Social Structure and Moral Reform: A Study of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union

Author(s): Joseph R. Gusfield

Source: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 61, No. 3 (Nov., 1955), pp. 221-232
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2772134
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 SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND MORAL REFORM: A STUDY OF
THE WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION

JOSEPH R. GUSFIELD

ABSTRACT

Analysis of WCTU journals and reports and interviews with current leaders reveal a pattern at
variance with theories of an adaptive process in social movements. In pre-Prohibition periods humani-
tarian reform was the central theme in WCTU doctrine. Temperance was viewed as the solution to
problems of underprivileged groups. Since Repeal, the WCTU has ceased to represent dominant social
classes, and its doctrine has become the expression of moral indignation toward upper-middle-class
life. Analysis of local leadership from 1885 to 1950 indicates a shift toward lower areas of the socio-
economic scale.

Social changes affect the fortunes of or-
ganizations and movements no less than
they do the fate of individuals. Movements
which try to alter the manners, tastes, and
daily habits of large numbers of people are
peculiarly vulnerable to shifts in the cul-
ture of the population. Few social move-
ments in American history have achieved
as many successes and witnessed as many
disappointments as the temperance move-
ment. In the one hundred and fifty years
during which the organized movement has
been a significant part of American life, it
has gone through a process of "boom and
bust," from activity and success to quies-
cence and failure. The last seventy-five
years have been particularly beset with
steep rise and equally steep fall. The high
point of the movement was reached in the
passage of the Eighteenth Amendment and
the nadir in Repeal and the period follow-
ing.
This paper examines the Woman's Chris-
tian Temperance Union, one important seg-
ment of the temperance movement, during
the last eighty years. We have tried to dis- Pope, Millhands and Preachers (New Haven:
cover the way in which the movement has
changed and some of the reasons which
help explain that change.
THE PROBLEM
Previous studies of social movements
have dealt largely with organizations that
have increased in numbers and influence.
Such studies have indicated a gradual
modification in the structure and ideology
of the movement. As the movement grows,
it tends to adapt itself to its society and to
substitute the values of organizational
power and prestige for its original goals.
This process has been described in the now
familiar theory of the "institutionalization
of social movements."''
Recently, Messinger has shown how the
adaptive process has affected a declining
1 The basic statements of this approach can be
found in Ernst Troeltsch, The Social Teachings of
the Christian Churches, trans. Olive Wyon (Lon-
don: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1911), I, 331-
43; Max Weber, The Theory of Social and Eco-
nomic Organization, trans. A. M. Henderson and
Talcott Parsons (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1947), pp. 363-86; Robert Park and Ernest
W. Burgess, Introduction to the Science of Soci-
ology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1921), pp. 865-74; Herbert Blumer, "Collective
Behavior," in Principles of Sociology, ed. Robert
Park (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1939), pp.
167-222. The general approach has been utilized
in many studies. Examples of these are H. Richard
Niebuhr, Social Sources of Denominationalism
(New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1929); Liston
Yale University Press, 1943); S. D. Clark, Church
and Sect in Canada (Toronto: University of To-
ronto Press, 1949); Roberto Michels, Political
Parties, trans. Eden and Cedar Pal (new ed.;
Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1949); Seymour Lipset,
Agrarian Socialism (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1950); A. J.
Muste, "Factional Fights in Trade Unions," in
American Labor Dynamics, ed. J. B. S. Hardman
(New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1928).

221

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 222 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

