1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



181 



Righteousness exalteth a natioti, but sin is a re- 

 proach to any people. — Prov. 14:34. 



My talk this time will be rather " Our N'a- 

 tion " instead of " Our Homes. ^'' I am not a 

 politician, and I am not very much versed in 

 matters of government ; and it might seem to 

 many that I am very presumptuous in under- 

 taking to even discuss matters that center 

 about the very head of the government of the 

 United States ; and as I take up my task this 

 morning I realize perhaps more than I ever 

 did before the need of grace and wisdom and 

 understanding from the great Father above. 

 Yes, I need the influences of the Holy Spirit 

 to guide and direct this weak and hutnble 

 voice of mine as I attempt to talk to the 

 fathers and mothers of our land. 



Our readers are well aware that I am a mem- 

 ber of the Ohio Anti-saloon League ; in fact, 

 I was present at the very first meeting that 

 was called for organizing such a league. As a 

 consequence, I have been deeply interested in 

 all temperance measures, not only for Ohio, 

 but for the whole United States. During our 

 late war, when we were told intoxicating liq- 

 uors were absolutely forbidden in the nav}', 

 with all our other temperance people I thank- 

 ed God for such a wise and righteous law; and 

 when the brewers of our land, with the army 

 canteen, began furnishing our soldiers beer by 

 tne carload, I, with others, sent up a vehement 

 protest. All temperance people united, and a 

 great battle was fought. But the enemy, with 

 their millions, contested the matter inch by 

 inch. It was only by hard earnest work and 

 fervent prayer that we prevailed, and passed a 

 law forbidding the sale of beer and other in- 

 toxicants in the army as it is in the navy. 

 We knew at the time that the enemy was with- 

 out conscience and without scruple. We knew 

 they would murder law or human beings or 

 any thing else rather than be stopped in this 

 money-making business of selling beer to the 

 army. But we did not know, however, that 

 they would dare to go to such lengths (espe- 

 cially at the very //rafl' of our government), 

 as to declnre boldly and unblushingly that 

 black is white and white is black. 



On page 369 of this journal for May 1, last 

 year, I spoke of the matter. I alluded to the 

 fact that Attorney-General Griggs declared 

 that, in his opinion, the temperance law, 

 which we had secured in spite of the combin- 

 ed powers of evil, did not mean that the can- 

 teen traffic should stop, but that it should 

 keep on. Temperance people stood aghast. 

 This piece of work seemed to be an outrage on 

 good sense and on all law and justice, and we 

 thought it could not be true. Such brazen au- 

 dacity was never heard of anywhere, let alone 

 by the Attorney-General of the United States. 

 On page 553 of this journal for July 15, last 

 year, I alluded to it again. Griggs' decision 

 made such an uproar that something \xad to be 

 done. A delegation of the best temperance 



people of our land called on the President. 

 They were intending, also, to call upon Griggs 

 himself, if I am correctly informed ; but the 

 President begged them to leave the matter 

 with him. He told them the Attorney-Gener- 

 al had no doubt made a mistake that he would 

 be ready to rectify, adding that he was an able 

 lawyer, and a man honest and courageous. 

 The President promised this temperance dele- 

 gation that, if they would leave the matter in 

 his hands, he would look into the matter />^r- 

 sonally, and whatever was not right should be 

 made so. 



The Christian people and the temperance 

 people of our land then waited, of course, a 

 reasonable length of time for the President to 

 report. I need not tell you the story of the 

 letters, telegrams, etc., that were sent to the 

 President during the past six or seven months. 

 I wrote a letter myself that was promptly ac- 

 knowledged by the proper clerk, staling that 

 the letter would be presented to Mr. McKinley 

 himself in due time. Very likely there has 

 been such a quantity of letters of similar im- 

 port the President could not read them all nor 

 even listen to them all. These appeals came 

 not only from temperance organizations, but 

 from Christian people, from the ministers of 

 the United States, and the temperance and re- 

 ligious papers. But no reply was made what- 

 ever — at least I can not learn of any reply of 

 any sort having been made. Our President 

 did not even keep his promise to the temper- 

 ance delegation — that is, if he did look into 

 the matter personally he made no reply what- 

 ever. I have read the dailies as I never read 

 them before. I have carefully scanned every 

 thing in regard to our President (his where- 

 abouts and doings), to see if mention or notice 

 was given of the matter. 



Perhaps I might mention here that, a month 

 or two ago, the Presbyterian people of the 

 United States united in a body, and appealed 

 to the President to have the tremendous im- 

 portation of beer and American liquors to the 

 Philippine Islands stopped. The papers pub- 

 lished by the beer interests declare the state- 

 ment is exaggerated in regard to the number 

 of American saloons in Manila. But our sol- 

 diers who come home have been giving us the 

 facts continually. They declare, one after 

 another, that there has been no exaggera ion. 

 The American idea of carrying civilization to 

 the new possessions belonging to the United 

 States seems to be in flooding them with beer; 

 and a Milwaukee brewery boasts of the hun- 

 dreds of carloads they are shipping. The 

 United States was to establish schools and col- 

 leges among the Filipinos. Now, I do not 

 know how many schools and colleges have 

 been established ; but the brewers of America 

 have been teaching the ignorant natives (as 

 our people have been calling them) to drink 

 beer, and to buy it, faster than all the mission- 

 aries and teachers combined together could 

 educate and inculcate righteousness, purity, 

 and temperance. 



Well, a few days ago it appears that, when 

 everybody else failed to get the President to 

 even notice our Christian temperance people, 

 a delegation from the W. C. T. U. succeeded 



