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1895: "Do Everything"

1895 Frances.jpg

Frances in the pulpit.

For the rest of her life, through term after term as WCTU president, Willard incorporated a suffrage message in speeches and publications directed at both the WCTU and at an audience of men and women involved in other social reform movements. As Willard broadened her own personal range of reform interests to include economic equality, fair labor practices, and world peace, she stressed the significance of voting—by all Americans—as the way to eliminate the social injustices which were among the root causes of intemperance.

"Temperance work, purity work, the enfranchisement of women, sympathy with the labor movement, are the four corner-stones of the great world-temple we would rear..."

By the late 1880s Willard had developed a global perspective on social reform and social justice, and had become more confident about “speaking out” (she even endorsed Christian Socialism in one of her WCTU presidential addresses). Still, she was still careful to stress temperance as the first priority for successful reform. Her widening view was reflected in an article published in 1892 in the progressive national magazine The Arena. The title of her essay-- “The Coming Brotherhood,”-- showed her optimistic expectations for a better world for men and women through temperance and the ballot.

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Earlier in her career Willard had codified the expansion of the WCTU’s mission in the motto “Do Everything.” She built upon the concept in later years, and in 1895 published a book by that title. In addition to explaining to women how to accomplish WCTU goals in their own communities, she emphasized the global nature of the battle which necessitated a global reform response—citing the enfranchisement of women as a foundational requirement.

Quote above from Do Everything, by Frances Willard (1895), p. 145.