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World-wide Prohibition
Tho address of General Suporitondont Doctor
VrA Baker at the opening of tho International
Conference for the Organization of a World
Movement Against the Liquor Traffic, Columbus,
Ohio,' November 19, 1918.
iTwnty-flvo years ago, tho liquor traffic was
the most potent slnglo lnfluonco In tho loglslatlvo
borjles.f municipal, state and national, In tho
UiiJtelJ states. It was arr.ogant, defiant, dlcta
ttivtp, im triumphant. It elected mayors, alder
men, sheriffs, Judges, slate legislators, congress
man,, and United States sonators. Jt dictated the
orfuctniont of laws and contrplled tho enforce
ment of laws. It conduced the policies in tho
ofios and towns and controlled tho politicians.
A candidate for Governor in the commonwealth
of Ohio boldly stated that ho wouldrrather have
one saloon for him than ten churches, because
the saloons always delivered tho votes. The
grogshop was tho center of political influence,
antf tho saloonkeeper was-often the party com
mitteeman, and tho party caucuses wore held in,
over, or In the back room of tho saloon.
DIFFICULTIES TO BE OVERCOME
Tho use of Intoxicating liquors had Increased
from 4.17 gallons per capita In 1840, to 22.79
gallons por capita In 1907. Drinking and
drunkenness, crlrao and povorty, had increased in
like proportions The drinking house had come
to "bo rogardod as a necossary evil; likewise a
substantial coritrlbutlon to the commercial pros
perity of the community. It had boon Impress
ively dinned Into tho public oar that to abolish,
the saloons moatit to bankrupt tho town and dry
Uyitfs revenue The commercial interests, always
timid when moral Issues are involved, were, with
few exceptions, lined up with tho drink traffic.
Temperance organizations and societies were at
cross purposes; some of them scolding, others
vituperative, and all of them seriously but sei
HsliTyodklng their own prestlgo and doing their
own1 -work without reference to the efforts of any
oCli'er. There was' no co-operation and little kind
ness botweon organizations. All tho while, the
drink, traffickers wore moving in one compact
body without opposition sufficient to create dis
cord in their own ranks. Clashing and discord
In tho ranks of temperance roformers had well
nigh eliminated tho church from active participa
tion in tho conflict. The ministry, usually right
at lioart, was denounce as In league with the
brewers because they could not and would not
speak a given shibboleth. Business laymen were
timid because of tho futile, but threatened, boy
cott of tho liquor intoresfs, and wishing to move
along moral lines in tho direction of least re
sistance, thoy not infrequently let drop the hint
for tho preacher's ears that the tenure of his in- '
cumboncy in that particular church depended
upon his conservative utterances on the liquor
question. Not a few preachers and others of
heroic mold woro shot down because they cried
out and sparod not this destroyer of American
homes.
MARTYRS TO PROHIBITION S
Amongst 'these "martyrs for prohibition may
bo round tho names of bucIi men as Rev. J R
Moffet, temperance editor, killed at Danville
Virginia, In 1892; S. E. Logan, an officer, at
tempting to arrest violators of tho liquor Jaw
was killed In Dos Moines, Iowa, In 1897
Roderick D. Gamble, editor of a prohibition
paper, Jackson, Miss., after several attempts had
been made on his life, was finally assassinated
in Jackson in 1887; William K. Glover, Lithla
Springs, Ga., as an officer enforcing the law. was
killed by an illicit liquor seller 1893; Rev
Charles H. Edwards, a missionary in Alaska
nt8 wSitGd n 1892 by a li(luor dernier;'
Doctor W. Schumaker was killed at Ackorman,
Miss., In 1893 by a speakoasy keeper: Itov
George C. Haddock, murdered at S'oux City
?Ta' i11!16 JpM-ttmo by a liquor dealer;
Colonel Watson B. Smith, ldlled at Omaha, Neb
iu the results of his efforts to secure the enforce
ment of liquor laws; Judge D. R, Cox of Maiden,
Mo., wis murdered In 1907 on account of his
leadership in a local option campaign that car-
SA lr n,nTty dfy; I?Ctr J W BaS Bitot
?i ?t1iBd, "ie,Barae day y the same murderer'
that killed Judge Cox. v uuoj
.ichese.aro but a few, fronTthe record otmanv
names, who have given their lives, ok been
maimed' for life, to secure the overthrow, of this-'
redhanded traffic.
