Double-Do for WCTU

The 950 women and 37 of their husbands who gathered in the banquet room of the Sheraton-Palace Hotel did their best to ignore what they insisted was the reek of whisky seeping through the glass doors from the men's bar on one side and the smell of champagne from the elegant Garden Court on the other. Loud and often, they drowned out the sound of what they feared was drunken babbling by raising their voices in song.

The Pick-Me-Up. In San Francisco, the city with the highest rate of alcoholism in the U.S., the Women's Christian Temperance Union last week held its Syth annual convention, and the ladies addressed themselves in the name of God to "returning the nation to sobriety." That task is harder now than it was even in "those terrible days of wild drink" in the 1870s, when the WCTU gained momentum in Chicago under the embattled leadership of Frances E. Willard. Then the crusade against strong drink was part of the war between men and women; now the women seem to bend their pink elbows as much as the men.

"Today the family room has become a barroom and a living vaudeville performance headlining Mother in an irresponsible way of life," cried WCTU President Mrs. Fred J. Tooze of Portland. Ore. "From the White House to the home, it has become almost a social obligation to serve alcoholic beverages in this country."

To combat the cocktail hour, the WCTU is propagandizing for the "hour of social freedom," at which men and women may relax over beverages such as Top o' the Mornin' Punch (5 cups pineapple juice, 1 cup lemon juice, 3 cups water, 1 qt. ginger ale and 3 pts. lime sherbet), or the Pick-Me-Up (6 tbs. of chocolate syrup, 2 eggs. 2 cups fresh milk, serve in a frosted glass).

Knees, Not Elbows. Present membership of the WCTU, according to President Tooze. is about 250.000, including some men on an honorary basis and a few women who do not belong to any Christian church. There were more members in the Union's most glorious year, 1919, when Prohibition became the law of the land. But Mrs. Tooze and her colleagues feel that a resurgence of temperance is under way among parents shocked at what booze has done to their young-modern children, and among young people "embarrassed and dismayed" to see their parents drinking at home. Dues begin at 10-c--a year for children and range through an adult minimum of $1 a year to a Rock of Ages Membership--"a penny a day and a prayer."

Many of the Union's members sport a round pin bearing the word DO, which stands for the WCTU doors-open theme ("Doors Open for Christian Sobriety"). "Do" is also the WCTU's favorite word. Members are fond of sentences with lots of energetic do's, like "Do not be afraid to do whatever you can do to stop your friends from purchasing food in supermarkets that do sell beer and malts." The slogan for the coming year is "Double-Do in '62."

Double-do will especially be brought to bear on getting through Congress a bill to prohibit drinking on airplanes. "Before the year is over," says Mrs. Tooze, "I am confident that we will have won out. Bend your knees--not your elbows--if you would solve the world's problems."

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