social movement, the Townsend Move- tion, and fewer Americans are abstainers
ment.2 Here the adaptation to loss of in- today.4
fluence and adherents was in terms of the The change in American drinking habits
loss of the movement's actual mission and and the increased permissiveness of drink-
the emphasis on the preservation of the ing norms have presented the WCTU with
organization as such. New activities of the an environment more hostile to the doctrine
Townsend clubs are understandable only of total abstinence than was true in the
as devices to perpetuate the organization's years of the organization's formation and
membership, income, and power. development. The reaction of the WCTU
The WCTU cannot be called a "success- to this changed situation forms the subject
ful" movement. Its fundamental goal, the of this paper. We want to know whether
changing of American drinking habits, is the change in environment has led to
less realizable today than in earlier periods. changes in the goals and doctrine of the
Neither is it analogous to the movement in movement. We further seek to explain
decline. Membership figures indicate that changes, or lack of change, in the organi-
the size of the organization, while less thanzation.
Several possible modes of reaction sug-
TABLE 1* gest themselves to us. Faced with a now
WCTU MEMBERSHIP BY DECADES more hostile environment, the WCTU
Member-
might change to achieve greater acceptance
Year ship within the new norms. This would entail
1881 . ........... 22,800 giving up much of the earlier mission for
1891 .................. 138,377
1901 .................. 158,477
the sake of organizational values, which is
91 ... 245,299 the adaptation suggested by the Townsend
1921 .................. 344,892 Movement cited above. Second, it is con-
1931 .................. 372,355
1941 .......... 216,843 ceivable that we may find little change in
1951 .................. 257,548 the face of changed conditions. Third, it is
also conceivable
* Source: Treasurer's reports in Annual Re- that we may find changes
port of the National Woman's Christian Tem-
perance Union, 1881-1951. which increase the gap between the public
and the organization.
before Repeal, is still above two hundred
thousand and actually growing now in THE PRE-PROHIBITION PERIOD: TEMPER-
membership (Table 1). ANCE AS SOCIAL WELFARE
While the WCTU is far from decli'ne or
death, temperance norms have lost a great Moral reform and social welfare.-The
deal of their power in American culture. American temperance movement during
the nineteenth century was a part of a gen-
Their political power, as pressure groups,
is far less than before and during Prohibi- eral effort toward the improvement of the
tion.3 The percentage of "dry" communi- 4 E. M. Jellinek, "Recent Trends in Alcoholism
ties in the United States is far less than in and in Alcohol Consumption," Quarterly Journal
the period before the passage of Prohibi- of Studies on Alcohol, VIII (1947), 1-43; "How
Hard Do Americans Drink?" Fortune, XLVII
(1953), 121-25, 146-48, 153-54. The trend toward
2 Sheldon Messinger, "Organizational Transfor-
greater permissiveness in American drinking
mation: A Case Study of a Declining Social
norms is, as we shall show, clearly recognized by
Movement," American Sociological Review, XX
the WCTU as well as by other temperance lead-
(February, 1955), 3-10.
ers. In this regard see Harry S. Warner, The Liq-
3 Odegard has analyzed the extensive power of uor Cult and Its Culture (Columbus, Ohio: In-
the Anti-Saloon League during the Prohibition tercollegiate Association, 1946), and Albion Roy
and pre-Prohibition periods (Peter Odegard, Pres- King, "Drinking in Colleges," Christian Century,
sure Politics [New York: Columbia University July 18, 1951, pp. 842-43, and July 25, 1951, pp.
Press, 1928]). 864-68.

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 SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND MORAL REFORM 223

worth of the human being through im- drawn to it people of little or no experience
proved morality as well as economic condi- with drinking.
tions. The mixture of the religious, the The goals and doctrine of the WCTU
equalitarian, and the humanitarian was an were part of this humanitarian moral re-
outstanding facet of the moral reformism form movement in the period before Pro-
of many movements.5 Temperance sup- hibition. This is most evident in the late
porters formed a large segment of move- nineteenth century but remained a strong
ments such as sabbatarianism, abolition, aspect of WCTU activities well into the
woman's rights, agrarianism, and humani- Prohibition period.
tarian attempts to improve the lot of the In its auxiliary interests the WCTU re-
poor. vealed a great concern for the improvement
In these efforts there is evident a satis- of the welfare of the lower classes. It was
faction with the basic outlines of the eco- active in campaigns to secure penal reform,
nomic and social system. What is attempted to shorten working hours and raise wages
is the extension of the system to include for workers, and to abolish child labor and
the underprivileged. The reforms proposed in a number of other humanitarian and
attempt to alleviate suffering through hu- equalitarian activities. In the 1880's the
manitarian actions by those in advanta- WCTU worked to bring about legislation
geous positions or to reform the habits of for the protection of working girls against
the suffering as a way to the improvement the exploitation by men. During the late
of both their character and their material nineteenth century several committees
situation. There was clearly a relationship were active among lower-class groups,
between the two.6 Moral reformism of this among them the Department of Work with
type suggests the approach of a dominant Miners, the Department of Work with
class toward those less favorably situated Lumberers, and the Department of Work
in the economic and social structure. among Railroadmen,9 which directed their
Barnes has pointed out that many of the efforts toward converting the worker to
social movements of the nineteenth cen- Christianity, bringing him material com-
tury were composed of people bent on re- forts, and spreading the gospel of temper-
forming others rather than themselves.7 ance.
Abolitionists were rarely former slaveown- The activities of the WCTU in the pre-
ers. Except for one short episode in the Prohibition era appear to be the actions of
1840's,8 the temperance movement has a socially dominant group, essentially satis-
5 Cf. Arthur Schlesinger, The American as Re-
fied with the major outlines of the social
former (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, structure. The social welfare efforts can be
1950), pp. 3-15; Gilbert Hobbs Barnes, The Anti-
8 The Washingtonian movement was the re-
Slavery Impulse (New York: D. Appleton-Cen- sponse of former drunkards, who made an organ-
tury Co., 1933) ; Arthur Bestor, Jr., "The Fer- ized attempt to reform drunkards. The rest of the
ment of Reform," in Problems in American His-
temperance movement would not unite with them
tory, ed. Richard Leopold and Arthur Link (New (cf. John Krout, The Origins of Prohibition [New
York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1952).
York: Columbia University Press, 1928], pp. 182-
6 Everett C. Hughes has pointed out the moral-222).
istic elements in the attitude of George Pullman
9 Historical material of this paper is largely
in the construction of Pullman, Illinois, in the
based on reading of the annual reports of the
late nineteenth century. The material conditions
National Woman's Christian Temperance Union
of the town would, Pullman felt, develop the
and samples of the WCTU journal, the Union
moral qualities which made better human beings
Signal. The data cover the years 1874-1953.
as well as better workers. Such workers would
For a complete statement of the material pre-
have the traits of sobriety, industry, thrift, and
sented here cf. Joseph Gusfield, "'Organlizational
loyalty (cf. Everett C. Hughes, "A Calvinistic
Change: A Study of the Woman's Christian Tem-
Utopia" [unpublished manuscript]).
perance Union" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,
7 Op. cit. University of Chicago).

