American Academy of Political and Social Science
The Work of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
Author(s): Lillian M. N. Stevens
Source: The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 32,
Regulation of the Liquor Traffic (Nov., 1908), pp. 38-42
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of
Political and Social Science
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THE WORK OF THE NATIONAL WOMAN’S CHRISTIAN
TEMPERANCE UNION
BY LILLIAN M. N. STEVENS,
President.
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union is an organization of
Christian women banded together for the protection of the home,
the abolition of the liquor traffic and the triumph of Christ’s
Golden Rule in custom and law. It is the lineal descendant of the
Woman’s Temperance Crusade of 1873, and is now the larges
organization of women in the world.
In 1873 the women of the crusade gathered in the streets to
pray and to beseech saloon keepers to give up their business, and
in two months, in upwards of 250 towns, the liquor traffic ceased t
exist. Ohio was the crusade state. Prominent among the o
crusaders were Mrs. Elizabeth J. Thompson, Hillsboro; Moth
Stewart, Springfield; Mrs. George W. Carpenter, Washington
Court House.
As an outgrowth of the crusade the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was formed in Cleveland, O., in I874. The
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union is now organized in ever
state and territory, the District of Columbia, and in more than Io,o
different localities. It is distinctively a total abstinence society, an
it is not only anti-saloon but anti-distillery and anti-brewery. Its
breadth is indicated by its motto, “For God and home and native
land.” Its badge is a small bow of white ribbon and its declaration
of principles is as follows:
We believe in the coming of His Kingdom, whose service is perfect fre
dom, because His laws, written in our members as well as in nature and in
grace, are perfect, converting the soul.
We believe in the gospel of the Golden Rule, and that each man’s habits
of life should be an example safe and beneficent for every other man to follow.
We believe that God created both man and woman in His own image,
and therefore we believe in one standard of purity for both men and women,
and in the equal right of all to hold opinions and to express the same with
equal freedom.
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National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union
We believe in a living wage; in an eight-hour day; in courts of conciliation and arbitration; in justice as opposed to greed of gain; in “peace on
earth and good-will to men.”
We therefore formulate, and for ourselves adopt the following pledge,
asking our sisters and brothers of a common danger and a common hope,
to make common cause with us, in working its reasonable and helpful precepts
into the practice of everyday life.
I hereby solemnly promiise, God helping mte, to abstain from all distilled,
fermented and malt liquors, including wine, beer and cider,1 and to employ all
proper means to discourage the use of and traffic in the same.
To confirm and enforce the rationale of this pledge we declare our
purpose to educate the young; to form a better public sentiment; to reform,
so far as possible, by religious, ethical and scientific means, the drinking
classes; to seek the transforming power of divine grace for ourselves and all
for whom we work, that they and we may wilfully transcend no law of pure
and wholesome living; and finally we pledge ourselves to labor and to pray
that all these principles, founded upon the Gospel of Christ, may be worked
out into the customs of society and the laws of the land.
The Io,ooo local unions composing the National Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union have been the chief factors in state
campaigns for statutory prohibition and constitutional amendments,
and for securing the enactment of other reform laws, especially
those for the protection of girls. It began the movement for scientific temperance education in the public schools, having been
instrumental in securing laws to that end in all the states, and
besides this it has secured congressional legislation, by means of
which all the territories and the District of Columbia are brought
under the same beneficent statutes.
The work of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union for peace and arbitration, for the children in Sunday schools,
loyal temperance legions and kindergartens; its efforts to influence
college students and to train and organize young women for a
philanthropic life; its evangelistic work for non-churchgoers, railway employees, soldiers, lumbermen, miners, and especially for the
drinking men of all classes, have proved its comprehensiveness and
the tirelessness of its energy. Its efforts to reach the pauper and
the prisoner, to establish reformatories and homes for the wretched
victims of inebriety and their suffering children, and its temperance
flower mission, must appeal to every heart.
1State and local conltitutlons can include the words “as a beverage,” If
desired.
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The Atnnals of the American Academy
It also strives to redeem outcast women from a slavery worse
than that of chains, and by better laws to secure protection to women
and girls from the outrages of brutal and designing men. It has
been active in raising the age of consent in nearly every state in
the Union, and its influence is being strongly felt in the purification
of our literature and art.
The National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union Convention is held annually in some large city. The convention of 1907
was held in Nashville, Tenn., in November. Some of the most
important features of the convention were enthusiasm over the
frequent announcement of recent prohibition victories, immense
evening audiences, gifts and pledges at one of the evening meetings
amounting to about $7,000, the presence of Confederate veterans
on the platform at demonstration night, the speech of General A. S.
Daggett on the army canteen, the enthusiasm created for Y. and
L. T. L. work, the large number of life and memorial members
received, the welcome to the new prohibition states, Oklahoma and
Georgia, and the jubilee over what white ribboners and L. T. L.’s
did “to cause to come to pass.”
