The WCTU used the majorities strong opposition to alcohol and its effects, to popularize and get many involved in the organization and as they grew they used a hands-on and active approach, inspired by the "Do Everything" (Willard) motto, to empower women to fight for what they wanted, whether it be the abolition of liquor to protect their household or to prove to the nation that women should be allowed a legitimate political voice, ideally with suffrage. Additionally, the WCTU stressed the inclusion of all women and the education of young people to ensure that all were involved and the next generation would be educated on the evils of alcohol and the benefits of temperance.
"Evanstonians have been remarkable for cleanliness of life…There has never been a saloon or hotel bar or a public billard hall in Evanston…the enforcement of the law is, on the whole, excellent. Our officers favor enforcement; our citizens insist upon it; the W.C.T.U. keep up the education of public sentiment year in and year out; our white-ribbon kindergarten trains forty or fifty little people from the least protected homes, in the way of total abstinence; the temperance text-book is in our public schools; temperance meetings are held often, and we have some pastors who believe it to be their duty to preach often and boldly on the sin of liquor drinking, liquor making, and liquor selling" (Willard). “...in every town and village we are forming these chains of light and of loving helpfulness, which we call “Women’s Christian Temperance Unions.”…Everyday brings fresh accessions of women, translated out of the passive and into the active voice on this great question of the protection of their homes” (Willard). |
"While they brew beer we are brewing public sentiment; while they distill risky we are distilling facts; while they rectify brandy we are rectifying political constituencies; and ere long their fuming tide of intoxicating liquor shall be met and driven back by the overwhelming flood of enlightened sentiment and divinely aroused energy" (Willard).
"In the fullness of time our own beloved WCTU can bring to this ineffable opportunity the best conditions it has known. Reaching out to every corner of the Republic through a national organization that knows no sect in religion, no sectionalism in politics, no sex in citizenship; appealing to the largest and the most homogenous band of practical philanthropists yet developed among women, the results of our united efforts ought to be greater than any heretofore attained" (Annual Leaflet of the National WCTU - 1906). The WCTU's method of spreading their anti-alcohol sentiments was effective because it focused on teaching children the dangers of alcohol and teaching women how to speak out against its evils in a public setting. They used education to their advantage by slowly gaining the respect of men that viewed them as their subordinate, which went directly towards their goal of respect on a national level. |