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 224 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
viewed as attempts to raise the lower
classes to a level of behavior held out to
them by the dominant middle-class citizen.
This view is supported by the paternalistic
character of much of WCTU social welfare
activity during this period. For example, in
1882 the WCTU established a Kitchen
Gardens Department to train "uneducated
and untrained girls" in the arts of cooking
and household management. The aim of
this activity was explicitly stated as the
preparation of housemaids, and it was
hoped that occupational training would
protect the girl from the temptations of
city life.10 The same training and the same
rationale are found in the WCTU indus-
trial schools established to aid "fallen
women."'1J
The WCTU played an important role in
the leadership of the woman's movement in
the late nineteenth century, but this was
not the only concern of the organization
with questions of social justice. The labor
movement had strong support from the
WCTU. The Knights of Labor aided the
temperance activities of the WCTU. The
WCTU supported the struggle for the
eight-hour day and the six-day weekl2 working
many of the strikes of the 1890's, though
it balked at the use of violence. Its support
of the labor cause is illustrated in the re-
port of the Committee on the Relations
between Temperance and Labor for 1894.
Employers were urged to refrain from
10 Annual Report of the WCTU (1884), pp.
47-51.
11 Annual Report of the WCTU (1889), p. 62. allotted one of the largest segments of its
12 Not only were the speeches of Frances Willard, budget for its center at Ellis Island devoted
president of the WCTU from 1879 to 1898, very
favorable to labor but the committee reports re-
veal similar prolabor sentiments (cf. Annual Re-
port of the WCTU [1889], p. 144; Annual Report
of the WCTU [1894], p. 147). The general at-
titude of the WCTU toward the six-day week was
a mixture of religious sabbatarianism and social
justice (cf. Union Signal, January 1, 1885).
fuller treatment of the relations between the
WCTU and the labor movement see Mary Ear-
hart, Frances Willard: From Prayers to Politics
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944), pp.
245-59.
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"kindling the spirit of animosity among
those already struggling under the iron
heel of oppression" and thus provoking vio-
lence.13
These are illustrations of the interest of
the WCTU during the nineteenth century
in economic and social reform. It is difficult
to find activities in which moral reform is
clearly distinct from economic or social
reform. Prison reform, for example, was
stressed as a way to rehabilitate character,
to convert men to Christianity, and to pre-
vent the suffering of prisoners.
After 1900 this humanitarian interest
appears less frequently, although it is still
an important aspect of WCTU activities.
Two things become evident. First, the hu-
manitarianism and the equalitarian con-
cern for the poor have greatly decreased.
The Committee on the Relation of Tem-
perance and Labor, for example, has shifted
its major concern from labor issues to the
propagation of the temperance cause among
workers. The reports of this committee
after 1900 show an interest in the morals
and character of the worker. Thus in 1909
the report of this committee stated: "Urge
and men and women who work for
wages to cultivate a sense of responsibility
in the thoroughness of their work and to
consider their employer's welfare as well as
their own."
The second point is that humanitarian
concerns are not ignored, although de-
creased in emphasis, prison reform and
child welfare receiving considerable atten-
tion. Between 1900 and 1920 the WCTU
to aiding incoming immigrants. In 1919 a
huge Americanization project was begun,
reminiscent of the paternalistic pattern de-
scribed above. It set aside $40,000 for the
purpose, the second largest single appro-
priation in its history.
For a
After 1900, however, the moral reform-
ism of the WCTU is more frequently sepa-
rated from a concern with the underprivi-
13 Annual Report of the WCTU (1894), p. 447.
 SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND MORAL REFORM 225

