THE EXPERIENCES OF A CANVASSER.

White Ribbon, Volume 33, Issue 400, 18 November 1928, Page 7

THE EXPERIENCES OF A CANVASSER.

White Ribhoners are always lieing urged to distribute the "White Ribbon" paper in their district, but it may not have occurnnl to all to carry on the selling of "White Ribbons" in conjunction with canvassing. Accordingly, the experience of one W.C.T.U. lady may be worth handing on to others. On the last two occasions that canvassing has had to be done, namely, to get signatures to the Women’s Petition in 1f127, and to canvass for the Licensing Poll this year, she found that the work M’as rendered much easier and more successful by introducing the subject with the request to purchase a "White Ribbon." If the lady approached defined to buy one, this opened the way to a conversation «uch as the following: "Oh, are you not interested in Temperance?” "No, not specially," might be the answer. Then the canvasser would enquire the reason, and that might he the beginning of a little talk on Prohibition and the dangers of alcohol and the evils of the Drink Traffic and the arguments for suppressing It. According to how the matter was received, a note would be made that a further visit could profitably be

paid to the home in question. If the lady responded to the request by consenting to purchase the paper, the door was opened for conversation, in which sympathy with the WjC.T.U. cause might be expressed, and possibly a new White Ribbon subscriber, or a new Union member could be obtained. Under any circumstances one object of the canvass would be atu.’ned; knowledge as to the attitude in the home of the lady visited. If, on the other hand, the response showed decided opposition to the Temperance cause, sympathy with Continuance, even if not expressed in so many words, might reasonably be 4 surmised, and a repetition of the visit might or might not, be advisable. The canvasser would carefully make an entry of the name and house number where a White Ribbon had been sold, with a view to succeeding issues. In the canvass for signatures to the Petition, between three and four dozen copies of the White Ribbon were sold in the two districts canvassed and two White Ribbon subscribers and in the recent canvass for the Poll in one district only, between five and six dozen were sold, beside one new subscription being obtained.