LETTER FROM MRS ARMOR.

White Ribbon, Volume 40, Issue 476, 18 May 1935, Page 7

LETTER FROM MRS ARMOR.

Miss Christine Henderson, 9 Straven Road, Riccarton, Christchurch. N.Z. pear Miss Henderson, — 1 am hoping that this may reach you in time to bring the good news of a -reat dry victory to your National Convention in March. 1 am now living in Atlanta, and my second-class mail matter from New Zealand continues to ”o to Eastman, so I am not quite sure of the date. Aluliamu and Georgia lie side by side, and we felt that a victory in Alabama would virtually assure victory in (Jeorgia, so when the vote was submitted in Alabama and they asked me to come there and help, 1 gladly responded. For four weeks (ail the time the wet Legislature which submitted the question to the people allowed us), 1 campaigned in Alabama, speaking two and three times every day, and it was a joy to my soul to see how the church of Jesus Christ “put on her beautiful garments*’ and manifested to the world that God does always bless earnest eftort when prefaced by earnest prayer. There was a light registration because, during the recent depression, so many people had neglected to pay their poll taxes, and were not, when the election was called, able to pay up the back taxes. Then, too, on election day it rained, snowed, and sleeted, and kept many from the polls. Nevertheless, Alabama retained her bone dry law, which was enacted 20 years ago, by a majority of more than seven thousand. The population of Alabama is two million six hundred thousand. We felt it was a glorious victory that Kansas and Mississippi l>oth voted dry m a State-wide referendum by a magnificent majority. If the Georgia Legislature, now in session, calls for t State-wide vote on our own bone-dry law, which is now 26 years old, 1 teel that we will win a splendid victory. The repeal of the 18th Amendment has proven such a tragic and inglorious failure that people —many even who voted for repeal—are aroused, and alarmed at the results. Last year, th** first year of repeal, we crippled one million two hundred and seventy-five thousand people oil the highways with automobiles, of whom thirty-six tho ixaiiJ died. These figures I have taken not from any temperance organ, but from one of the wettest papers 1 know of, the “Birmingham Age-Herald” of Alalwimu. Drinking among women and children in the States where repeal has taken effect has not only become a public, but a notorious scandal. I feel sure that the reaction against repeal of the 18th Amendment has already begun, uid my faith is invincible that in the not far distant future the Liquor Traffic in the United States will again he outlawed, and that permanently. As you perhaps know, the National W.r.T.U. has undertaken to raise onehalt million dollars during the ensuing five years, which will be called the Frances Willard Centenary Fund

Georgia's pro rata share of this amount is T000.00d01., and I have l>een appointed financial secretary for this fund in Georgia, and I have undertaken to raise the whole TOOO.OOdoI. this month, so that our part of it may l>e available at once if the legislature calls an election in Georgia. lam sure you will remember us m your prayers. Give my love to all the \V hite Kibboners, and say to the Convention tha*. the fight against the Liquor Traffic is still on in the United States of America, and that we are expecting to regain all that we have lost. lam praying for you in New Zealand that the tragic failure of repeal in the l nited States may encourage you to tight for the only real solution of the problem: National Prohibition, with dry men and women in office to support, defend and preserve it. May God give wonderful, beautiful New Zealand such a victory some day in the not far distant future. Faithfully and lovingly yours, MARY HARRIS ARMOR.