HOW PROHIBITION CAME TO TENNESSEE.

White Ribbon, Volume 15, Issue 176, 16 February 1910, Page 1

HOW PROHIBITION CAME TO TENNESSEE.

A«Mrrss ’»y Mr> FloniiM- K. Atk.ii' ln-for- tli* Nation tl \Y\ <\ T. t . < ’<>n\• liti >n. * Minin, Ni*l)., Ortol «*r JM, The Woman's Christian Femperance Union of Tennessee covenanted with herself and with her (iod that the homes of Fennessee should be delivered from the tyrrany of the rum traffic, and in lh(>7, in September, it was borne in upon the heart and brain of Silena Moore Holman, the state president ot the W. C. T. U., that the time was ripe when we should strike* out boldly and bravely for state-wide prohibition. In Novemhei our Convention met at Columbia. During this Convention a resolution was offered declaring for state-wide prohibition and pledging ourselves to work tortile election of only such men to the legislature and to the chief executive office as should put themselves on record as favouring state-wide prohibition. Prohibition became the battle-cry of that Convention. Hearts were quickened. Ihe women by the hundreds went hack to their homes in the mountains and down by the rivers to talk and pray and work for prohibition as they had not done in the days gone by. Some of us went up to Nashville, and you, beloved, you came to us and had I the tongue of a seraph, 1 could not sing your praises as I would. You caught the spirit. You soon discovered that we were out for prohibition, and prohibition became the battle-cry of the National Convention. It was there that that wonderful collection was taken, and

1 declare to you that the liqour men of tin* State of Tennessee took the chills and tin* fever while the people laid 8,000 dollars on the altar that night. I do not believe there is a state in the Union which has at its head a greater woman, a more magnificent general, a wiser director, than Tennessee, in tin* person of

Mrs Silena Moore Holman. We had scarcely said “Rood-bye" to you and gone hack home when that; marvelous woman began active and aggressive work. The first thing she undertook was to write a letter to every preacher of every denomination in the state* of Tennessee. She laid our plans before the ministry. She asked them to preach a sermon on state-wide prohibition and to keep tlu* subject constantly before the people. She sent a copy of the letter to the Anti-Saloon League for up to this time they had not declared for statewide prohibition and asked them to state their position in the matter. There came hack this answer, “(Jo ahead, Mrs Holman, we are with you and we will stand l.y you." From that hour up until the present time there has never been a lack of harmony. With united forces we went to work to free our state, and I verily believe that tonight we would have the liquor traffic fastened upon our state were it not for the fact that there was absolute harmony in the temperance forces. Applause.) There went out a letter to the local unions which read something like this : “Sisters, we are in the beginning of an awful struggle," and called for

a day of fasting and prayer. Knowing that all the forces of darkness were against us, and that we had a struggle such as few states have ever had, we yet knew in Whom we had our trust. And from that hour there came upon that state, as it were, a baptism of power. Mrs Holman was the leader in the whole campaign. Sin* sent a letter to every newspaper in the state, setting forth the plan of prohibition, appealing to the voters to support us in our effort to elect only such legislators as would declare themselves in favour of prohibition. About this time Mr Uarmack, the grandest statesman of the South, declared himself a candidate for the gubernatorial office. We knew he would stand on the temperance platform, but we did not know whether he would stand for statewide prohibition, and the abolition of the breweries and distilleries. Imagine our joy, if you oan, when tin* news was flashed throughout the state. “Carmack li*s declared unfalteringly that tlu* liquor traffic has sinned away its day of grace," and that he stood for the overthrow of the ina nu Tact are rs. Applause.)

We saw victory ahead. Then began the active, hand to hand struggle. Mrs Holman herself wrote two leaflets that we published by tens of thousands, setting forth local conditions. We had dodgers printed, with a picture of a hoy and a girl, and these words, “A vote for prohibition is a vote for us. Please help us." I want to say that while there never was a greater general than Mrs Ho 1 man, 1 verily believe that

there never were more faithful Soldiers than the rank and file of the women of Tennessee. (Applause.) As 1 think of them my eyes grow dim. We stationed these women at the c hurch doors, at the factory, at the mill doors, everywhere where men passed. We stationed them with these little dodgers in their hands. They passed them out silently as the men came out. We got out huge posters to contradict the posters that were sent out by the enemy. We covered out state 4 with these. Then we sent out literature by the thousands and tens of thousands -yes, there were thirty thousand letters

and packages of literature mailed from Mrs Holman’s own home during that time. We not only used literature, we used women. We covered the state. There were at times as many as seven or eight women speaking in the state of Tennessee. We spoke in the hamlets, in the cities, from gospel wagons, from court house steps wherever three or four or five could he gotten together we begged, with the tears rolling down our cheeks, that they vote for only such men for governor and legislators as would protect our homes and our babies.

