Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which had a chapter here, was fundamental in pushing for Prohibition
By Earle Corneliusm, Staff Writer
December 18, 2017
Monday marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 18th Amendment banning the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol in the United States.
The amendment, which led to Prohibition, received a thumbs-up vote from U.S. Rep. W.W. Griest, who represented Lancaster County at the time. It was ratified in 1919 and went into effect in January 1920. Pennsylvania was the next-to-last state to ratify the amendment (New Jersey was the last).
Prohibition is linked historically with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union — an active temperance movement that was founded in 1874 outside of Cleveland, Ohio, but whose roots go back to social movements from the 1830s.
The union was among the first women’s organizations devoted to social reform linking “the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity.”
The temperance movement gained traction as alcoholism and alcohol abuse increased.
While the movement is largely regarded as ultraconservative in nature, Dennis Downey, history professor at Millersville University, said its reforms were actually progressive in nature.
“The abuse of drinking had family and social consequences,” he said. And women, who at that time did not have the right to vote, saw temperance as a way to curb that abuse.
With the passage of the 18th Amendment and implementation of Prohibition, the union turned its attention to broader issues, including education and women’s suffrage.
“They saw voting as crucial to women’s rights,” Downey said.
While Western states had long allowed women the right to vote, it was not until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 that it became the law of the land. Prior to passage, Pennsylvania was one of just seven states — Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, North and South Carolina and Alabama — that denied women the right to vote in any election.
According to a Jan. 9, 1949, newspaper story, the local union chapter was formed in 1884. In April 1885, the chapter became active at Millersville University — then known as Millersville Normal School — led by teachers Amanda Landes and Sarah Gilbert. Downey said this was the first social club approved by the normal school trustees as appropriate for female membership.
The Young Men’s and Young Women’s clubs also formed at the school during that same period. E.O. Lyte, who was principal of the school — the title of president was not used until decades later — approved the formation of the organizations.
The 18th Amendment did not make it illegal to drink alcohol — only to manufacture, transport and sell it.
The Volstead Act was approved to enforce the law.
But the law proved impossible to enforce. It led to speakeasies, bootleg liquor and organized crime.
In Lancaster city, beer was pumped to various places through firehoses that were hidden in storm sewers.
On Dec. 5, 1933, Prohibition was repealed with the 21st Amendment, making the 18th the only amendment to be repealed.
The repeal was due in large part to the inability to enforce the law, Downey said, which led to lawlessness, crime and corruption. But there was another issue as well: The Depression. Allowing companies to manufacture, transport, sell and tax liquor was seen as a way to create jobs and boost the economy.
The union still exists today, although its membership has dwindled from a 1931 peak of more than 372,000 to between 1,000 and 5,000.
It still promotes temperance but again has broadened its goals to push for equal pay for women, federal aid for education, equality for women in marriage and divorce laws, prison reform and stronger penalties for sex crimes against girls and women.