Social Welfare and Prohibition
Chris Perez, Alex Polidoro, Peter McFarren
Key Players
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Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
Florence Kelly
Frances Willard
Woodrow Wilson and
Theodore Roosevelt
● Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United
States
● Born October 27th, 1858
● He was president from 1901-1909
● Fought for better working conditions/ worker’s rights
● Wilson was the 28th president of the United States
● Born December 28th 1856
● Tried to keep America out of WWI and founded
League of Nations
● Was opposed to 18th Amendment and Volstead Act.
● Congress overrode Wilson’s veto
Florence Kelly
● In 1891 Florence joins Jane Addams,
Julia Lathrop, Ellen Gates Starr, and
other women at the Hull House
● Her job was to observe the area and its working
conditions
● She took notice to the very young children working in
the tenement sweatshops.
● She conducted a survey that was presented to the state
● As a result the Illinois State Legislature created the 1st
factory law prohibiting employment of children under the
age of 14
● Appointed as first woman chief factory inspector
Frances Willard
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● Born September 28,1839
● Woman Suffragist
● President of Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union
● Rallied support for Temperance and many
other social reforms
● She was also involved in:
-Work relief for the poor
-Anti-rape laws
-Federal aid to education
Key Groups and Events
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YMCA
Social Gospel and Settlement House
Salvation Army
WCTU
Anti-Saloon League
The 18th Amendment
YMCA
● AKA Young Men’s Christian
Association
● Founded on June 6th, 1844 by George
Williams
● Established to provide safe housing in a
Christian environment for young men
● BY 1851, there were YMCA’s in the United
Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Canada,
France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland,
and the United States
Social Gospel
● Religious social reform movement
● Focused on applying moral principles to the
improvement and industrialized society
● Including Abolition of:
○ Child Labor
○ A shorter workweek
○ Factory regulation
Settlement House
● In 1886 Stanton Coit founded America’s first
Settlement House
● Provides services and activities designed to
identify and reinforce the strengths of
individuals, families, and communities
● The houses may include:
■ Job training
■ Employment programs
■ Early childhood education
■ Youth and art programs
■ Literacy education
Salvation Army
● In 1985 William Booth and his wife Catherine
Booth saw how the Church was looking
down upon the poor people and street
people
● Decided to create the Salvation Army to tend
to the poor and street peoples needs
● Provides shelters to the homeless, disaster
relief, and clothes drives
WCTU
● AKA Women’s Christian
Temperance Union
● Founded in Cleveland, Ohio in November of
1874
● Movement to ban alcohol
● In 3 months had driven liquor out of 250
communities
● Annie Wittenmyer was President from 18741879
● 1879 Frances Willard becomes President of
organization
Anti-Saloon League
● Formed in Oberlin, Ohio on May 24th, 1893
○ Ohio Anti-Saloon League
● Became Anti-Saloon League on December 18th,
1895 in Washington D.C.
● Primary goal was to unify and focus on anti-alcohol
sentiments effectively
● Secondary goal was to increase anti-alcohol
sentiment
● Purley Bake was the superintendent (For Ohio)
● William H. Anderson was the superintendent (For
New York)
The 18th Amendment
● Ratified in January 16th, 1919
● Repealed in 1933 by 21st Amendment
● Volstead Act - Banned manufacture, sale,
and transportation of alcohol
● Gave government means of
enforcing 18th Amendment
Viewpoints on Prohibition
● Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind
doors and into dark places, and does not
cure it, or even diminish it.
Mark Twain: Letter from New York to the
Alta Californian, May 28, 1867.
http://home.earthlink.net/~ynot/Prohibit.html
Reasons for Prohibition
● The Prohibition movement gained
momentum because alcohol was made the
scapegoat for problems in America
● Problems included unemployment, absence
in the workplace and violence in the home
Why Prohibition Failed
● Prohibition failed due to the vast expense of
enforcing it as well as an increase in
organized crime whose purpose was to
distribute alcohol illegally
● Cops also took bribes from underground
saloons in order to stay out of their business
which defeated the purpose of trying to
enforce Prohibition
Reasons for Social Welfare
● Social Welfare came about as the result of
poor working conditions and poor wages
● Workers were given no benefits and often
had to work long hours to support their
families
● Children were sent to work dangerous jobs
to help support the family
Why Social Welfare
Succeeded
● Social Welfare was clearly successful as we
established a minimum age that children can
work at as well as minimum wage and
working condition standards