The national prohibitory amendment guide

Front matter

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Part I. History, Arguments, Indorsements

Page

Brief account of the Amendment — original and present form I

National Temperance Society amendment . . . . . 3

Memorials and petitions 3

Speeches . 5

Amendment— present form * • " 4

Reports — present form:

Adverse report 5

Views of the minority -. 6

Favorable report 7

Report — original form 10

Amendment — original form . . . . ^ 12

The first vote 13

National Temperance Society address 14

National W. C. T U. argument 19

Views of Senatoi Blair 31

Views of other leading Prohibitionists:

Frances E. Willard 36

Samuel Dickie 36

W. Jennings Demorest 37

T. De Witt Talmage, D. D 37

Daniel Dorchester, D. D 38

Indorsements of organizations and newspapers:

Temperance societies 38

Religious bodies 39

Political parties 41

Religious press 41

Secular press 45

The famous "Memorial of the American home for protection from the

American saloon" 64

Miss Willard's address 65

National Prohibition versus the High License and Local Option policy 66

Strength of Constitutional Prohibition sentiment 66

Origin of State Constitutional prohibition 68

Contents. vi PART II.

PLAN OF CANVASS FOR NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION.

. . Page

National Prohibitory Amendment committees 71

Work of National Prohibitory Amendment committees:

I. Before proposal of the Amendment ." . . . 72

II. After proposal of the Amendment . . 72

How to organize National Prohibitory Amendment committees:

For local work 72

For Congressional work 74

For State Legislative work 74

I. — Before Proposal of the Amendment.

general directions to N. P. A. committees for local work 75

Registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists 78

Congressional petition work:

Forms of Popular and Representative petitions 80

How to use the petitions 82

Form of Indorsement on Popular Petitions ..... . , . 84

Appearance of properly indors^ Popular petition 85

Public discussions 86

Resume of the canvass 86

How to record public discussions 89

Press work' • . 89

How to record press work 91

How to record the distribution of literature ,..-.. 92

Reporting local work to Prohibition organizations , 92

Monthly reports and form of 93

Semi-annual reports and forms of 94

Summary of voters 98

Congressional canvassing — preparation, performance, annual reports . 98

II. — After Proposal of the Amendment,,

General directions to N. P. A. committees for State legislative work ... 99

Form of registering National Constitutional Prohibitionists 99

State Legislative petition work:

Forms of Popular and Representative petitions 100

How to use petitions— form of indorsement on Popular petitions . 101

Reporting local work to Prohibition organizations 102

State Legislative canvassing— preparation, performance, reports . . . .103 Receipts and Expenditures of committees— How to record 104

Introduction

As there . is but one keystone to an arch, so there is but one to the Prohibition movement. In the nature of the case, this must be so, and every temperance expert knows that Prohibition by an amendment to the National Constitution is that keystone to the arch, that clincher of the argument, that final outcome of the mightiest reform movement under the sun.

The argument may be reviewed more vividly by illustration : Uncle Sam owns a farm; it is divided into forty- two fields (States), leased by his nephews, while he has seven new fields (Territories), besides the home garden (District of Columbia), under his care. The use of bitters by the hands is the great curse that afflicts Uncle Sam's farm. It makes the hired men lazy, unhealthy, and many of them criminal. Six of his nephews have declared the^y would not allow this wretched drink to be either made or sold in their fields, have held a meeting of all their tenants, and agreed to keep out the nuisance or die in the attempt. They have gone about this with so much pluck and determination that they would actually have kept their fields comparatively free, but for one thing, viz. : Uncle Sam has a afferent theory about controlling this dangerous drink. He says : " It is a great evil, but I will make it a ' great beneficence.' In the first place, we shall always have these bitters made and sold — you may set that down for a fixed fact. Farmer John Bull sends it across the waters, and I shall let it in, but not till he has paid a heavy tax. That will go a good ways toward supporting me, and make your rent less. Then, as they will make this stuff anyhow, I will just let it go on in my seven new fields and in my garden spot, and you must not mind if I have it carted through your fields on the way to my own ; besides, I'll let 'em make it under my own eye, in places set apart for that purpose, right in the fields next yours, where they haven't this fanatical rule that you have about not letting it be made or sold. Then, in my own garden patch I'll *make special arrangements not to have it sold unless each man that keeps it pays so much, right direct to me. If they'll do that, I'll let it come straight into my own house with the big dome."

But Uncle Sam's nephews are not so stupid as the old gentleman imagines. They reply : " Now see here ! so long as you give a writing to the men that make these bitters, telling them they may, and taking ninety cents for yourself on every gallon they manufacture, so long will you want this drink made and sold. Don't you see that you are the great bitters-maker yourself? You standby, and weigh and measure, and make sure that you know just how much the bitters man manufactures, and then you shut it up tight and put a watch dog at the door so that nobody can go in or out

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without your knowing it. Then, when the man sells a gallon, you take four-fifths of the profits. If he sells to another man that works the stuff into some other kind of drink, you make the last man pay you $200 for this privilege , if he sells at wholesale you charge him $150 ; if he sells it out to our hands in small quantities, $25. Then, by doing this you make it next to impossible for us to keep the stuff out of our fields. Bitters are so handy to smuggle across the line that we can never keep the abomination out altogether, do what we will. When you go to cart them through our fields it is so easy to let a keg drop off here and there ! ' '

"Besides,*' continue these go-ahead, anti-bitters men, "as your rules now stand, you come into our fields, and if you find a man convicted of selling, you make him pay you so much, so that he gets a sort of permit from you that makes it harder for us to convict him of his bad behavior. I tell you, Uncle Sam, we don't propose to stand this thing much longer, but to send a lot of our men to your garden patch and make you do us justice. We are on the war path for that very thing. We've picked out our leaders and counted up our men, and will be along quicker than you've any notion of t to turn the bitters out of your big house and clear it up generally.

"Then we'll proceed to fix up those seven fields so they'll never have a bitters factory or a bitters shop. We'll notify Farmer John across the way that he's got to shut up shop, as far as coming over to your farm with his product is concerned : and then we*ll proceed to draw up a writing and get all your forty-two nephews to sign it, promising never to allow this bitters business to go on anywhere inside the boundaries of the old farm, because if it's made at all some of the farm hands are sure to get hold of it, and then away go comfort and peace."

It is a happy thing for us that at the providential time, a woman has been raised up to plan for us this long, laborious and last campaign ; a woman who brings to her great task the discipline of mind that comes of a thorough legal education, Mrs. Bittenbender being an attorney of seven years' standing and the third woman admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States. But, best of all, we have in the chosen legal adviser of the National W. C. T. U., one who hears and heeds the inward voice with its "Thus saith the Lord," and, "This is the way, walk ye in it."»

Let us rally to the call, mobilize the army, nationalize the moveme.it, and march steadily onward with the white banner of National Constitutional Prohibition, to the music of our motto, "For God and Home and Native Land."