What is the W.C.T.U?

Answer 1

W.C.T.U. stands for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, founded in 1873 in Evanston Illinois. It and the Anti-Saloon League were leaders in the crusade for Prohibition. Members originally advanced their cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and urging saloonkeepers to stop selling alcohol. Later they began using education, mobilization of anti-alcohol forces, and other activities to advance Prohibition.

Although the WCTU is most closely associated with the prohibition of alcohol, it has never been a one-issue organization. Frances Willard had asserted that "Our policy is 'The Do-everything-policy, and do it all the time.'" Accordingly, it has addressed a number of other social reform issues, including "lust-free" marriage, sanitation, abstinence from tobacco, public health, abortion, homosexuality, labor rights, premarital chastity, eugenics, prostitution, gambling, pornography, international peace, dress reform, illicit drugs, suffrage, same-sex marriage, women's rights, the "War on Christmas," the display of Scripture in public places, and maintaining Blue laws prohibiting Golf and other leisure activities on Sundays. Currently emphasized is abstinence from alcohol and drugs, pornography, same-sex marriage, premarital chastity, homosexuality, and keeping Christ in Christmas.

The WCTU currently reports having 5,000 members, a staff of four, and an annual budget of $250,000.