Woman's Christian Temperance Union

"WCTU" redirects here. See WCTU Railway for the rail line in White City, Oregon.

The logo of the WCTU

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is the oldest continuing non-sectarian women's organization worldwide. Founded in Evanston, Illinois in 1873,^[1] the group spearheaded the crusade for prohibition. Members in Fredonia, New York advanced their cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and urging saloon keepers to stop selling alcohol. Subsequently, on December 22, 1873, they were the first local organization to adopt the name Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was founded in Cleveland in November 1874.

History and purpose

The purpose of the WCTU was to combat the influence of alcohol on families and society. The first president was Annie Wittenmyer. Frances Willard, a noted feminist, was its second president, and made the greatest leaps for the group. They were inspired by the Greek writer Xenophon who defined temperance as "moderation in all things healthful; total abstinence from all things harmful." In other words, should something be good, it should not be indulged in to excess. Should something be bad for you, it should be avoided altogether; thus their attempts to rid their surroundings of what they saw (and still see) as the dangers of alcohol. The WCTU perceived alcoholism as a consequence of larger social problems rather than as a personal weakness or failing.

Thus the WCTU was very interested in a number of social reform issues including: labor, prostitution, public health, sanitation and international peace. As the movement grew in numbers and strength, members of the WCTU also focused on suffrage. The WCTU was instrumental in organizing woman's suffrage leaders and in helping more women become involved in American politics. Local chapters, known as “unions”, were largely autonomous though linked to state and national headquarters. Willard pushed for the "Home Protection" ballot, arguing that women, being the superior sex morally, needed the vote in order to act as "citizen-mothers" and protect their homes and cure society's ills. At a time when suffragists still alienated most American women, who viewed them as radicals, the WCTU offered a more traditionally feminine and appropriate organization for women to join.

Although the WCTU had chapters throughout North America and had hundreds of thousands of members, it did not initially accept Catholic, Jewish, or African-American women, or women who had not been born in North America^{[citation needed]}. Today that is no longer the case. In fact, today men may also join the organization as honorary members. In contrast to the WCTU's stated aims, not all large-scale Christian groups and movements believe the consumption of alcohol to be inconsistent with practice of Christianity (see Christianity and alcohol).

Before Prohibition, the WCTU focused mainly on moral reform. In the 1880s they worked on creating legislation to protect the working girls from the exploitation of men.^[2] They also wanted to aide immigrants coming into the United States. They focused on using the legislature to keep Sunday as a Sabbath day and restrict frivolous activities. In a New York Times article written on April 7th 1901, the WCTU said that golf should not be allowed on Sundays. ^[3]

Between 1900 and 1920 much of their budget was given to their center on Ellis Island, which helped to start the Americanization process. The WCTU felt that immigrants were more prone to alcoholism. The fiction they created greatly centered around the Irish or German immigrants taking part in alcohol, and being drunk.

The WCTU were concerned about trying to remove poverty. They felt that the best way to remove poverty was through abstinence of alcohol. Through journal articles, the WCTU tried to prove that abstinence would help people move up in life. One of their journal articles gives a fictional story to illustrate this fact,

Ned has applied for a job, but he is not chosen. He finds that the potential employer has judged him to be like his Uncle Jack. Jack is a kindly man but he spends his money on drink and cigarettes. Ned has also been seen drinking and smoking. The employer thinks that Ned lacks the necessary traits of industriousness which he associates with abstinence and self control. ^[4]

In the United States, during the temperance movement, the WTCU was divided along ideological lines. The first president of the organization, Annie Wittenmyer ,believed in the singleness of purpose of the organization, that is that it should not put efforts into women’s suffrage, prohibition, etc.^[5]. This wing of the WTCU therefore was more concerned with how morality played a role during the temperance movement. With that in mind, it sought to save who they believed to be of lower moral standing. For them, the alcohol problem was one of moral nature, and was not caused by the institutions that facilitated access to alcohol.

The second president of the WCTU, Frances Willard, demonstrated a sharp distinction from Wittenmyer in how she felt the WCTU should be involved in the temperance movement. As president between 1879 and 1898, Willard had a much broader interpretation of the social problems at hand. She believed in “a living wage; in an eight-hour day; in courts of conciliation and arbritation; in justice as opposed to greed in gain; in Peace on Earth and Good-Will to Men.” ^[6] This division illustrated two of the ideologies present in the organization at the time, conservatism and progressivism. As a result, the Eastern Wing of the WCTU supported Wittenmyer and the Western Wing had a tendency to support the more progressive Willard view.