THE DRY BONES OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS
AGO
It filled our almshouses with 60 per cent of
our paupers andour jails with 80 per cent of
our criminals. It hag been the' most prolific
source of poverty,' and the fostering mother of
delinquency. There is no law it has not defied
and no virtue it has not befouled. It Is the
social mephitis as Well as the political hystrix
of the nation. Its crimes and misdemeanors so
haunted the records of tho entire republic" that
tho day of reckoning appeared on the horizon.
The prayers and tears of a patient womanhood
and the helpless cry of outraged childhood gave
warning that God Almighty was becoming im
patient with us. Then it was that above five and
twenty years ago, a modern Ezekiel was led out
upqn the highlands of faith and hope to view
a valley of dry 'bones "and they were very
dry." A careful survey of the valley which re- "
voaled as many factions and societies, that made
Tor division and strife ratlisr than Unity and
co-operation, as there are bones in the human
body, suggested the important Inquiry, "Can
these bones live?" Tbe Anti-Saloon League of
America is tho answer to that inquiry. The task:
of knitting them up, bone to bone, and putting
flesh on the bones and skin on the flesh, and
breathing into this reconstructed body the breath
of life anjl causing it to stand erect and move
unitedly and harmoniously forward, was an
undertaking sufficient to challenge the faith and
vision of a seer. But it was accomplished beyond
the fondest dreams of the most sanguine. Not
all of these recalcitrant members have united.
There is a shin none hero' and a sliver yonder
that prefers Jo remain ."very dry," and to dwell
In tho valley rather than to bo a component part
of a great, allied, victorious whole, forcing the
unconditional surreuder of the chief foe of
humankind tlie hsufe-wrecklng liquor traffic.
THE CHURCH IN THE REFORM
When the history of this reform is -finally and'
correctly . written, the verdict will be that the
Anti-Saloon League was one of tho most timely
strategic and successful political, social and re
ligious movements for the solution of a great
world-wide moral and governmental problem
that was over instituted. To combat an evil,
national in scope, must have uniform, national
treatment if the treatment is to be successful.
The optimism of partr or society cannot affect
a remedy; the optimism of Christianity must be
seasoned with the dogmaUsm of religion to suc
cessfully conduct a great national moral reform
In other words, the church cannot and must not
attempt to lead the state In her governmental
policies, but the church In the state must so In
fluence the public mind on moral issues as to
lttVVV fr ,th? Stat0 and thQ statesman!
It is the business of the church to initiate mora
UtoiZ?1 ?!, SentImont t0 WBtetattSS
It is the duty of tlie state to crystalize that
sediment into law and then enfoTce the law
"Salt is good, but if the salt (the church) his
lost its savour (its power) wherewith shall It
be seasoned? It is neither fit for the land "or
yet for the dunghill, but men cast it out He
that hath ears to hear, lot him hear."
Witness the church in Germany which bP
cause of the doctrine it bas been prelcliui for"
a half century, has lost its power and has of.RJ
to be a christian institution influencing th Xte
to lofty conceptions and policies tmLv
christian colleges I aZmMPS08e,dly
the unspeakable atrodtlea of TJ ?oi endorsinS
of protest, admZlUofor hope Vh"?'1 eVa?r
Rutfa is as dead as the Romanoff hUrCa ln
. JftSTbiSffe ,S2 a Peace,
possible to civilize and chrVttanJ S " may be
tney;must preacha different kind nf ,
church that , eliminates from i T'
reasoning of righteousness, wSS?
