Demorest Medal Contests

In less than three years, it had spread throughout the various States and into Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Australia, Honolulu, South Africa, China, Burma, and Norway.

[1] The popular methods of these contests, the manner of their preparation, and the local interest aroused in them, insured large attendances wherever they were held, and thus multitudes of men and women, not previously concerned or sympathetic, were led to hear Prohibition discussed from the view-point of Prohibitionists.

A plan for the organization of a system of distinctly WCTU medal contests was presented to Frances Willard by Adelia Carman, of Chicago, in December, 1895.

Recitation books, embracing orations on Prohibition, Total Abstinence, Scientific Temperance, Anti-Narcotics, Franchise, Social Purity, and other topics, were published.

[2] Soon after that convention, Carman received a letter from Mrs. Demorest, in which she said:—[4] "I am delighted that you are appointed my associate in medal contests, and as you are at the head of the W. C. T. U. work I feel that it is well to consolidate the two as nearly as possible.

The only thought Mr. Demorest had was to educate the rising generation in the principles of total abstinence for the individual and the inherent right of the people to enact the prohibition of the sale of intoxicants for the State and Nation.