Clean and Sober Is a 114-Year-Old Tradition With Temperance Union

Martha Edgar readily admits that things will probably get worse before they get better.

“Alcohol is involved in the death of well over 20,000 on our highways and in over half the 1,000 or more boating accident deaths each year,” she said.

Moreover, Edgar added, “most kids will have seen at least 100,000 beer commercials by the age of 18.”

Still, her abiding faith gives Edgar plenty of room for hope.

“I think the general public is changing its opinion. I think America is scared that we really have a serious problem on our hands.”

Buttressed by her faith, Edgar, a third-generation teetotaler from Evanston, Ill., serves as national president of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union--the WCTU.

“There are times when we do feel frustrated, I guess,” she allowed in an interview Friday. “But if we can save one person from alcohol, that’s a lot.”

The 114-year-old WCTU’s annual national convention arrived in Anaheim this week, in the form of a largely gray-haired group of individuals out to save the world from the evils of drink, drugs, cigarettes and pornography. Of the about 400 people who attended, most were delegates.

Established in the aftermath of the Civil War, the WCTU became the first international women’s organization and was at one time the largest U.S. women’s organization with a peak membership of about 1 million at the turn of the century. The nonprofit group, based in Evanston, now counts about 150,000 members.

The early WCTU was involved in a range of causes: It helped to form groups such as the Parent-Teacher Assn. and Travelers Aid, helped establish some of the first day-care centers and fought for women’s rights and child labor laws, according to WCTU spokesman Mike Vitucci.

“They contributed a lot to the way of life of this nation,” Vitucci said.

Of course, in the early days, tactics were a bit different. The WCTU often drove its point home by taking on the enemy on his own turf. Bands of women would go to local saloons, where they would kneel and pray to persuade tavern owners to curtail their business.

The organization was in the forefront of the fight for Prohibition, which by the WCTU’s account was far more successful than some might believe.

In recent years, however, the WCTU has been overshadowed by more vocal groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

The WCTU’s lower-profile efforts include publishing a myriad of materials promoting abstinence, many of them distributed to children in public and private schools. Brochure subjects range from the dangers of crack cocaine to how to concoct an alcohol-less “cherry charm” drink of lemon, orange and grapefruit juices with a bit of cherry syrup (ginger ale optional).

Many Allies

Today, the WCTU has allies from the White House--First Lady Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign against drugs--to behind the Iron Curtain. In April, Edgar met and compared notes with Dr. Valentina Cotel and Dr. Andrew Dmitriev, top-ranking officials with the Temperance Promotion Society of the Soviet Union.

“We have many unexpected allies in this warfare,” Edgar told conventioneers in Thursday night’s keynote address.

“There has been a dramatic turnaround in the attitude of man, especially the media, toward the WCTU,” she said. “Instead of being an object of ridicule, the WCTU is now a source of help. Instead of ‘little old ladies in tennis shoes,’ they are women who knew what they were talking about all along.”

It doesn’t take much to join the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union: “$3.65 is the basic--a penny a day and a prayer,” Edgar said.

Composition of Membership

The typical dues-paying member is a 58-year-old Protestant woman from a suburban or rural area, according to Vitucci.

“The urban areas aren’t very active in this type of organization,” he said. “In the big city, everything is there: the lounges and the saloons . . . and probably a very highly organized drug supply system. It (WCTU) isn’t very active in a big city due to that.”

Not every member fits the “typical” description. And not all are women. Men and youngsters are welcome as non-voting members.

“And we do have young people in our groups,” said Colleen Wilson of Los Angeles. “Not all of us are senior citizens.”

Branches of the organization embrace youngsters from infants to adolescents and, contrary to popular belief, even young adults.

Indeed, in ceremonies today at the Inn at the Park in Anaheim, the ladies of the WCTU will tie the little white bows on toddlers whose parents have chosen for them “the road to total abstinence.”

And as if to prove that they are party animals in their own right, many conventioneers arrived in town a little early to take in the sights of Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm and the Spruce Goose.

But mostly they came to advance their cause, which dates back to the first temperance crusader, “one of the most widely known women in the country,” according to one piece of WCTU literature: Annie Wittenmeyer of Keokuk, Iowa, who in 1874 became the first WCTU president.

Since then, the cause has had its highs and lows.

Perhaps its greatest achievement was the passage of Prohibition, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, by Congress in 1920.

‘Crime Is Still Here’

“Up to that time, no other amendment ever was adopted so overwhelmingly,” WCTU literature notes. Following its passage, there was a marked decrease in crime, an increase in family savings and general improvements in local economies, the literature says.

Edgar is convinced that Prohibition was never properly enforced and that the crime associated with that era continues despite the legalization of alcohol.

“The crime is still here,” she said. “We have more bootlegging today than in the time of Prohibition because they don’t want to pay taxes” on liquor.

Moreover, WCTU literature asserts, the per capita consumption of alcohol is triple the level of 1933, when Prohibition ended, and the number of alcoholics has increased from 2.4 million in 1940 to 11.2 million today.

Prohibition will rise again, Edgar promises, but not before there is a drunk in every household.

“I think down the road . . . when every family in America has at least one alcoholic in it, America will rise up and do something about it,” Edgar said. “I believe they will ask for something to be curbed.

“I don’t know if it will come before the year 2000 or not.”

That point may not be far off. In a recent Gallup Poll, one in four families reported a problem with liquor at home, twice the proportion that reported that in 1974.

As Ethel Darkes, national director of education for the WCTU, told delegates from 50 states Friday: “The liquor and tobacco industries are not going to capitulate immediately.”

But if history is any measure, it appears the WCTU is in the fight for the duration.

“We have God on our side and they do not,” Edgar said. “It’s amazing what the Lord can do with a small number.”

Through Monday, when the convention wraps up, Edgar can probably find plenty of folks to drink to that. Just make theirs a cherry charm on the rocks.

WCTU HIGHLIGHTS

Founded: Nov. 18-20, 1874, Cleveland, Ohio.

First president: Annie Wittenmyer.

Growth: From 1879 to 1889, under leadership of second president Frances E. Willard, grew to about 150,000 members, about as many as the organization claims today.

Competition: With founding of the Anti-Saloon League in 1895, the WCTU lost its position in the forefront of the fight to eliminate alcohol. Nevertheless, at turn of the century WCTU had upwards of 1 million members.

Prohibition: Perhaps the grandest accomplishment of the WCTU, prohibition was enacted in 1920 when Congress adopted the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. In 1933 Congress struck Prohibition down.