Some of the leading efforts at the present time are to retain
the “anti-canteen” law, to secure the passage of the Littlefield or
Bacon bill, to banish the sale of liquor from all government buildings, to secure state laws forbidding the sale of liquor within three
or four miles of soldiers’ homes, forts, army camps, etc., to interest
all teachers and pupils, especially in normal schools and colleges, in
scientific temperance instruction, to secure at least $2.00 from every
local union, or its equivalent, from the state, for the Frances E.
Willard Memorial Fund, to complete the raising of $Io,ooo for an
emergency fund, to increase total abstinence practice and sentiment
and to promote the prohibition of the liquor traffic everywhere.
The World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was organized in I883. It exists in fifty-two nations with a membership of
more than half a million. Frances E. Willard, its founder, and the
first eight “around-the-world” missionaries, were instrumental in
its establishment. The officers of the World’s Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union at the present time are: The Countess of Carlisle, president; Mrs. L. M. N. Stevens, vice-president-at-large;
Miss Agnes E. Slack and Miss Anna A. Gordon, honorary secretaries; Mrs. Mary E. Sanderson, honorary treasurer. The officers
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National Woman’s Christian Temperance Unlion 4
of the National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union at the present time are: Mrs. Lillian M. N. Stevens, president; Miss Anna
A. Gordon, vice-president-at-large; Mrs. Susanna M. D. Fry, corresponding secretary; Mrs. Elizabeth Preston Anderson, recording
secretary; Mrs. Sara H. Hoge, assistant recording secretary; Mrs.
Susanna M. D. Fry, acting treasurer.
The basic principles of the Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union are total abstinence and prohibition. Prohibition is the
logical associate of total abstinence, and the Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union believes that the temperance reform, in order
to go steadily and successfully forward must use as propelling forces
both these oars. The National Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union teaches that alcohol is a poison; that its use breaks down the
physical nature and harmfully affects the blood, the nerves, the
heart, and makes the drinker an easy prey to disease. It also teaches
that alcohol attacks the moral nature, and its use causes an increased
need of institutions for the dependent, the delinquent and the
criminal classes.
It is estimated that at least 6oo,ooo business and public Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union meetings are held in the United
States each year. The teaching and preaching at these meetings
are along the lines of prevention, education, reformation and legislation. This society secures mrore petitions than any other in the
world. It is estimated that not fewer than 20,000,000 signatures
and attestations have been secured by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, including the polyglot petition, addressed to the
different governments of the world, asking them to do away with
the manufacture of and traffic in alcoholic liquors, opium and the
legalization of impurity. This petition has been presented to the
President of the United States, to Queen Victoria, and the GovernorGeneral of Canada.
The National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union keeps
superintendent of legislation in Washington during the entire ses
sion of Congress, to look after reform bills. It also maintains
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union missionary at Ellis Island
to meet the incoming foreigners. Fully 250,000 children are taught
in the Loyal Temperance Legion the reasons for total abstinenc
and are trained as temperance workers. The Woman’s Christia
Temperance Union has created a great literature. Each of the
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The Annals of the American Academy
forty superintendents of departments sends out large amounts, and
the several states distribute millions of pages annually.
The “Union Signal,” the official organ of the National Woman’s
Christian Temperance Union, is owned and published by the society.
It is a sixteen-page weekly and has an extensiye circulation in every
state and territory and in foreign lands. The “Crusader Monthly”
is the official organ of the Loyal Temperance Legion. It is a
sixteen-page monthly, having a large and constantly increasing circulation. Forty-three state organizations publish papers devoted
entirely to Woman’s Christian Temperance Union interests.
The part the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union has taken
in the recent campaigns which have brought state-wide prohibition
to Georgia, Oklahoma, Mississippi, North Carolina, Alabama and
Arkansas is well described editorially in the “Oklahoma State
Capital :”
The women organized for prohibition.
Prohibition was their soul’s desire.
They cared not for the political features so long as they in no way interfered with their fight for the prohibitory clause.
Even those who were opposed to the prohibitory measure must view with
admiration, and applause even, the steadfastness, vigor, and ability with which
th$ fight was carried on by the women.
The organization formed working committees all over the state, and the
marching of the children with banners through the streets of the towns and
cities had a telling influence.
After all, men must admit that the women wield a mighty influence in
the politics of State and nation.
A gifted Georgian has said, when speaking of the great work
of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in so many different
lines, that after all the most potent is “the tender mother in the
quiet seclusion of her home as she gathers her children about her
and kneels in humble prayer to the all-wise Father.”
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was never so strong
numerically and in other ways as at the present time. The indications are that it will go on and on with its God-given work until
the victory is complete; and it is to be completed! The day of
national prohibition “is nearer than when the Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union first believed.”
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