108

A WORD
WITH THE WOMEN

(By Elia W. Peattie)

Miss Dora Cady, general secretary of
the Young Women's Christian Association,
wishes to correct the statement
made in this column that "the evangelical
test" is applied in their association
here. One is heartily glad to make
this correction. The 'evangelical test"
may do for men, but women of the progressive
type are certainly too large
and too tender to hem in their Christian
work with a barbed wire fence."

Mrs. Clara E Rice of Neligh, Neb, has
written the words and music of a song
on corn.

Like all great persons, Frances Willard
continues to grow. She has concluded
and said that she believes poverty
to be at the base of temperance
as frequently as intemperance is at the
base of poverty. Miss Willard is getting
now at the root of man's misery.
If she dares go deeper than she yet
has and speak the truth as she finds
it, she may bear a message to the world
that is indeed worth bearing. Thus far
she has only said: 'Do not." In some
finer future she may say do. She has
made herself celebrated by her negative
philosophy. She has it in her power
to make herself immortal by a positive
one.

Apropos of Miss Willard's new position
the Sioux City Journal says.

Miss Frances E Willard has almost
wholly changed her notions of "reform"
or perhaps it would be more accurate
to say that she has radically changed and
even reversed her notion of the direction
which reform should take. She probably
starts still from the base line of her erroneous
conception of human nature and
of the limitations of reform. She probably
still thinks that radical change can be
wrought, suddenly or within a short time,
in the mortals of mankind--that if this or
that system of society, or some particular
form of laws, could be established the sum
of evil could be suddenly and immensely
reduced; Ignoring the fact, as the best
minds see it, that laws and social systems
are only the cloths which mankind wears
only an expression of the inherent qualities
of men. But she no longer, as formerly,
fixes her hope on the particular legal
method embodied in a law prohibiting the
self knowing the extent of the change. For
time, and it was not many years ago,
when Miss Willard believed, or seemed
to believe, that such a law would relieve
mankind at least in such a society as that
of the United States or of a state separately,
of a vast amount of poverty, crime,
vice and waste. We say that she seemed
so to believe, because she emphasized this
point with great energy, and indeed in
politics treated it as the paramount one,
endeavoring to base a political party on it
alone. It was the substance of all her appeals,
the objective of all the organized
efforts which she championed. It is to be
acknowledged with great eloquence, persistence
and ability. But now Miss Willard
clearly shows that her views have
radically changed perhaps without herself
knowing the extent of the change. For
example she now urges that the term
prohibition party be discarded, and the
name 'home protection' party adopted in
its stead. That this change is significant
of far more than a mere matter of tactics
is clear from the fact that Miss Willard
now proposes a program of remedies
in which prohibition of the retail sale of
liquor for drink is no longer paramount,
but only one among many other remedies.
In her recent public utterances she now
classes as causes many things which she
formerly treated as effects. In several of
her recent addresses she has emphasized
the point that poverty is at least as important
a cause of intemperance as intemperance
of poverty, with the suggestion, it
would appear, that she is headed towards
the view which allots a far wider
scope to poverty. She has even indicated
her acceptance of the formula of Henry
George, and thus has gone from prohibition
to poverty and from poverty to the
single land tax, to the extent at least of
basing her home protection party upon
these theories, and upon what other economic
and moral tenants nobody knows and
perhaps herself could not tell Miss Willard
has not abandoned prohibition indeed,
for she still insists upon it. But she
has abandoned it in the sense in which she
held and advocated for many years. She
necessarily abandons it in the sense when
she accepts alongside of it these other
propositions of social and economic reform.

A WORD WITH THE WOMEN
(By Elia W. Peattie)

Miss Dora Cady, general secretary of the Young Women's Christian Association, wishes to correct the statement made in this column that "the evangelical test" is applied in their association here. One is heartily glad to make this correction. The 'evangelical test" may do for men, but women of the progressive type are certainly too large and too tender to hem in their Christian work with a barbed wire fence."

Mrs. Clara E Rice of Neligh, Neb, has written the words and music of a song on corn.

Like all great persons, Frances Willard continues to grow. She has concluded and said that she believes proverty to be at the base of temperance as frequently as intemperance is at the base of poverty. Miss Willard is getting now at the root of man's misery. If she dares go deeper than she yet has and speak the truth as she finds it, she may bear a message to the world that is indeed worth bearing. Thus far she has only said: 'Do not." In some finer future she may say do. She has made herself celebrated by her negative philosophy. She has it in her power to make herself immortal by a positive one.

Apropos of Miss Willard's new position the Sioux City Journal says.

Miss Frances E Willard has almost wholly changed her notions of "reform" or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that she has radically changed and even reversed her notion of the direction which reform should take. She probably still thinks that radical change can be wrought, suddenly or within a short time, in the mortals of mankind--that if this or that system of society, or some particular form of laws, could be established the sum of evil could be suddenly and immensely reduced; Ignoring the fact, as the best [?] see it, that laws and social systems are only the cloths which mankind wears only an expression of the inherent qualities of men. But she no longer, as formerly, fixes her hope on the particular legal method embodied in a law prohibiting the self knowing the extent of the change. For time, and it was not many years ago, when Miss Willard believed, or seemed to believe, that such a law would relieve mankind at least in such a society as that of the United States or of a state separately, of a vast amount of poverty, crime, vice and waste. We say that she seemed so to believe, because she emphasized this point with great energy, and indeed in politics treated it as the paramount one, endeavoring to base a political party on it alone. It was the substance of all her appeals, the objective of all the organized efforts which she championed. It is to be acknowledged with great eloquence, persistence and ability. But now Miss Willard clearly shows that her views have radically changed perhaps without herself knowing the extent of the change. For example she now urges that the term prohibition party be discarded, and the name 'home protection' party adopted in its stead. That this change is significant of far more than a mere matter of tactics is clear from the fact that Miss Willard now proposes a program of remedies in which prohibition of the retail sale of liquor for drink is no longer paramount, but only one among many other remedies in which prohibition of the retail sale of liquor for drink is no longer paramount, but only one among many other remedies. In her recent public utterances she now classes as causes many things which she formerly treated as effects. In several of her recent addresses she has emphasized the point that poverty is at least as important a cause of intemperance as intemperance of poverty, with the suggestion, it would appear, that she is headed towards the view which allots a far wider [?] to poverty. She has even indicated her acceptance of the formula of Henry George, and thus has gone from prohibition to poverty and from poverty to the single land tax, to the extent at least of basing her home protection party upon these theories, and upon what other economic and moral tenants nobody knows and perhaps herself could not tell Miss Willard has not abandoned prohibition indeed, for she still insists upon it. But she has abandoned it in the sense in which she held and advocated for many years. She no [?] abandons it in the sense when she accepts alongside of it these other propositions of social and economic reform.