Domesticating Drink: A Look at the History of the WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union)

When viewing the eighteenth amendment many people simply see it as a law, which was put into to place to stop the consumption of alcohol, or at least to stop the sales and manufacture of alcohol. The common view is then to take a look at the 1920's or the "roaring 20's" as they are often called. However the prohibition movement as a whole did not start with the introduction of the eighteenth amendment but rather some forty-five years earlier with the founding of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which can be largely credited with the initial success of prohibition. Largely it can be said that the WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) has become an unsung hero of the prohibition era. A group comprised entirely of women, unlike the National American Woman Suffrage Association, which included men, the WCTU was founded on the principle of dry homes.

Founded in late 1873 the WCTU's first and primary principle was abstaining from alcohol. Members of the WCTU believed alcohol to be the root of most problems in the United States and primarily the major problem inside domestic homes. In fact this train of thought had much truth considering alcoholism was on the rise and public drunkards could be witnessed in essentially every town in America. The WCTU's early activity could be seen in 1874 when "through civil disobedience and occasional violence the WCTU closed saloons in some 30 states" (Murdock 19). Annie Wittenmeyer was the first president of the WCTU and stayed in office until Frances Elizabeth Willard ousted her in 1879. Willard would be the primary public role model for the WCTU and would remain as president until her death in 1898. Home protection was the main banner for social reform that the WCTU fought under. Home protection was basically the prohibition of alcohol sales and the abolishment of alcohol consumption. The theme of "home protection" persuaded many more women to join the organization and allowed Willard to coherence traditionally conservative members into more progressive mindsets. Especially those who had previously been loyal to Wittenmeyer viewed Willard as a radical president due to the major differences between the two. Willard tended to side more traditionally with the women's suffrage movement while a good portion of the WCTU fought solely for home protection. Basically the 18^th amendment was a great step in the WCTU's mind and there was no need to stretch other causes further.

One organization, which was formed in 1928, managed to quickly go toe to toe with the WCTU and win. The Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform was founded in 1928 by Pauline Sabin and was initially set up to change the way the women of America were being represented. In 1928 the WCTU had been winning battles for over fifty years and its leaders were under the assumption that they spoke for almost all, if not all of the women in America. The WONPR was basically set up to show the WCTU that no they did not speak for all the women in America and no prohibition was not saving the nation from the evils of alcohol, but actually inducing an alcoholic sub-culture which seemed to be worse than the drunkards of pre-prohibition America.

The WONPR differed from the WCTU in the aspect that the WONPR fought "...a broad range of arguments unrelated to home protection. Members worried just as much about civil-liberties violations, corruption, crime, and the expense and disrespect that prohibition fostered."(Murdock, 143). Despite their diversity one primary goal remained paramount in the WONPR, the goal of repealing the eighteenth amendment.

The eighteenth amendment, as was argued by the WONPR, did not help domestic homes, as was preached by the WCTU, but rather harmed them as a culture of hip flasks and speakeasy's had taken over across the country. The WONPR held true to their commitment against alcohol, the WONPR maintained that by prohibiting alcohol the government had actually encouraged the use of it as drinking became the new hip social activity where it had previously been reserved to drunkards and occasional social gatherings. One ally to this train of thought was the AAPA or Association Against the Prohibition Amendment. The AAPA, reportedly tied to the alcohol manufacturers by the WCTU, was outspoken in their views that by prohibiting alcohol the government had decreased tax profit and increased public expense as police were forced to work over time by enforcing the new anti-alcohol laws, as well as an increase in crime as alcohol sales continued illegally.

In the end the prohibition conflict climaxed with the presidential election of 1932. The election of Hoover in 1928 was seen as a clear victory for those in favor of prohibition meanwhile a democratic victory in1932, also known as the election of president Roosevelt, was seen as a clear victory for those favoring repeal. A major aspect of the election of 1932 was the fact that a third of the registered voters were just children in 1919 and thus had become adults in the roaring 20's, this allowed them to see only certain sides of prohibition, mainly the sides they as teenagers had not liked. The other trump card in FDR's deck was the backing of both the WONPR and the AAPA. Within six months of FDR's election, congress repealed the eighteenth amendment and a majority of the states had ratified the repeal. This brought a closing to the conflict over prohibition and a devastating blow to the WCTU, which still exists, in a much milder version, today.

Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Domesticating drink: Women, Men, and Alcohol in America, 1870-1940 (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1998), 19-149