With the Officers of the W. C. T. U by H. N. Sisco, M. D.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 22, 1912

With the Officers of the W. C. T. U

By H. N. Sisco, M. D.

THE national officers of the W. C. T. U. and other celebrated temperance workers have recently been in Washington in the interests of a measure before Congress designed to protect the prohibition States against the importation of liquor from surrounding non-prohibition States.

It is believed that the national government ought to protect the individual States in their efforts to protect themselves against the liquor curse. Temperance mass-meetings have been held in the Washington churches, in halls, and other public places to arouse increased interest in the question at stake. These efforts have met a hearty response from the people. The meetings have been thronged, and public sentiment, we believe, is being more and more aroused by this temperance organization, which is powerfully battling for the right. Mrs. Lillian M. N. Stevens, national president of the W. C. T. U.; Miss Anna A. Gordon, national vice-president; Mrs. Margaret Dye Ellis, national legislative superintendent; Mrs. Chauncey Goodrich, president of the W. C. T. U. in China; Miss Ellen Stone, who a few years ago was made a prisoner by bandits in Macedonia; Mrs. Mary Armour, who was foremost in the campaign that first made Georgia “dry;” and Mrs. Emma Shelton and her corps of earnest workers in the District of Columbia, as well as many officers from neighboring States, were the leaders in this Washington campaign.

It was the rare privilege of the Washington Sanitarium to entertain a company of these distinguished women at lunch last week. After the vesper service and the lunch were over, they responded to an invitation to address the students of the Foreign Mission Seminary. The room was packed. Mrs. Goodrich gave an interesting account of conditions and of her work in China. This was followed by a stirring address by Mrs. Stevens, telling “how Maine fought its recent prohibition battle and won.” Appreciative mention was made of the fact that Seventh-day Adventists all over the land gave their assistance to the temperance cause in the Maine campaign. It is also interesting to know that when these officers were first invited to come to the Sanitarium and the Seminary for the evening, they hardly saw how, with their full program, they could spare the time; but when they remembered our efforts as a people in helping in a small way to win the prohibition victory in Maine, they said, “We must go,” and they came; and all who heard them much appreciated their efforts, and the words they left with us.

Miss Gordon gave an animated account of the part the young people had in the struggle in Maine. It was stated that our youth’s paper, the Youth’s Instructor, was used to good advantage at this time. It is surely a great and grand work to aid other earnest men and women in any movement that will elevate the home, better society, and make human lives happier. At the close of the service, a call was made for all to arise who would be loyal to the temperance cause, and the entire congregation immediately stood. Great appreciation was expressed for even the little that our denomination did for the work in Maine and for the evening’s expression of loyalty; and, on the other hand, both students and nurses expressed themselves as very grateful for the encouragement and inspiration of the evening with the officers of the W. C. T. U.

H. N. Sisco, M. D.