leged. With the development of the Anti- tion through his or her experiences with
Saloon League after 1900, temperance aims the WCTU.15 This type of story again pre-
become important in the campaign for sents the idea that acceptance of temper-
legal sanctions against the sale of alcoholic ance is a mode of assimilation into middle-
beverages. Yet the emphasis on the lower class life.
classes as the object of WCTU reform is That temperance is a key to class posi-
still present. tion is seen in the fates of the middle-class
Temperance as reform of the underprivi- man who violates the temperance norms
leged.-An effort to improve the lot of the and the lower-class immigrant who accepts
poor and the underprivileged was not only such norms. Lapses are punished by the
displayed in the WCTU's auxiliary con- loss of economic and social position. The
cerns. The very doctrine of temperance WCTU was active, both before and after
can be seen as directed toward changing the turn of the century, in spreading the
the habits of the lower classes. The mate- idea that "lips that have touched liquor
rials usually depict the drunkard as a work- shall never touch mine." Through its young
er. Temperance is frequently presented as girls' groups it tried to make sobriety in
the solution to economic problems, the the male a prerequisite for marriage. The
route to success, whereas drinking is seen following story from a WCTU journal illus-
as the path to economic and social ruin. trates the awful consequences of drink for
The WCTU did make some efforts to pro- the middle-class male:
mote temperance sentiment among socially Ned has applied for a job, but he is not
elite groups through a Department of chosen. He finds that the potential employer
Drawing Room Conversion. These proved has judged him to be like his Uncle Jack. Jack
unsuccessful and were abandoned. is a kindly man but he spends his money on
A popular slogan of the temperance drink and cigarettes. Ned has also been seen
movement, in the nineteenth century, was drinking and smoking. The employer thinks
that "drink is the curse of the working that Ned lacks the necessary traits of indus-
classes." Total abstinence was viewed as triousness which he associates with abstinence
and self-control.16
the solution to the problem of poverty. A
story entitled "The Strike at Dennis Mori- The implications of the above story seem
arity's" illustrates how the WCTU saw clear. The man who wants to succeed must
temperance as the answer to the worker's have the requisite character. He must ap-
problems.'4 Dennis, son of a workman on pear to possess the characteristics of so-
strike, refuses to fetch beer for the strikers, briety which indicate the other virtues of
insisting that they could pay their bills, thrift, industry, and self-control. Temper-
even while on strike, if they didn't drink. ance is thus a way not only to conform to
The strikers are impressed by his reason- morality but to achieve social and eco-
ing. One says, "It's the saloon that hurts nomic welfare. The WCTU was acting as a
and keeps us poor. I've been wondering all
15 During the agitation of the Woman's Cru-
this while why Debs and the rest of the sades of 1873, out of which the WCTU emerged,
leaders didn't see it."2 the struggle against "demon rum" was often car-
In the above story the immigrant as well ried out as one between the churchwomen and
as the laborer is the central character. Irish German and Irish saloonkeepers. The accounts of
the crusades contain many examples of the im-
and German immigrants were often de- migrant as the opponent of sobriety (cf. Annie
picted in the fiction of the WCTU as Wittenmyer, History of the Woman's Temperance
drunkards or shown in the process of refor- Crusade [Philadelphia: Mrs. Annie Wittenmyer,
mation. Often it was the son or daughter 1878]; Eliza Stewart, Members of the Crusade

of the immigrant who effected the reforma- [Columbus, Ohio: William G. Hubbard Co.,
1888]).

