that pledge in my pocket as I was coming east thG other! day when your leader, Mr, Van Dis, ! met mo in Chicago and showed me this invitation, Signed by 4,000 boyst I could not resist sucn an invitation." (Applause.) "I could not decline it and do you know how that invitation began? Read it 'We, the undersigned' and that made me think of the pledge in my pocket and I decided to make a proposition to you. I want to sign a pledge with just as many of you as will sign. I am going to ask those in charge of this meeting to give you a chance to sign u pledge here or when you go home. I have already signed it. I would like to have every boy here sign that pledge, and then I would like to have him go home and get as many more signers as possible, commencing with his parents and his brothers and sisters, and with his friends. "If we could just get men to sign the pledge and keep it, we would not have the disgraceful spectacle that we have in this country today with four limes as much spent for liquor as for education and 10 times as much as is spent for religion. If we had this condition wo would not have all the sorrow and suffering that drink causes. If the young men of this state will bind themselves to gether in agreement not to drink, it will soon be easy to solve the liquor question and to drive the saloon from our midst. "I do not want any one to rise unless" he is willing. I do not want this to be done In any sudden passion or fit of enthusiasm. It Is a pledge for life. But, how many of you have thought about it enough to rise and indicate that you are willing to sign the pledge with me? How many of you? (At this point nearly all the boys in the audience arose). Boys, I am much obliged to you, and I want these boys down here to know that students in the gallery rose too." "You know, when I am working in politics I must get a majority to agree with me before I can get anything I believe in put into operation, and it is not as easy as you might think to get a majority to agree with you al ways. But if I can get one human being to start on a better way I have done something, and it will .maKe mo glad all the rest of my life if, by com ing here tonight, I have been ablo to protect any of you by a pledge against the evils of intemperance. Forgive this digression. I think it is the most profitable digression I ever made in making a speech." Mr. Bryan believes tbjat 50,000 Michigan boys will jo:n him in this total abstinence pledge. His plan is to present the same to the youth of every state as opportunity offers. James Schermerhom introduced Mr. Bryan as a personality and in fluence comparable to Gladstone in the political and social life of Eng land "a spiritually-minded man of the world." He can come to a boys' conference from a political conven tion, said Mr. Schermerhom, without changing his mind or his methods. The conference closed Sunday af ternoon with an address by Fred B. Smith, of New York, whom Mr. Bryan commended to the boys as bearing the mantle of the great Moody. Mr. Smith's subject was "A Strong Man," and it was a powerful exhortation to lead the Christian life. Many arose ; for prayers. GOO) WISHES White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., December 7, 1914. Mr. Cbas. W. Bryan, Lincoln, Neb. Dear Mr. Bryan: I am most happy to tell you that I have ALWAYS been a great admirer .of Mr. W. .T. Bryan, have supported him with all my heart every time he has been before the people for tho presidency, and shall always esteem him as second to no mnn otfr country calls GREAT. The stand he took be fore the Baltimoro convention, and tho way ho won out on it was enough to immortalize him, had he done no other great things for tho maH3cs of the people. 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