In Chattanooga I saw women with elbows out, scantily clad,all of them in thin calico wrappers. They were hungry and they were poor. I saw one woman who stood with a baby on her hip all day long, and with one hand gave out dodgers. 1 saw their trembling lips as they joined in “Rock of Ages, cleft for me. ’ l saw sorrow and agony written on their faces, as they said to me, “Oh, lady, lady, do you think there is any hope for us ; oh, do you think we can ever get out from under it V”

Rut when the next morning dawned we knew that

our night of suspense was in vain.

The man who had dared to espouse our cause had been defeated by the liquor traffic, robbed, and plundered. 1 could not tell you oh, 1 could not tell you how the heart of Tennessee W. C. T. U. seemed to break. But here was where Mrs Holman climbed the heights.

She steadied herself, as it were, and at once took up the pen and began to write the stirring letters, “We are not defeated ; we have yet a chance to win.” The papers were filled with assurances by Mrs Holman that prohibition had not lost. The time flew by, and just when the liquor forces were exultant and happy in the belief that they had eliminated Mr Carmack from the fight, hope came again. Large it loomed up before us ; for that magnificent paper, the Nashville Tcn.yssain, that had been always our friend, elected for its editor Edward Carmack, who, as all the nation knows, was second to no man as a journalist. Cheerfully he took up the pen and began to write. And oh, my friends, it is true,

“God moves in a mysterious way.” Where Carmack had reached hundreds he began to reach thousands, and he began to make it clear to the Democrats of Tennessee that they could not he loyal to their pi itform and still remain true to the brewers. He kept at it until lie made the politicians of Tennessee see that they could he loyal and still not support a platform in the making of which the people had no part at all. The little state papers scattered all up and down the valleys copied his editorials, and shortly the state was flooded with Carmack's mind and Carmack's thought. It penetrated every spot, and never has a man lived who had such devoted followers as Edward Wai l Carmack had.

When election day came, a majority of those who were believed to favour state wide prohibition were elected to both houses, and Mrs Holman said, “Mr Carmack, if Tennessee can write a prohibition law on her statute hooks, it will be due to your loyalty and support and he replied, “If Tennessee writes a prohibition law on her statute books, l shall be more than paid for all l have suffered.” So the time went by, and it was said publicly by the liquor element that the fight was not yet won. One of their friends said, in the lobby of one of the hotels, “If we could eliminate Carmack from this

question, we could yet organise both branches of the house. ’ Four days from the time we returned to Tennessee from the Denver Convention, that matchless man, the man that we love and honour, lay dead upon our streets, shot through the back by a cowardly assassin, the deed dictated by the liquor traffic of Tennessee and the nation, so we all verily believe. Then in deed and in truth it seemed as though out hearts would break. The darkness shut us in once again. But from the tomb of Carmack there sprang an army. Men who had been lukewarm on the liquor question, but who loved Carmack, who would follow him to the death -these men took up the cudgels and came to the rescue of Tennessee.

Then the liquor men called together what they termed the state Democratic committee it was called everywhere else the state whisky - cratic committee. The awful tight came on for the election of the two speakers. Need 1 tell you more ? It is history! How we elected not one speaker, but both, and victory was in sight. The liquor men, driven to desperation, asked for a hearing before the committee on legislation. They actually believed that they could present the business side of the saloon question so forcibly that the committee on liquor legislation would fail to report the hill favourably. Oh, I wish you had been there !