juugment xo come" until the modern JS,. m '
hies, is a candlestick that must be remo '
- THE TWO ESSENTIAL PACTORB '
Tho prohibition reform in Amn i.
betiind lt two "factors; both of wntel
and are absolutely essential to comnletJ J i
the christian womanhood of the nah - 8 oI
ally represented through the WomaS?(SL05
Temperance Union. With mountains oiSSffi!
to overcome and tremendous obstacles Em
away, they have, with a persistance intoiii.
and-devotion unsurpassed, forced h?& .
for nearly half century until prejudice J2K ;
appeared and obstacles have been cleared.!
and they stand the consistent champions JS
triumphant cause. Dl a
Second: The prohibition movement in iu
United States has had the backing of thechurrV
er that part of it, at least, that counts forS
CQdliness. No great moral reform in any conX
can make durable progress without the backiS
of the church. Prohibition is not a fundamZl
tenet of the church in America. But it la the
overflow of the church, and from any church
that is consecrated to the task of tho -worldi
redemption. The church that can look with n.
-difference upon the ruin wrought by the drink
traffic and not put forth, its best efforts to de
stroy that traffic, is a church that is hateful In
the sight of God, and in this enlightened age
deserves tho anathema of mankind. The Woman's
Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon
League and other temperance and prohibition
organizations have no ecclesiastical Connection
with the church, but by virtue pf the fact that
they were born-in the hot hearts of consecrated,
christian men and women, and fed and fostered
by the church, they are the direct overflow from
the church, "without "which they neyer could hate
wrpught and conquered this chief ally ot the
devil. When the christian womanhood is aroused'
and the church is enlisted, the battle against
rum is more than half won in any country. Un
til tliis is accomplished, tho cause will move liko
one,,with, a, broken top,th and a foot out of joint.
The first great victory against the drink traffic
to be won in most countries is to commit and
enlist the churchy To accomplish this the mitt
istry must be won; not dragooned, but won; not
by harsh words and unchrlstianizlng them, but
won by overwhelming them with the facts con
cerning prohibition -where it has been tried out,
and by appealing to their love for, and interest
in humanity and for the square deal for helpless
childhood. All -who are "worth hearing can bo
won.
v ' ' RECONSTRUCTION
'We are approaching the day of tho world's
reconstruction when this nefarious and slimy
traffic will offer itself as a willing subject for
taxation in an effort to, buy its way back into
the good graces- of" the peoples who were com
pelled to make war upon it before thoy could
successfully make war upon its ally the German
government. With towns and cities knocked to
pieces, with emptied treasuries, with the crush
ing "burdens of taxation, with sources of rerenue
"wellnlgh exhausted, the appeal even from this
"'road hog" of the world will find attentive ears.
It was during the Civil war, while the guns weis
thundering at Bull Run and Antietam, that rep
resentatives of the traffic in this country assem
bled at Washington, under the very shadow ot
the capitol, and volunteered their traffic as a
subject for taxation. Out of this camo the en
actment of the internal revenue law which
caused Lincoln to correctly say: "If this traffic
becomes rooted in the revenues of the republic
it will give us more trouble than slavery," M
which he permitted to become a law as a war
measure, under tho promise that when tho war
was ended it would be repealed, but when no
war was ended Lincoln was in his grave, and tw
traffic had become so deeply rooted in i
dared
without further wars but : f .i"1 of Asla
within these emX. .L'L80.'. must ho
church than tie enes" tUTreToTtand
not repeal it. The state, and cities, and villages,
finding it a willing subject for taxation, follower
in the footsteps of the federal government ana
begun to draw heavily upon it for revenue nnoer
tho hypocritical' guise of making it bear tuB
financial burdens of its own ravages. '
brought it into the arena of politics, municipal'
stajte and national, with unlimited money anu
no scruples in tie spending of it. Tho resa'j
was. a reign of corruption and .lawlessness jn w
cities of the cduntry, the evl effects from wW
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