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"And yet, so far as well-to-do Catholics are concerned, the Catholic temperance movement is practically ignored, if, indeed, it is not actually and openly despised; while even among those who abstain themselves, there is far too little zeal for the welfare of others."

The adherents of the Catholic Church are largely those who are personally connected with the labor organizations of the day, and to no class of our people is the temperance question more vital than to them. While I do not consider total abstinence a complete remedy, it is the largest directly available measure of relief for the ills of poverty and the misfortunes of life. It is a means of evolution which we can ourselves apply to better our condition; and we shall have a stronger claim to help from others when we have, to the utmost of our ability, helped ourselves. Other classes of men should, however, be slow to demand of the poor a higher standard of moral action or of self-restraint than they impose upon themselves and least of all should they make the cheap indulgences of the manual toiler, which are often only the opiates which temporarily relieve physical or mental distress, the excuse for permitting the continuance of social and legal disabilities which humanity should remove.

Rev. Thomas J. Conaty, president of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America, has recently published two very able addresses upon the relation of the liquor problem to that of labor, very brief extracts from which I reproduce from the Catholic World.

In the issue of the Catholic World of May, 1887, is the first address, in which he says: "Who support the saloons? Certainly not the wealthy classes; they seldom enter any establishment that may be called by that name. In one of our factory cities in Massachusetts, with 15,000 operatives, there are 375 saloons, or one in every forty. That is to say, forty working people are supposed to support a saloon. When you consider that out of those 15,000 operatives there must be several thousands who never use liquor, you can readily see how heavy this blood tax is upon the classes that drink. And we can also see why so many are in misery and degradation, perfect strangers to happiness, contentment or independence, always paying rent, and always in

debt. Workingmen, open your eyes! Protect your labor, save your earnings. You are in a great contest for your rights you need clear heads: you need manhood, which teaches to make the most of every day, which enables you to earn and to enjoy. Labor is the badge of manhood. Labor is the noblest title in America. It is the key to American success. Intemperance has already swept out of life more than war and famine have destroyed. Its scythe is still deep in the harvest. Men are falling beneath it. Be men. Break off every chain of slavery. Protect your labor from the tyranny of drink. If you are going to be Knights of Labor and struggle for your rights, be also knights of temperance. Preserve the powers given by God to enable you to labor and to earn, and, when you have earned, to purchase happiness, comfort and independence, and not misery, misfortune and slavery, for these are the fruits of intemperance. Labor has too noble a mission to be allowed to become a handmaid of intemperance."

Pursuing the same subject in the Catholic World of August, 1887, Father Conaty says: "The battle is really between the saloon and the home. The saloon has fastened itself upon society as an ulcer living upon the life-blood of the people. The saloon, building itself upon the ruin of broken lives and shattered homes, spreads desolation everywhere, respecting no class or sex. The union recalls the countless boys ruined, the fathers changed into destroyers of their little ones, the industry paralyzed, the prisons filled, and it asks each saloon how much of this is its work. It calls on the law to place about the saloon such reasonable restrictions as will remove as far as possible the evils that spring up from it. It demands the enforcement of those laws for the protection of home. The arrogance of the saloon and the power it wields in political affairs, all for its own interests and against those of society, have awakened a stronger interest in the cause of total abstinence organized on Catholic principles."

With these citations I close the chapter. Such high authority and eloquent utterances must move not only those to whom they are specially addressed, but the whole bodypolitic. Experience will demonstrate the necessity of

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adopting fully the plan, not only of total abstinence by the individual, but also of absolute prohibition by the State. May we not hope I feel sure that it is coming — that the mighty power of the Catholic Church, with her followers, will demand it in the nation as well as in every commonwealth wherein her influence can be exerted. It will be the easier to abstain from that which does not exist; no one is tempted by that which he cannot get. Every lover of his country, and of his fellow-men, will thank God when the whole Christian Church shall demand that the law require of society what conscience and religion demand of the individual - total abstinence from all beverages which intoxicate and destroy.

CHAPTER XXIII.

TEMPERANCE ORGANIZATIONS.

The National Temperance Society and Publication House; Agitation and Literature; "Total Abstinence and Prohibition"; William E. Dodge and Theodore Cuyler; the Temperance Advocate- Independent Order of Good Templars; Five Million Members; an Organization which Belts the Globe; Six Hundred Thousand Meetings a Year; the Ritual in a Dozen Languages; the Lamented Hon. John B. Finch -The Sons of Temperance; the Oldest Secret Temperance Society, Organized 1842; Gen. Sam. Cary: "Seal up the Fountain of Death"; Growth in Southern States; Eugene H. Clapp, "Responsibility of the Individual for Inebriety "— Templars of Honor and Temperance— Citizens' Law and Order League of the United States; the Object to Enforce Existing Laws; Charles C. Bonney, President; Platform of Convention, 1885 Royal Templars of Temperance - Cadets of Temperance United Temperance Association - United Kingdom Alliance- British Temperance League - Scottish Temperance League -Irish Temperance League - Political Parties and the Reform — Through Parties or Above Parties, the People Should Extirpate the Evil from the Land.

THE

great work of temperance education-moral suasion and legal reform is largely promoted by various voluntary associations created for that purpose, of which the principal are the National Temperance Society and Publication House, the Independent Order of Good Templars, the Sons of Temperance, Templars of Honor and Temperance, the Citizens' Law and Order League, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. There are other organizations of importance which deserve mention, that my limits will not permit. But this work would be incomplete without some account of what may be styled the secular wing of the Army of the Lord.

THE NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY AND PUBLICATION

HOUSE.

This society is the creator of modern temperance literaIt was organized at Saratoga in the year 1865, by 325

ture.

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delegates, gathered from twenty-five different States. Committees were chosen, the one to conduct the general work of temperance agitation and reform, the other to produce a literature — books, pamphlets, tracts, newspapers for distribution among the people. The exceeding ignorance of the country and of the world upon the subject, twenty years ago, would hardly be credited now. It can not be said that the ignorance is even yet dispelled-it is less dense. Some are cured and have gone about their business; a few are running, leaping and praising God, which is being a "crank"; a large number see men as trees walking; some have glass eyes, and look well, but are stone-blind, and some are blind beyond pretense of hope or even of miracle; and many fear the light because their deeds are evil — their eyes are good, but they keep them shut.

The committees, after much deliberation, were consolidated. Hon. William E. Dodge of New York city was made the first president, and the committee had its place of meeting in his office. The constitution was drawn by Rev. Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, now the president of the society, and for all these years a tower of strength to the cause. Others have died, but he has not. How many thank God

that he "still lives"!

"The basis of the society is total abstinence for the individual and total prohibition for the State." The pledge is as follows:

"No

person shall be a member of this society who does not subscribe to the following pledge - namely:

"We, the undersigned, do agree that we will not use intoxicating liquors as a beverage, nor traffic in them; that we will not provide them as an article of entertainment, or for persons in our employment; and that in all suitable ways we will discountenance their use throughout the country.""

९९

The receipts of the society have been about $1,100,000, every dollar of which has been expended in creating and circulating a sound temperance literature, and carrying on its missionary operations. . . . Its work covers the nation, and its literature permeates every part of the country. . . It furnishes physiological investigation, social appeal, religious instruction, political argument, scientific experiment,