We went early and stayed late. The papers said there were going to he hundreds of friends of the liquor element in the city that day; that they would preempt the grounds to set* that this arbitrary law did not pass. We got wind of it, and on Monday morning we began to make sandwiches. By one o’clock we were down there with them. By three o’clock there wasn’t space to put the sole of your foot in that building. The liquor men were there clamouring to get in. (Applause.) Along about five o’clock one of the friends of the liquor interests looked up to the gallery, and he said, “Mr Speaker, 1 move we adjourn ; I see the galleries are filled with ladies, and I am quite sure they all want to get home and get supper, and 1 thought to myself, “ Brother, you don’t know this

crowd as I do.” They adjourned, and not a man moved except out of ♦he boxes. The women brought out the sandwiches ! There were thousands of students there from the universities.

They gave their university yells, but instead of ending with “Vanderbilt! Vanderbilt! Vanderbilt!” they called, “Mrs Holman! Mrs Holman! Mrs Holman!” And then they called, “Mrs Stevens! Mrs Stevens! Mrs Stevens !" and “Anna Gordon! Anna Gordon! Anna Gordon !’’ And then by and by, with almost a hush in their breath, they gave their university yell, and they said, “ Frances Willard! Frances Willard! Frances Willard !" And then they said, “Carmack ! Carmack ! Carmack !’* Oh, it was a wonderful night! And then after a hit, lest anyone should be left out, they said. “ W. C. T. U.! “W. C. T. U.! W. C. T. U. !” (Applause.) And then we began singing. It seemed as if music never sounded so sweet to me. While the members of the senate and house were gathering there we sang to the time of “Old Time Religion,”

Now we for prohibition, X »w we ask for prohibition. It is good enough for us. it will make happy homes. It will make happy homes, It is good enough for us It will feed the hungry children, It will feed the hungry chiloren, It is good enough for us. Then we sang, “Tennessee is going dry.” The men had asked for this hearing, and we wanted them to hear the hearing! Finally, when we had almost worn ourselves out, and when everybody was waiting for the clock to point to seven —I did not dream of what the impulse would bring about there was a gentleman sitting close to me, and I said, “Brother, would you start,‘Stand up, stand up for Jesus?’ We haven’t sung it vet.” And he started it. The right band gallery leaned over to catch the tune, they took it up. it swept across that auditorium--did you ever think how appropriate it was? Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Ye soldiers of the Cross. Lift high His royal banner, It must not suffer loss. From victory unto victory Mis army shall he lead, Till every foe is vanquished. And Christ is Lord indeed.

We sang it through. By the time we were through the first verse there was a hush like the quiet of a Sabbath day. I speak the truth when I tell you what happened. Our God came on wings of love, and poured out a baptism of the Holy Ghost. It fell —there seemed to he a forked tongue on every bead. There was a silence like unto the silence of death. We sat there and prayed, and I never heard such solemn speeches made before in my life by the liquor forces. We prayed on, and midnight came, and we filed out —happy? Yes, because when that evening closed one of the members of the committee rose and said, “Mr Chairman, I move the passage of this Bill to-morrow morning in the senate.” The next morning early I flew downstairs, and I said to my cook, “Make up all the sandwiches you can get together!’’ The session didn’t begin till 11 o’clock, but I got down there about nine, and every foot of space was occupied. They dragged and pushed and pulled me in till 1 got up in the gallery and sat down by the side of Mrs Holman, and all day we sat there. They talked up one side and down the other, until, about half-past five in the evening, Senator Holliday rose and said, “There has been filibustering all day. We had the promise of these men that there would he no filibustering; 1 ask for the roll call at once.” It seemed to me the very earth stood still. Fora year we had lived fo this hour, and when it was borne in upon us that the awful moment had come, it was almost more than we could bear. And when the roll was called, we had won !

It was declared that the liquor dealers of the nation had offered 50,000 dollars a vote for four votes in our senate that they thought they could control. That senate was made up mostly of young men, who had their reputations to make. Money could not buy them ; threats could not intimidate them; and honours could not bribe them! They stood there, like Stonewall Jackson, absolutely immovable,

That was not the end. There were thirteen bills, including the bill prohibiting the manufacture of liquors, and all bearing in some way upon this question. Though the governor vetoed the measures as they came up, that legislature made up of young men passed every measure over his veto. (Applause.)

And that is how the state-wide prohibition law came to he written upon the statute books of Tennessee ; and friend and foe in Tennessee will tell you that no one factor did more to bring this beautiful result to pass than the W. C. T. U., and no one person did more than Silena Moore Holman—“ Union Signal.”