Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (Cooper, Mich.)
Biography
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was founded in Cleveland, OH in 1874 in an effort to halt the traffic of alcohol sales in the United States as well as the rest of the world. This religiously affiliated non-profit organization was founded upon Baptist ideals and “believed that women, as the moral guardians of the home, should be involved in public and political activity.” The singular spelling of “woman” should be noted, as the organization name implies that each individual woman makes the commitment of abstinence from alcohol. Perhaps one of the organization’s biggest accomplishments is the signing of the Polyglot Petition. This petition was created in the 1880’s to convince legislators to prohibit alcohol/opium sales and amassed over 7,500,000 signatures from temperance advocates around the world and has been presented to world leaders at multiple major conferences since its conception.
This particular program is from the Cooper, MI chapter of the WCTU and contains meeting dates and locations for the WCTU 1914-1915 program. Additionally, an insert is provided with the schedule of events for the Cooper Home Coming events.