Somber Colors With Sober Work

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 17, 1916

Somber Colors With Sober Work

The photo-brown ink used on the 1916 Temperance Annual is in perfect keeping with the cause it represents. The temperance issue is not a flower garden, as yet. We are in the reconstruction time. We are just now struggling with the liquor traffic, just as the cartoon represents David struggling with the lion. We are in the midst of a tremendous battle, and no battle field is marked by the presence of beautiful flowers and attractive colors. It is smoky and deathlike, exceedingly serious and somber. When the smoke is gone and the turmoil past, then we can consistently print the Temperance Annual in beautiful, sparkling colors, but not now. While the crisis of the battle is on, we think the color of the cover this year corresponds with the sober nature of the issue it represents.

The rank and file of temperance people throughout the field recognize the 1916 Temperance Annual as the master number. They do not make a single exception. The following statement concerning this year's Temperance Annual comes from the manager of the Western Union Telegraph Company, of Niles, Michigan:—

“Your favor of January 4 received, and the paper, which is all you claim for it. It is the best temperance paper I have seen. I write to know if you will kindly mail the paper to the following list of names at my expense. I send you 70 names with addresses, and inclose money order for the papers. If anything is due me, you may send the amount in copies of the paper, which I will distribute.”

The following statement is from the Lake Union Educational secretary, C. A. Russell, Berrien Springs, Michigan:—

“I was very much interested in the sample copy of the 1916 Temperance Annual. Yesterday, Sabbath, I took occasion to delve more deeply into the contents of this issue. I do not deal in flatteries, neither do I throw out bouquets indiscriminately, but really I think it is the greatest piece of temperance literature ever given permanency by the press. I lay awake last night planning in my own mind how best to promote the circulation of this splendid issue in the Lake Union Conference. I propose to have the matter taken up by our young people's workers, church-school teachers, and other leaders in securing the interest of various temperance organizations in the circulation of this issue. The striking picture from real life painted by ex-Governor Hanly is worth many times the price of the paper. If I had any stronger words of commendation to use, I would certainly use them. I am simply delighted with the paper, from cover to cover.”

The following expresses the opinion of thousands of temperance people in all parts of the field:—

“I received the Temperance Annual for 1916, and have read every item in it, and I can assure you that every line it contains has my hearty approval. If I live to see prohibition nation-wide, and I hope I will live to see it, and in the near future at that, I will firmly believe that the Youth's Instructor has had more influence in making the nation dry than any other paper or magazine, or than all of the other papers and magazines that are printed in the United States have had. “FELIX R. SHIPP, Athos, Va.”