Membership within the WCTU grew greatly every decade until the 1950s. ^[7]

Classification of WCTU Committee Reports by Period and Interests^[10]

• Source:Sample of every fifth Annual Report of the WCTU

Percentages total more than 100 percent due to several interests in some committee reports.

Frances Willard

Frances Willard

Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard was born in 1839 to Josiah and Mary Willard. She was born the middle child and had two other siblings, Mary and Oliver. In the early years of her childhood, she moved three times, ending up in Janesville, Wisconsin to live on a farm called "Forest Home".

Being a part of the ministry ran in her family; her father had originally moved to Oberlin, Ohio to be apart of the ministry there. In 1858 the Willard family moved to Illinois so that Mary and Frances could attend college and their brother Oliver could go to the Garrett Biblical Institute. Willard's time at the Northwestern Female College led her to become a teacher. She held various teaching positions until she became the President of Evanston College for Ladies. She held this position on two separate occasions, once in 1871 and again in 1873. She was also the first Dean of Women for Northwestern University.

In 1874 Willard was elected as the new secretary of the WCTU. Five years later she became its president. Willard also started her own organization in 1883 called the World's Women Christian Temperance Union, and eventually became president in 1879.^[11]

After becoming president of the WCTU in 1879, Willard broadened the views of group by including woman's rights reforms, abstinence and education. As their president for 19 years, she focused on moral reform of prostitutes and prison reform, as well as woman's suffrage. Once the 19th Amendment had been passed, Willard felt that women voters "would come into government and purify it, into politics and cleanse the Stygian pool."^[12]

Matilda Bradley Carse

Matilda B. Carse became an activist after her son was killed in 1874 by a drunk driver. She joined the Chicago Central Christian Woman's Temperance Union to try to eliminate alcohol consumption. In 1878 she became the president of the Chicago Central Christian Woman's Temperance Union and in 1880 she helped organize the Woman's Temperance Publishing Association, and sold the stock to rich women. That same year she also started The Signal, and three years later it merged with another newspaper to become The Union Signal. It became the most important woman's newspaper, and soon sold more copies then any other newspaper. During her time as president, Carse founded many charities and managed to raise approximately $10,000 a year to support them. She started the Bethesda Day Nursery for working mothers, two kindergartens, the Anchorage Mission for erring girls, two dispensaries, two industrial schools, an employment bureau, Sunday schools, and temperance reading rooms. ^[13]

WCTU and Prohibition

Over the years different Prohibition and Suffrage activists had felt that the different Brewers associations gave money to anti-suffrage activities. In 1919 there was a Senate investigation that confirmed their ideas had been true. Some members of the United States Brewers Association were openly against the woman's suffrage movement. One member stated " We have defeated woman's suffrage at three different times."^[14]

Although many times the WCTU was very involved in religion in a positive manner, they did not agree that wine should be used in their ceremonies. They asked the Church to stop using wine in their ceremonies during an Episcopal convention, and to use un-fermented grape juice instead. Their direct resolution stated that they wanted the church to use grape juice because wine contained "the narcotic poison, alcohol, which cannot truly represent the blood of Christ."^[15]

The WCTU was also in favor of banning tobacco. In 1919 the WCTU expressed to Congress the issue of total abolition of tobacco within five years. ^[16]

Under Willard, the WTCU supported the White Life for Two program. Under this program, men would reach women’s higher moral standing (thus become woman's equal) by engaging in lust-free, alcohol-free, tobacco-free marriages. At the time, the organization also fought to ban alcohol use on military bases, in Indian reservations and within Washington’s institutions. ^[17].Ultimately, Willard succeeded in increasing the political clout of the organization because unlike Annie Wittenmyer,she strongly believed that the success of the organization would only be achieved through the increased politicization of its platform.

