ANNUAL REPORT 1897

OREGON VEGETARIAN SOCIETY

The past year's work of the Oregon Vegetarian Society has been a year of of marked progress. On January 18th, we shall celebrate the beginning of the seventh year of continuous activity. During all this time we managed to hold up high the banner of Vegetarianism by monthly meetings, press reports, controversies, and by every other method that was best calculated to advance the claims of a bloodless diet on every thinking mind. At present we can number among us eminent professional men and women skilled in arts and sciences, as well as mechanics and labourers, all of whom unite in bearing the best kind of testimony to the superiority of the products of the plant world as the source of Nature's food supply for the human species.

My own experience, as well as that of many others whose opinion is fully deserving of serious consideration, is still on the side of maintaining at all times the principle of the sacredness of all life, including all animals, other than man, as the basic principle for our claims. Of this too we are reminded by the Son of David and King of Israel in his declaration: "A man hath no preeminence above a beast " - Eccles. iii. 19. This ought ot be sufficient for all such as justify the slaughter of animals for food upon theological interpretations of man's supposed right to claim special privileges above all other organized representatives throughout creation's domains. As to those whose reasoning faculties do not always accept the interpretations of theology, this will also do, since they cannot upon any logical grounds reject the declaration just quoted.

Among our most successful efforts in Vegetarianism are:

(1) We prevented the two packing companies in this city and state from carrying out a most brutalizing exhibit in form of a beef killing contest for which they made all necessary arrangements, after having obtained from the constituted authorities special permission to proceed with so monstruous a show. It was a Vegetarian who first entered a protest in the columns of the local press, who interviewed the leading ministers of the principal religious denominations, obtaining a promise for a sermon on this monstrosity on the Sunday evening immediately following first protest, and who convinced the municipal authorities of the justice of his claims, so that notice was given to the packing companies. ordering them to give up the project of exhibiting butchering skill in the killing of animals more useful than themselves. Thus the hog and beef-eating heirs of immortality where given a lesson which must have set them to thinking, at least some few of them, since the vast majority, seldom, if ever, thinks. It also gave rise to a newspaper controvery on the merits of Vegetarianism, which resulted in silencing the carnivorous portion of the community, who prefer the morgue to the fields and gardens for their food supply.

(2) Another cause for congratulation is the establishment in this city of a medical mission under the management of Dr. W. F. Hubbard, where medical advice and medicines if necessary, will be furnished free to the poor, and where they will be provided with lodgings, baths night garments, etc., for, ten cents per night, and with meals at ONE CENT per per dish. This establishment is on absolutely Vegetarian principles, all animal foods being most positively excluded, and so stated in all advertising matter of the institution. All credit for this excellent enterprise is due to the Vegetarians from among the Seventh Day Adventist denomination who have taken upon themselves the establishment and maintenance of this institution.

I cannot bring this report to a close without expressing the grateful acknowledgement of the O.V.S. to Dr. D. W. Reed, formerly head physician of the Portland Sanitarium, and now of Colorado, and to Dr. W. F. Hubbard, his successor, for their active cooperation in maintaining our public meetings, and to Mrs. Lucy A. Mallory, at whose house the O.V.S. has had its home ever since its organization.

With greetings to all Vegetarians, wherever found, and especially to the Men and Women of England, whose Spirit of Justice and Love of Freedom - the source of all that is truly great and noble among humankind - have ever been their chief traits, I beg to close this report of our efforts for the year 1897.

WILLIAM H. GALVANI,
President, Oregon Vegetarian Society.
Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.
January 1, 1898.

Vegetarian Federal Union index | 1897 Annual Report index