WCTU TARGETS MORE THAN ALCOHOL NOW

Mention the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and it conjures up
images of 19th century housewives holding pray-ins on their knees at
saloons, begging that the sale of liquor be ended. Or the excesses of
Prohibition in the 1920s.

But the Temperance Union is not a thing of the past. Although WCTU
membership has slipped from a high of 1.5 million in its heyday to
about 5,000 today, its battles are no less important for the 21st
century, said the union's national president, Sarah Ward, during an
interview in Salt Lake City on Saturday.

Indeed, the group's concerns have expanded beyond alcohol to include a
litany of contemporary issues such as drugs, pornography, gambling and
homosexuality.

And its methods are the same as any other nonprofit, non-partisan
group: lobby state and federal legislatures, send out mailings, set up
a Web site, go on the speaker's circuit. As president, Ward does all
of that and more.

On Friday, she met with Elder Richard Lindsay, an emeritus general
authority who has represented The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints on anti-pornography committees; George Van Kommen, an LDS
physician who is president-elect of the American Council on Alcohol
Problems, and William Evans of the LDS church's Public Affairs department.

"We are exploring the possibility of our organization and the LDS
Church working together on common projects," Ward said.

Ward said Mormons are natural allies with her group because of their
mutual commitment to abstain from the use of alcohol and tobacco.

To join the WCTU, a woman must take a pledge of "total abstinence"
from alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs. That means no celebratory
champagne at the strike of New Year's, no occasional sips of wine with
dinner. This is not moderate drinking, it is complete shunning, she
said.

"We believe that first drink can be dangerous," said Ward, who took
the pledge when she was in eighth grade in Knightown, Ind., where she
still lives. And neither a drop nor a drag on a cigarette has passed
her lips since, she said.

In her keynote speech to about 30 members of Utah's Independent
American Party at the Salt Lake County Commission chambers in Salt
Lake City, Ward offered her "wish list" of legislation:

- -- To move alcohol and tobacco from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
and Firearms to set up better controls of these substances

- -- To put government warnings on bottles of alcohol

- -- To ban all alcohol advertising from television just as tobacco has
been, curtail these ads from sporting events sponsorship, teen
magazines and movies

- -- To continually raise taxes on alcohol and tobacco
products

- -- To block the legalization of marijuana

One of the projects that the WCTU will be undertaking during the next
year will be to urge public and school libraries to provide filtering
software to block selected pornographic material on all Internet
stations which are accessible to minors.

"We need to take back our libraries," she said.

These efforts are fitting progeny to those of WCTU founders whose goal
was "the protection of the home."

The National Woman's Christian Temperance Union was founded in
Cleveland, Ohio, in November 1874. Local chapters were called "unions"
and were largely autonomous, but closely linked to the state unions
and national headquarters, set up in Evanston, Ill.

It soon became the largest women's organization in the United States,
according to WCTU history posted on its website.

"The crusade against alcohol was a protest by women, in part, because
of their lack of civil rights," says the WCTU history.

Women could not vote. In most states women could not have control of
their property or custody of their children in case of divorce. There
were no legal protections for women and children, prosecutions for
rape were rare, and the state-regulated "age of consent" was as low as
7. "Most local political meetings were held in saloons from which
women were excluded," it says.

In 1879, Frances Willard became WCTU president and used her platform
to attack many of these societal problems, of which the use of other
drugs were only symptoms. The organization also endorsed women's
suffrage and was among the first groups to keep a professional
lobbyist in Washington, D.C.

Willard's motto was "do everything," the history says.

Throughout its history, the WCTU has proposed, supported and helped
establish such rights and groups as the eight-hour work day,
kindergartens, the Parent-Teacher Association, uniform marriage and
divorce laws, Travelers' Aid Society, and prison reform.

Besides alcohol, tobacco and drugs, the WCTU has opposed white
slavery, child labor and army brothels. Though the WCTU's political
power has been diminished, it is still "a 'do-everything group'," Ward
said.