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Friends United Meeting |
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June 1997
WCTU in Our Heritage
By Virginia Helm
One of my early recollections of my grandmother, Ruth Anna Morris Heacock,
was the white ribbon bow on her black plush coat. I learned early that
the white ribbon bow was the symbol of the Woman's Christian Temperance
Union.
When you wear that bow it means that you have signed a personal
pledge to abstain from drinking alcoholic beverages and discourage the
use, manufacture or sale of intoxicating drinks.
My father, Everett, my uncle William Morris, and my aunt Erma, all
became active temperance workers. Since my sister and I were trained in
elocution at an early age, we gave many temperance readings. I was in
a few WCTU speech contests but it wasn't until much later that I started
with the silver medal and worked up the World WCTU Matron's Contest, speaking
on "Where There's Drink There's Danger.î
"It was several years earlier when my daughter was still a baby, that I realized that I must protect her and warn others about the dangers of drinking alcoholic beverages. By this time there were concerns about other poisons and habits. I found it easy to sign a personal pledge of abstinence. Our Quaker faith is based on personal answers to God to Queries, and a need for communication with Christ's Holy Spirit.
I have been a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union for fifty years. When I have attended Friends gatherings and National WCTU conventions, there have always been Quaker WCTU members or friends with Quaker heritage. We usually get together for lunch and talk over our current concerns. The concern is world-wide and I am glad that the WCTU is working in many nations.
Our short-term service overseas and travels have shown that there is a great need for education for abstinence as well as prayer. But it is important for Friends in the U.S. to know and admit that we do not need to go to other countries or distant communities in our own land to point out these problems. They are right here in the cities, the suburbs, small towns and country areas. We must examine ourselves and do something.
Virginia Helm is a member of Reedwood Friends Church, Portland, Oregon, in Northwest Yearly Meeting. She has been a WCTU member for fifty years and completed a term as Citizenship Superintendent of the World WCTU.
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