14 Union Signal, October 11, 1894, pp. 2-3. 16 Union Signal, January 1, 1883, p. 6.

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226 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
vehicle of progress and improvement of the
poor and underprivileged.
Analysis of committee reports.-We
have classified the various committee re-
ports found in the Annual Reports of the
WCTU. The treatment of issues in these
reports demonstrates the existence of the
humanitarian reformist orientation in ear-
lier periods. As Prohibition struggles be-
came fiercer, the WCTU decreased its hu-
manitarian interest. Moral conformity ap-
peared apart from a concern with the wel-
fare of the downtrodden. For example, the
Department of Rescue Work had been in-
terested in the improvement of the work-
TABLE 2*
CLASSIFICATION OF WCTU COMMITTEE
REPORTS BY PERIOD AND BY INTERESTS
INTERESTS (PER CENT OF TOTAL REPORTS)
Moral Tem-
Humani- Reform perance
tarian (Unal- (Unal-
Reform loyed) loyed) Other
PERIOD (%N) (%/O) (0) (%) N t
1879-
1903.. 78.6 23.5 26.5 15.3 98
1904-28. 45.7 30.7 33.1 18.0 127
1929-49. 25.8 37.0 48.2 1.2 81
* Source: Sample of every fifth
t Percentages total more than 100 per cent due to several in-
terests in some committee reports.
ing girls' morality, wages, and living condi-
tions as one consistent goal. By 1916 this
department was chiefly concerned with ef-
forts to limit fashion changes in the name
of morality. The social welfare interest had
disappeared. The interest in temperance
more frequently appears unrelated to other
welfare considerations. It is not until after
Repeal, however, that the reports indicate
unalloyed moral reform and temperance
interests more frequently than humanitar-
ian reform unalloyed or mixed with other
interests (Table 2).
Humanitarian reform and social domi-
nance.-The great concern of the WCTU
with the lower classes was a dominant
feature of its aims during the period from
its formation in 1874 to the passage of Pro-
hibition. It is not drinking per se that is
emphasized but the drinking problems of
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the poor and the working classes. Even
where drinking in upper classes is berated,
a prime concern is the impact of upper-
class drinking patterns on the lower classes.
In its temperance doctrine as well as in
its alliances with social movements of a re-
formist nature, the WCTU attempted to
cope with the problems posed for urban
America by the advent of urbanism, immi-
gration, and industry in the late nineteenth
century. The large industrial working class
with its alien culture clashed with the rural
image of virtue. A social group whose own
position was relatively secure could best
react to this threat by ameliorative reforms.
The doctrine of temperance appears to
function in this fashion in the pre-Prohibi-
tion period. Implicit in the logic of the
activities and the doctrine of the WCTU
was a basic satisfaction with the social
order.17 The problems of the underprivi-
leged can be solved in two ways. In one,
greater kindness and humanitarianism can
be extended to those who have not been
fortunate. This is the motif in activities
such as prison reform, work with "fallen
women," better labor conditions, and other
Annual Report of the WCTU.
reform measures described. The demand
for greater equality for women is an attack
on the system of male superiority, but this
is not generalized into an attack on other
parts of the social and economic system.
Second, the doctrine of temperance itself
suggests a solution consonant with the
dominance of the group and the concern
with injustice and suffering. If the lower
classes and the immigrants will acquire the
habits and social codes of the native middle
classes, their problems will be solved. In
short, assimilation into middle-class, Prot-
estant culture is the reformist solution the
WCTU offered in the pre-Prohibitionist
period.
17 There were some efforts toward a more rev-
olutionary position in the late nineteenth century.
Frances Willard, the leader of the WCTU from
1879 to 1898, was an outspoken Socialist and tried
to make the WCTU follow her position. Despite
her great power and influence in the movement,
she did not succeed.
 SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND MORAL REFORM 227
It is noteworthy that, prior to the 1920's,
we find no condemnation of the American
middle classes in WCTU literature. The
good, churchgoing people of American
Protestantism are seldom depicted as
drinking. It is to this class that the WCTU
looks for support of its aims. In defending
the canons of sobriety, the WCTU could
act as a representative of this class. An
article in the Union Signal in 1889 put this
as follows: "The class least touched by the
evil thus far is that which here, as else-
where in the land, forms its bone and
sinew-the self-respecting and self-support-
ing class whose chief pleasures in life
center in and about the home."'8
THE " MORALIZER-IN-RETREAT"
The political strength of the temperance
movement in America has been greatest in
those states with large proportions of
Protestant and rural populations.19 With
the decline in supremacy of the rural cul-
ture, both in city and in country, the
norms of temperance have become less re-
spectable. The advocates of temperance
now face a more hostile environment in
which they cannot enunciate a moral code
and assume large segments of population
in agreement with them. In the phrase of
David Riesman, they are "moralizers-in-
retreat."20
With the repeal of the Eighteenth
Amendment, the WCTU found itself in a
radically new situation. It could no longer
assume that the norms of abstinence were
really supported by the dominant middle-
class elements in American life. The total
abstainer became a figure of disapproval
18 May 16, 1889, p. 3.
19 Odegard, op. cit., pp. 24-35; cf. Harold Gos-
nell, Grass Roots Politics (Washington, D.C.:
American Council on Public Affairs, 1942), pp.
101-2; Andr6 Siegfried, America Comes of Age
(New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1927), pp.
70-90.
20 David Riesman, The Lontely Crowd (New local and national WCTU leaders. The local lead-
Haven: Yale University Press, 1950), p. 195; cf.
Alfred M. Lee, "Techniques of Social Reform:
An Analysis of the New Prohibition Drive,"
American Sociological Review, IX (1944), 65-77.
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and ridicule rather than a figure of power
and respect.
WCTU leaders interviewed generally felt
that the total abstainer no longer had a
position of respect in the community.2'
They saw this as a change which has
affected the churchgoing middle classes as
well as the secularized groups. The same
theme is evident in the journals and in the
speeches and reports from convention pro-
ceedings. The following interview excerpts
are fairly typical:
There has,been a breakdown in the middle
classes. The upper classes have always used
liquor. The lower classes have always used
liquor. Now the middle class has taken it over.
The thing is slopping over from both sides.
You know that today church people drink.
That's the reason for the poor showing of the
WCTU. It's been that way since Prohibition.
There are many that believe but won't sign the
pledge. They are afraid that they might want
to take a drink.
The WCTU was seen, by the leaders in-
terviewed, as lower in prestige today than
in an earlier period when temperance
norms held a stronger position in the Amer-
ican society. Leaders contrasted the pres-
tigeful social composition of earlier periods
with the present composition. Examples
such as the following appear frequently in
the interviews:
When this union was first organized, we had
many of the most influential ladies of the city.
But now they have got the idea that we ladies
who are against taking a cocktail are a little
queer. We have an undertaker's wife and a
minister's wife, but the lawyer's and the doc-
tor's wives shun us. They don't want to be
thought queer.
I remember when the X's lived in the house
that is now the Hotel W. They were the finest
people in the town, and they were temperance
people.
21 Interviews were conducted with forty-six
ers were active in upstate New York and in Chi-
cago; the national leaders, members of the staff
of the WCTU National Headquarters in Evans-
ton, Illinois.
 228 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

