Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/250

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ANNA A. GORDON 231 part played by children in shaping human destiny, the value of the deeper currents of child life as part of the mighty tide which shall usher in the triumph of righteousness. With such a conception, early in her career she enlisted the children 's in- terest in temperance work. The boys and girls of many coun- tries have been united by her under the banner of the Loyal Temperance Legion, the children's branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Miss Gordon has written much of the literature of the Loyal Temperance Legion — programs for meetings, recitations, stories, and especially, a great number of songs. She is the author of the Temperance Songster and several books of Marching Songs. Her temperance songs for children have been translated into several languages. Wherever there is work for temperance among children, not only in L. T. L.'s but in separate organizations and in Sunday schools as well, Miss Gordon's Marching Songs are used, edition after edition being demanded, until the sales now number a miUion copies. Miss Gordon is not only the children's temperance song writer of the world, but for many years she has been the ed- itor of The Young Crusader j a temperance paper for children that has had a wide circulation in English-speaking countries. Anna Adams Gordon not only has united the children of many countries in the Loyal Temperance Legion under the banner * * Tremble, King Alcohol, We Shall Grow Up, ' ' but she has also organized The Young Campaigners for Prohibition in this country. In Maine when the battle waged fiercest for the retention of the Prohibition Amendment, Miss Gordon, then in Port- land, issued a call to the boys and girls of Maine to become Young Campaigners for Prohibition. In all history a call to the children to help in such campaigns had never been made. It was estimated that within six weeks thirty thousand boys and ^rls, representing the various walks of life, responded to that call and became Young Campaigners for Prohibition. Miss Gordon not only organized these young recruits, but gave them their rally cries and their songs. In nearly every town in Maine the influence of the children 's parades, their banners