The White Ribbon. "For God, and Home, and Humanity” WELLINGTON, NOVEMBER 1, 1946. THE VALUE OF “THE WHITE RIBBON” TO ME
By A. D. GRIGG
An article is only of \aluc to us in sO far as we can make use of it; for example, our food, or what we purchase to cat, orJy if it is food that agrees with us and provides nourishment for our bodies; our clothing, only as it is useful and suitable for our wear and our occupation; our books, furniture, pictures, china and all that goes to provide the comforts of our home, only as we make use of them to give us good living, good work, good leisure and all that makes for the best in life.
So, only as we value our “White Ribbon’’ can it be of value to us. What value is “The White Ribbon’’ to each of our unions? As individual unions, does it not give us an incentive to more combined co-operative work for the cause to which we are pledged? Does it not help to hold our whole organisation together and unite us in a common bond, because in its pages vve sec and learn what the rest of us are doing?
It can be of value to us as individual members of a union, but only as vve as individual members of our union make use of it. Do vve use it to gain inspiration? Do we find in it something that draws us nearer to God, that inspires us to do better in our homes, that*gives us zeal to serve others? Or do wc let it lie unopened for days upon our table and then glance hurriedly through it without taking in much of what is written therein?
And if vve have gained from it, do vve not want others to share our gain? Do not the President's letter each month, the special articles and pithy paragraphs that appear, do not the Scientific Temperance facts and articles
create in us a desire to do more toward educating others towards abstinence? As our Editor says in the June issue, “no o ic would dream of searching its pages for anything which would have effects other than uplifting. Casual readers arc in no doubt as to *he reason for existence. No uncertain trumpet note trembles through it; but a definite call to serv ice for God, Home, and Humanity is heard, constantly and urgently." What does our pledge say,—“l promise to do all in my power to discourage the use of and traffic in the same by others . . How can we discourage others? Surely by showing them the faults of alcohol. And there our paper gives us material in plenty, if we will use it.
Take one issue, for instance, say the May one with a photo and biographical notes of our new President. Is there not someone in the W.D.F.U., the W.I. or some similar women's organisation to whom you may introduce our President, or a friend in the country to whom you may send it with a letter saying vve have a new President, or just a note saying as a W.C.T.U. member 1 want you to meet our new President ? But 1 think in sending away this
copy as suggested, 1 would slip out the Y.T. Supplement and keep that by me to hand to a child, on the road, or the hoy who delivers the paper, or the girl who makes a nuisance of herself hatting her ball over into my garden. You will notice the Y.P. Supplement i> no» on a separate sheet and quite ea>\ to remove from the paper.
From time to time vve have paragraphs in the paper from different departments of our work; in the May issue one from our Peace Superintendent with this specially striking line, "We must build friendships, not warships." Be more friendly—go out of our way to do the thing that makes friendship. The other day when 1 stepped from the front exit of a tramcar 1 carefully shut the door behind the rnotorman, and was surprised to hear,
“Oh, thank you; not many people bother to do that!" 1 answered that 1 always made a point oi shutting t*»e door if I was the last one or the only one* getting off, and 1 always expected the rnotorman to give me time to shut the door and get off the tramcar bet »re he started it again. But the point is the friendly contact made with that rnotorman —the human note struck, and who knows where it may lead. Our Departmental Superintendent’s article gives us food for thought in our relations with others, and even the best of us need to be reminded that we don’t own the whole world.
Gambling
Does not the small paragraph on page three of the May number remind us to cut from the papers and send to the Superintendent of the Antigambling Department some striking letters that have appeared in the Pros recently? Knowing that those making a business of gambling are asking fi r greater opportunities to do so, is it not our duty to help our Superintendent by giving her material on which to ba>» anti-gambling propaganda ? # Gambling cost this country almost as much a> drinking last year. Twenty-five or twenty-six million pounds spent on liquor or gambled away for tlia* which returns no good. Another interesting and thought-pro-voking article is that on page four of the same number, re R.k.O. Pictures reply to a letter from the Xelsort Union stating that the producers try to minimise excesses in drinking scenes in films. Is there mot a point for each one of us, as individuals in the community, to take note of the number of
drinking scenes in a picture we see and the way in which these are used to focus interest on characters or plot, and to report these to our unions? An article on “Liquid Bread,” reprinted from America—is not that Ivortli cutting out and putting in an envelope and sending to someone whom vou know is not a total abstainer, perhaps one of those moderate, social drinkers ? * Ami the “Beacon, our young people’s paper. Detach this and send it to a Bible Class boy or girl, or a Varsitv student you know. I think Varsity students—flung as they ace into he unnatural atmosphere rf a small world of people all approximately the same age, need a steadying influence. The articles we are getting in the “Beacon,” written by young people for young people, are making this paper more valuable than ever. Again, an article in the hack pages of this issue on Child Welfare gives food for. thought in our work for humanity.* Rear! it over again and then pass it on to a young mother or a <hool teacher. Home Makers’ Column and Crossword Puzzle, something to try ourselves and something to pass on; the recipes to a neighbour or friend and the puzzle to a young relative, or a patient in hospital, or one of the househound invalids we know. Do you not like to read what our other branches are doing? And look at the Literature advertisement and decide whether you, as a member of the union, can spend a few pet; e on a new leaflet to distribute at your guild or missionary union, or on a Scientific Temperance Instruction h**. -klet to give to a teacher you know. !»y this time there will not he much left of your “White Ribbon,” and you will probably send to me for another copy; hut think, will you, of how far >' tir one copy can go— and see that it goes!
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White Ribbon, Volume 18, Issue 10, 1 November 1946, Page 4
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1,282The White Ribbon. "For God, and Home, and Humanity” WELLINGTON, NOVEMBER 1, 1946. THE VALUE OF “THE WHITE RIBBON” TO ME White Ribbon, Volume 18, Issue 10, 1 November 1946, Page 4
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