When I joined, women of prominence and tion in middle-class circles. If the organi-
social prestige were in it. They were the back-zation should attempt to maintain its old
bone of the churches and the schools. doctrines, it could no longer be representa-
The WCTU is recognized by its member- tive of prestigeful segments of American
ship as having retreated from a past posi- life. With the social base of dominance un-
tion of greater influence, power, and pres- determined, can the WCTU continue a re-
tige. To be a member of the WCTU is formist attitude toward lower classes, or
therefore harmful to social acceptability in must it become a sectarian critic of the
many groups. It opens her to ridicule from class it once represented?
people whose opinion is important to her.
MORAL INDIGNATION: CENSURE OF THE
This is frankly realized by the WCTU.
NEW MIDDLE CLASS
The literature of the organization does not
hide the fact. For example, a membership The characteristic doctrine of the WCTU
drive pamphlet contained the following de- is no longer humanitarian reform of the
scription of one type of WCTU member, underprivileged. Instead it is an indigna-
Mrs. I-Would-if-I-Could: "She wouldn't tion directed against the middle-class moder-
think of asking for money or inviting any- ate drinker. Total abstinence is presented
one to join. She knows the organization is as behavior morally demanded, apart from
not especially popular in some groups. ... social welfare considerations. The new
There are times when she prefers not to standards of the middle class are seen as
mention her membership." defections from the traditional morality of
Local leaders also described the low abstinence.
esteem of the WCTU in their communities: "Moral indignation" as used here is not
People don't like us. Some of the churches equivalent to the use of the term by Ra-
don't respect us. nulf.22 We are not concerned with the "dis-
interested tendency to inflict punishment"
Well, as you have probably learned, this isn't
but rather with the quality of anger gen-
the organization it used to be. It isn't popular,
erated by the failure of others to recog-
you know. The public thinks of us-let's face
it-as a bunch of old women, as frowzy fanat- nize standards of morality which the actor
ics. I've been viewed as queer, as an old fogy, recognizes. The definition of "indignation"
for belonging to the WCTU. . . . This attitude given by Webster's New Collegiate Dic-
was not true thirty years ago. tionary accurately conveys our meaning.
It is "righteous wrath" and "anger excited
The WCTU is acutely aware of what it
by that which is unworthy, base, or dis-
has been and of what it has become. The
graceful." In understanding this emotion
present position of unpopularity might lead
in the WCTU, we must keep in mind the
to several different types of reaction. One
fact that abstinence was once a respectable
possible position would be a reversal of
middle-class doctrine. The middle-class
past doctrine and the embracing of a doc-
drinking habits are not only in conflict
trine of moderate drinking. This would be
with WCTU norms; they are defections
the acceptance of the new standard of the
from past standards.
middle classes. Another possibility might
A fiction story in the Union Signal illus-
be a de-emphasis of temperance aims and
trates this sense of moral indignation to-
a substitution of other aims, such as those
ward the new doctrine of temperance.23
of a social welfare nature or an attack on
The story is entitled "Today's Daughter."
"popular" enemies, such as drug addiction
or juvenile delinquency. 22 Svend Ranulf, Moral Indignation and Mid-
The alternatives considered above all dle Class Psychology (Copenhagen: Levin &
imply the importance of maintaining the Munksgaard, 1938), p. 13.
popularity and acceptance of the organiza- 23 Union Signal, December 25, 1937, pp. 5-6.

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 SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND MORAL REFORM 229

Ruth, sixteen, is taken to a party at the
home of a new boy who has just moved
into the neighborhood. The boy has told
Ruth's family that he is glad the new
house has a game room in the basement.
Aunt Liz is suspicious. She knows that
many of the houses in the neighborhood
now have bars in the basement game rooms.
Ruth's mother tries to still these suspicions:
"We're not living in the Victorian period.
... I'm sure the Barrets are alright [sic].
They joined the church last Sunday." Aunt
Liz's reply greatly unnerves Ruth's mother:
"As if that meant respectability these days!
Many's the church member who drinks and thing-even in our church life and our col-
smokes and thinks nothing of it."
This episode contains the significant
parts of the current position of the WCTU.
Here are people of moderate incomes, in
the same neighborhood and members of
portunities for social prestige would be lost
forever and Jane's visits to her grandmother
curtailed.
The figures of the underprivileged poor
and the laborer no longer appear as the
center of WCTU interest. In their place
is the middle-class, churchgoing moderate
drinker. Toward him the WCTU displays
resentment rather than reformist concern.
Typical remarks of interviewees stress the
moderate drinker:
We fear moderation more than anything.
Drinking has become so much a part of every-
leges.
Since Repeal, people are drinking who
wouldn't have before. They are held in great
regard. The social drinker has a greater effect
on children than the drunkards.

the same church as the WCTU adherent,

In past decades moderate drinking might
yet the indexes of social class, religion, and
have subjected the drinker to fear of loss
ethnicity are no longer good assurances of
of reputation or damaged career.25 Some
abstinence.
writers have lately maintained that career
Conflict between the doctrine of the total
routes more and more demand the skills of
abstainer and a new "middle-class psychol-
fellowship, personal attachments, and the
ogy" is evident. The following story is an
ability to be the "good fellow."26 This
apt illustration in which the new middle
means that the culture may place great
class is criticized for defection from the
value on tolerance of others, in drinking
Protestant norms which supported and sus-
as well as in other behavior. This makes
tained the temperance doctrine. The story
the moral reformer even more reprehen-
is entitled "When Yesterday Returned."24
sible in the life of the new middle-class
Jane, the heroine, reveres her "old-fash- culture.
ioned, Christian grandmother" who taught
In reaction to this, the WCTU has
her the temperance pledge. Jane's mother
poured out wrath against the defector
ridicules temperance as prudishness and
from standards of abstinence who talks of
says that it hinders her social position. The
taking an "objective" stand toward the
struggle between the two groups, the newer
and more prestigeful moderate drinkers and 25 In some American industries this still re-
the old-fashioned abstainers, is epitomized mains true, as in the International Business Ma-
after Jane scolds a visitor who asked for
chines Corporation, under the leadership of
whiskey before dinner. Thomas Watson (cf. Time, March 28, 1955, p.
83). Watson may be taken as one of the last of
When the guest had gone her mother in- the temperance reformers in positions of domi-
formed her in no uncertain tones that "suchnance. His attitude of strong disapproval toward
plebian mannerisms" were rude. And further- employee drinking on or off the job is viewed as
more if there were to be any more such old- unusual enough to warrant comment both in
Time and in the IBM communities.
fashioned, prudish notions exploited before
such persons as Mr. Forsythe, the family's op- 26 Cf. Riesman, op. cit., pp. 130-44; C. Wright
Mills, White Collar (New York: Oxford Univer-
24Ibid, June 3, 1939-July 29, 1939. sity Press, 1951), pp. 91-100, 182-88.

