The Broader Battle of the WCTU

Diana by Augustus
Saint-Gaudens. Thirteen
feet of smut!

If the Women’s Christian Temperance Union got everything they wanted, the United States would be a different place today.[1] A much more repressive place. We have the Women’s Christian Temperance Union to thank for Prohibition (thanks a lot, ladies), but it looks like we got off easy. An article in the September 30, 1894, New York Sun makes it clear that their ambitions went far beyond just alcohol. There doesn’t seem to be anything that they wouldn’t complain about.

It’s a long article, but in the end, I decided to include the whole thing, mainly to get the smug statements of Mrs. Martin. Mrs. Martin seems (by her own statements, at least) to have been quite involved in the late nineteenth century reform movements. The WTCU was active in the suffrage moment, and found that the United States Brewers Association was funding the anti-suffrage side.[0] [0]: As noted in the Wikipedia article on the WCTU.

As the article shows, politics (even the politics of temperance) can make strange bedfellows, particularly when there’s mission creep involved.

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Next Thing You Know, They'll Try to Ban Drinking

Don't drink, smoke, or read!

A short item in the May 23, 1907 Princeton Union tells of the latest activities of the Women's Christian Temperance Union:

The W. C. T. U. now proposes to eliminate from the public libraries of the country all novels wherein the heroes or heroines smoke or drink. The old girls will have even a harder proposition than the fellow who runs for president on the democratic ticket.

Twenty-six years before Prohibition, the WCTU was already trying to get all references to smoking and drinking stamped out.

It's not like cigarette makers will
ever claim their product is good
for you

Above, on the same page of short items, we get:

One of those scientist chaps has now discovered that cigarette smoke is a germicide. He should also have added that the person who applies it to his system in sufficient doses eventually becomes a suicide.

It seems that in 1907 someone was trying to be an apologist for tobacco. I don't know if the research was influenced or supported by the tobacco industry though.

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You can follow my blog on Twitter (@impofthediverse) or on Facebook. If you like this post, share it with your friends. If you have a comment just for me, e-mail me at impofthediverse@gmail.com.

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This blog runs solely on ego! Follow this blog! Comment on this post! Let me know that you want to read more of it!