The Woman's Temperance Publishing Association

The Woman's Temperance Publishing Association was started in Indianapolis by Wallace, but thought up by Matilda B. Carse. They thought there was a need for a weekly temperance paper for women. The creators wanted the first board of directors to be seven women who had the same vision as Carse. ^[18]

WCTU in Canada

First Alberta Provincial WCTU convention, Olds, Alberta

The WCTU also formed in Canada in 1873, in Ontario. In 1885 Letitia Youmans founded a nationwide organization which was to become the leading women's society in Canada's temperance movement.

WCTU in New Zealand

Led by Kate Sheppard from 1887, the New Zealand WCTU was a major force behind the campaign for women's suffrage. This resulted in New Zealand women being granted universal suffrage in 1893.^[19]

Current status

Due to the culture today in America, "temperance norms have lost a great deal of their power in American Culture"^[20] and there are far fewer dry communities than before Prohibition. Now there is a more hostile environment towards abstinence because alcohol is more accepted.

The main requirement for joining the WCTU includes signing a pledge of abstinence from alcohol and paying membership dues. Current issues for the WCTU include alcohol, which the organization considers to be North America's number one drug problem, illegal drugs, abortion^[21] and gay marriage^[22]. The WCTU has warned against the dangers of tobacco since 1875. They continue to this day in their fight against those substances which they see as harmful to society. The WCTU strongly supports banning same-sex marriage, which it sees as a negative influence on families; in general, it is opposed to gay rights ^[23].

The WCTU publishes a quarterly journal entitled The Union Signal; the journal's main focus is as a digest of current research and information on drugs.^[24] The WCTU also attempts to encourage young people to avoid substance abuse through participation in three, age-divided sub organizations: White Ribbon Recruits for pre-schoolers; the Loyal Temperance Legion (LTL) for elementary school children; and, the Youth Temperance Council (YTC) for teenagers.

The White Ribbon Recruits are a mother that will publicly declare her dedication to keep her baby drug free. To do this they participate in the White Ribbon Ceremony, but their child must be under six years of age. The mother pledges "I promise to teach my child the principles of total abstinence and purity" and the child gets a white ribbon tied to their wrist, thus becoming a White Ribbon Recruit. The LTL, Loyal Temperance Legion, is another temperance group aimed at children. It is for children aged six to twelve, who are willing to pay dues annually to the LTL. Their motto is "That I may give my best service to home and country, I promise, God helping me, Not to buy, drink, sell, or give Alcoholic liquors while I live. From other drugs and tobacco I'll abstain, And never take God's name in vain." The Youth Temperence Council is the final type of group meant for youths, and is aimed at teenagers. Their pledge is "I promise, by the help of God, never to use alcoholic beverages, other narcotics, or tobacco, and to encourage everyone else to do the same, fulfilling the command, 'keep thyself pure'."^[25]

See also

• Frances Willard
• Anna Adams Gordon
• Mary Hunt
• Scientific Temperance Federation
• Temperance movement
• Ida B. Wise
• Margaret Bright Lucas
• Matilda Carse
• Carrie A. Nation

Gallery

Women of the WTCU at a meeting.

WCTU display booth at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto

References

Further Reading

Gusfield,Joseph R.."Social Structure and Moral Reform: A Study of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union,"The American Journal of Sociology61,No.3 (1955).

Graw,Jacob Bentley. Life of Mrs. S.J.C. Downs; Or, Ten Years at the Head of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of New Jersey: Or, Ten Years at the Head of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of New Jersey. Gazette, 1892.

Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Clara Christiana Morgan Chapin.Thumb Nail Sketches of White Ribbon Women: Official. Woman's Temperance Publishing Association:Evenston, 1895.

Woman's Christian Temperance Union Dept. of Scientific Instruction. A History of the First Decade of the Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction in Schools and Colleges of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union: In Three Parts.Published by G.E. Crosby & Co., 1892.

External links

• WCTU Official Website
• The Handbook of Texas: WCTU
• Address Before The Second Biennial Convention Of The World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union, by Frances Willard, President (October, 1893)
• Modern History Sourcebook: Woman's Christian Temperance Union: Growth of Membership and of Local, Auxiliary Unions, 1879-1921
• “We Sang Rock of Ages”: Frances Willard Battles Alcohol in the late 19th century, by Frances Willard
• Woman's Christian Temperance Union (Nebraska Chapter) records at the Nebraska State Historical Society