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 230 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

problem. Onae interviewee complained of Initerviewees stressed the change in the

the Yale School of Alcohol Studies:
You as a teacher must take a stand against
smoking and drinking. Do you know of the
Yale center? Well, I went down there one
night. When they were through, you didn't
know whether they were for it or against it.
They didn't want to commit themselves. What
can they expect students to do?
This attitude has made it difficult for
the WCTU to co-operate with organizations
which viewed drinking from a social welfare
interest in curing or preventing alcoholism.
Insistence on the vital importance of legal
restriction of the sale of drink has con-
tinued. The president of the WCTU took
an "unbending" position when she said:
"Between right and wrong only one ground
is possible and that is a battle ground."27
The fact that "good people" are drink-
ing is a chronic complaint among inter-
viewees and in the pages of WCTU litera-
ture. One membership pamphlet voices this
lament as follows:
The greatest difficulty to be found today
among youth, in anti-alcohol education, is the
fact that "good people" are using liquor. Beau-
tifully gowned women sipping their cocktails
in lavish cocktail lounges give the impression
that it is an extremely cultured thing to do.
... Even within some of the best homes, the
bar is set up.28
The social position of the moderate
drinker in the concern of the WCTU is
not that of the poverty-stricken, the so-
cially elite, or the non-churchgoer. It is
rather the class from which the WCTU
formerly drew its power and which formed
the base for a doctrine of social reformism.
27 Annual Report of the WCTU (1952), p. 87.
Recently, with the retirement of the past presi-
dent, there has been a "softer" attitude toward
the Prohibition question and toward co-operation
with non-Prohibitionist antialcohol groups. The
general condemnation of the middle-class drinker
still remains the focus of WCTU doctrine, how-
29 In the case of widows we used the last occu-
ever.
pation of the husband. In classifying occupations,
28Roy L. Smith, Young Mothers Must Enlist
we utilized United States Employment Service,
(Evanston, Ill.: National WCTU Publishing Dictionary of Occupational Titles (Washington,
House, 1953).
churchgoer as the cause for the new respect-
ability of drinking:
The churches aren't helping, some of them.
We went to the home of a professor for a
church meeting, and she [his wife] served
sherry. The football coach's wife makes no
bones about it. She serves liquor.
It creeps into the official church boards.
They keep it in their iceboxes.... The minis-
ter here thinks that the church has gone too
far, that they are doing too much to help the
temperance cause. He's afraid that he'll stub
some influential toes.
The churches aren't doing enough.... Many
nominally take a stand, but many don't follow
it locally. There was one churchman in L. who
had beer at his daughter's wedding. Another
churchman in H. had wine at a wedding that
really flowed. And this was the Church of the
Brethren!
The WCTU has not attempted to re-
formulate its previous temperance doctrine
in the direction of popular acceptance,
despite the changed milieu in which it
must operate. Rather it has swung in the
direction of a greater sectarianism which
carries it strongly into conflict with pre-
vious sources of adherence. How can we
explain this? Why has it not accommodated
to the new situation? Some light may be
shed on this question by the analysis of
the social composition of the movement be-
tween the years 1885 and 1949.
Increasing class distance.-We have
studied the social composition of local
leaders in the WCTU through the use of
directories of officers published in annual
state WCTU reports. These list the local
officers and their addresses for each city,
town, and village in which there is a unit.
With these lists, we then utilized city busi-
ness directories, which gave us the occu-
pation of the husband of the officer.29 We
were limited in choice of cities by avail-
D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1944).

