INTERESTING LETTER FROM Miss Anna Gordon, Sec. W.W.C.T.U.

White Ribbon, Volume 17, Issue 204, 18 June 1912, Page 5

INTERESTING LETTER FROM Miss Anna Gordon, Sec. W.W.C.T.U.

The followirg interesting letter has been received from Miss Anna Gordon, secretary of the World’s W.C.T.U. : Rest Cottage, Kvanston, Illinois. Mv Dear Comrade,— Thinking of the work and workers of the World’s \\ .k .T.V., as a New Year approaches, I send you my loving wishes for the best year of vour life in 1912 —a year crowded with happiness and good cheer, and with success in the work which commands our highest anil holiest endeav our. The vast fields of our World’s W.C.T.I’. are white unto the harvest. Gains are apparent in many directions. Urgent calls are coming to us from many countries for needed help. The generous gift of our honoured President, the Countess of Carlisle, has made it possible for us to assist many of these countries with translation of litera-

ture and organising work. Again we thank the Countess of Carlisle for this liberal aid at the time of our Glasgow Convention. Miss Agnes E. Slack has recently been in Sweden, and has other invitations for work on the Continent. Mrs. Sanderson, our Treasurer :s iustlv proud that her home province of Quebec exceeds all others, and also our St; Us, in the number of lift members in the World’s W.C.T.U Our World’s White Ribbon missionaries are doing magnificent work. Mrs. J. K. Barney is at home in Rhode Island ; Miss Johannsdottir is in Norway ; Mrs. Harrison I.ee Cowie is hard at work in New Zealand. Mrs. Cowie and Miss Anderson Hughes have been greatlv aiding the New Zealand campaign for National Prohibition, and we do not yet know the outcome of that tremendous struggle. Miss Uochhead, in India, is beloved and successful ; Miss Ebna G. Gowen, after a needed furlough, is hoping soon to return to South America. Miss Flora K. Stront. who returned to the United States a year ago from Japan, has had an extremely successful rear in her home country, speaking in many States on behalf of the World’s W.C.T.I* In all coses she has given our White Ribbon workers and many others a greatly enlarged vision of the World’s W.C.T.I’., and as a result of her meetings has substantially aided the treasury of the Wood’s W.C.T.U. Miss Ruth Frances Davis attended the Anti-Alcohol Conference at The Hague, and will visit Korea as she returns to Japan. Miss Davis has been doing admirable work during the past year, with constantly increasing success, especially along educational lines.

Our Branch Secretaries and Sll- - of Departments are doing their best in their varied lines of endeavour We are sorrv to lose from the associate work m the Purity Department Mrs. Rose Woodallen Chapmam who has resigned from this oosit’on. Mrs. A R Atkinson, of New Zealand, has a’-o resigned from the Suoerintendenev c/ the •• tW.-nshin De« artm?nt. and this we much regret.

The turbulent conditions in China give us great anxiety for our friends in that Empire, and we trust that n change for the better will soon be reported. Our President, Mrs.

*r- k Goodrich, is on furlough in this country, and we hope to see her before her return to China. Mrs. Ella Hoover Thacher, of New Jersey, our World’s Superintendent of the Department of Work among Soldiers and Sailors, has just started on a tour round the world. While taking this trip independently, Mrs. Thacher will carry with her our cordial introduction to White Ribbon comrades everywhere, and we trust many of our workers tnav have the inspiration of a visit from Mrs Thachuj. and that she may receive the jovS)f a personal meeting with many of yrm whose names are beloved by us all.

You will be glad to know' that Burma is to have the desire of its heart fulfilled, as Miss Flora E. Strout will go at once to that courageous W.C.T.U. of Burma, where a world’s worker is sorelv needed, and where we have so many friends of our cause, only they are too busy to give the needed time to organising the \Y CTU We welcome most heartily the new national organisation in South Africa with a full corps of officers. Mrs. Mackenzie, former President of Caj>e Colony, is the National President. All ha’’ to the W.C.T.U of South Afric*. f The year’s work in the United States as reviewed at our recent annual Conveniion in the city of Milwaukee showed a gain in membership in a majority of the States. The Convention was large and enthusiastic, and many tributes of gratitude were showered upon our National President, Mrs. Stevens, who is richly deserving of them all. During the Convention one evening rrogramme was given to the World’s W C.T.U., and proved most interesting. Mrs. Davis, mother of Miss Ruth, in Japan, reported their meeting during the Conference at The Hague. a«d Miss Ruth’s unflagging ambition to help the Japan W.C T.U. raise the needed money for National Headquarters. The State of Illinois is considering a plan to raise a substantial amount toward the Ileadquarteis as a. memorial to Miss Mary Allen West, of this State, who did some heroic work in Japan and passed a wav in the Sunrise Kingdom. It is certainly a good policy to thorough lv establish our work in a country like Japan, where we have already invested much wh ; ch must be upheld and strengthened. The Japanese women have at their

head a truly remarkable woman, the venerable Madam Kaji Yajima. The men's Temperance League is a great power for righteousness, and in the Foreign Auxiliary of American and English women we have splendid advisers and helpers who are too busv w’th their own special duties to do muih towards helping raise money for Headquarters or in doing practical W.C.T.V. work. We hope the project of Headquarters in Japan will find a host of friends among our woilers. During our Milwaukee Convention a meeting of the Vnited States World s W.C.T.C. Committee was held, wuh Mrs. Stevens in the ch«r-. This Committee unanimously recommended to the World's W.C.T.C. the creation el a new department for Juvenile Courts, Anti-Child Labour, etc. The drink curse is at tne foundation of infinite suffering among little children, and such a department has a very direct bearing upon our work. Mrs. Ella A. Boole, President of the New York State W.C.T.C., announced that Brooklyn would invite the next Convention of the w rid s 1 C.T.F., and the Committee recommended the acceptance of the invitation. Mrs. K. L. Stevenson recommended the securing of life memberships in the World 3 W.C.T.C. Dr Ptirington and Miss Ives received the thanks of the Committee for the successful exhibit for the World’s and National W.C.T.C. at the tune of “ The World in Boston.” Thanks and messages of love were ordered to be sent to each of the World's officers and World’s White Ribbon missionaries. Tender reference was made to our loss in the passing onward of Mrs. Kmilie I). Martin, and the Conference placed on record its deep appreciation of her work.

The vear just closing is memorable as one of victory in the tremendous fight in Maine, when .ill liquordom united in an effort to break down constitution d prohibition in the State of its birth. Our gratitude to Mrs. Stevens for her splendid leadership in this campaign knows no bounds. Her farseeing plans were all well carried out bv the White Rihlxmers, who worked “ like heroes and like ange’s.” The boys and girls of the State took a vital Part in the conflict. Voting (lav. September 11 th, or 1 near date, will hereafter be obnn id bv t lu If lit W C T L aM over the State as a jubilee day for

the young people. On this day they will comtnemm irate the victory which they, as Young Campaigners for Prohibition, helped to gain. On Sunday, September loth, in Mrs. Stevens’ home city of Portland, at the close of a great meeting, Mrs. Stevens read the c»clesed proclamation for National Constitutional Prohibition in the Cnited States. The enthusiasm with which this proclamation is being everywhere received would he difficult to describe. We shall all work with renewed faith in God toward this much-to-be desired end, the prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage in the Vnited States. W ith best wishes for a Blessed New Year, Yours affectionately, ANNA A. GORDON.