This primary document is a constitution and plan of work for a local Woman's Christian Temperance Union chapter, one from 1874, and another from 1883, illustrating the progress that they had made over the course of nine years. The ultimate goal of the W.C.T.U. was to have alcohol banned, but in the mean time, their goal was to spread the word of temperance, encouraging people to completely abstain from all alcohol or intoxicating substances. The constitution of this chapter of the W.C.T.U. states that its object is "to educate public sentiment up to the level of total abstinence, to train the young, reform and save the inebriate, and hasten the time when the dram-shops shall be banished from the streets by law." The union valued education fo the young, realizing that it was the future of temperance, of abstaining from alcohol. In order to join that particular union, people had to sign a pledge of total abstinence and paying fifty cents a year. Members were to go out and try to get others to pledge as well, even if only for a short amount of time. They were also to spread the word, getting information into newspapers, with the ultimate object of making alcohol illegal.
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