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 SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND MORAL REFORM 231

ability of state reports for each of the four
years chosen-1885, 1910, 1925, 1950-and
by the availability of city directories for
each of the cities and years. However, we
were able to compile comparative data for
thirty-eight cities in five states (Table 3).
The results of this study indicate that
the socioeconomic status of the local leader-
This suggests an answer to the question
posed above. The present social composi-
tion of the movement cannot duplicate the
pretense to social dominance from which
a reformist position is possible. Further,
the very class structure of the movement
accentuates the split between the upper
and the lower middle classes which appears

TABLE 3

WCTU LOCAL LEADERS CLASSIFIED BY HUSBAND'S

OCCUPATION FOR STATE AND YEAR
HuSBAs'S OCCUPATION
Prof es-
sional and Proprietors, Unskilled
STATE Semi- Managers, and
AND profes- and Clerical Skilled Semi- Total
YEAR sional Officials and Sales Labor skilled Farm (%) N
Connecticut:
1885 ....... 25.7 20.0 22.9 22.9 5.8 2.9 100 68
1910 ....... 21.0 31.6 13.2 21.0 10.6 2.6 100 34
1925 ....... 3.8 15.4 21.2 36.6 21.1 1.9 100 51
1950 ....... 12.4 18.6 25.0 29.2 14.8 0.0 100 52
Michigan:
1885 ....... 17.8 33.3 6.7 28.9 8.9 4.4 100 42
1910....... 15.3 19.4 19.4 26.4 15.3 4.1 100 72
1925 . 13.0 14.6 18.8 24.6 27.6 1.4 100 66
1950....... 13.2 7.1 16.6 26.2 36.9 0.0 100 77
Illinois:
1885 ....... 20.0 35.6 11.2 24.4 8.8 0.0 100 50
1910 ....... 14.5 22.0 20.4 25.4 15.2 2.5 100 136
1925 ..... . 11.8 19.3 23.5 19.3 24.4 1.7 100 124
1950.... 12.4 14.2 16.8 25.6 31.0 0.0 100 127
Minnesota:
1885 ....... 25.6 33.3 15.4 17.9 5.2 2.6 100 38
1910....... 14.0 19.3 27.3 28.9 9.6 0.9 100 116
1925 ...... 12.7 22.8 20.1 28.9 15.5 0.0 100 151
1950 . 10.3 17.6 23.6 31.5 17.0 0.0 100 164
Maryland:
1885 ....... 22.2 44.4 27.8 5.6 0.0 0.0 100 15
1910 ....... 13.6 36.4 40.9 9.1 0.0 0.0 100 22
1925 ....... 16.7 35.2 20.4 18.4 9.3 0.0 100 57
1950....... 21.4 33.3 21.4 16.8 7.1 0.0 100 41
Total:
1885....... 22.6 30.4 26.1 22.1 6.5 2.3 100 193
1910.... .. 15.1 22.0 21.8 26.6 12.3 2.2 100 348
1925 ..... . 12.0 21.2 21.0 25.3 19.6 0.9 100 392
1950 ....... 12.4 16.3 20.3 28.2 22.8 0.9 100 408

ship has diminished during the period in the interviews and documentary mate-
1885-1950. There has been a relatively rials. A uniform middle-class culture is less
steady decrease in the percentage of pro- of a reality than it was in earlier periods.
fessional people, proprietors, managers, andOne would anticipate that the groups
officials and a relatively steady increase in most susceptible to norms encouraging
the skilled and unskilled groups. More and drinking are precisely those upper-middle-
more, the social base of the WCTU ap- class groups making up the world of the
pears to be lower middle class and lower professional, business executive, and sales-
class rather than the earlier picture of man-the new middle classes whose religion
upper middle and lower middle classes. is less evangelical and whose norms em-

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 232 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

phasize fellowship, toleration,Today andthe leisure.

WCTU is an organization in
These seem to be the groups who have left retreat. Contrary to the expectations of
the WCTU. Their higher socioeconomic theories of institutionalization, the move-
status would have afforded them leadership ment has not acted to preserve organiza-
had they remained. tional values at the expense of past doc-
The data suggest that temperance norms trine. In adhering to less popular positions,
have filtered down to lower socioeconomic it has played the role of the sect and
groups. The moral indignation of the move- widened the gap between WCTUJ member-
ment is explainable by the resentment en- ship and middle-class respectability. Anal-
gendered by the defection of the upper ysis of social composition in this stage in-
middle class. These are no longer available dicates that the movement is today less
as models with which the religiously ori- upper middle class in composition than in
ented in America can identify. The quality earlier periods and more lower middle and
of "moralizing" has ceased to be respect- lower class in composition. In this respect,
able. The adherents of rural nineteenth- as well as in the changed drinking norms
century values epitomized in the doctrine of the upper middle classes, the split with-
of total abstinence do not have available in American Protestant middle classes has
tangible models of success and prestige in been widened.
social levels above them. Nevertheless, The moral indignation of the WCTU
they nourish expectation that the values today is a very different approach to tem-
on which they have been raised will be the perance and to the American scene from
values of groups above them in status. the reformism and progressivism of the
Their resentment is understandable as a late nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
response to the realization that their ex- turies. The plight of the "moralizer-in-re-
pectations are no longer true. treat" is the plight of the once powerful
but now rejected suitor. The symbols at
CONCLUSION
his command no longer ring true in the
This study has demonstrated a shift in halls where once they were heard with
the doctrine and social composition of a great respect. He cannot identify easily
moral reform movement. The earlier stages with those above him in status, because
of the WCTU were shown to have been they now repudiate his morality. It is the
characterized by an attitude of moral re- sense of the historical shift, fully as much
form directed toward the lower classes. In as the absolute clash in values, that has
this stage, social composition data indicate soured his reformism and generated his
that the WCTU represented a socially dom- resentment.
inant class. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

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