Pubdate: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. Author: David Brinkerhoff FEATURE-ALCOHOL'S BIGGEST FOE CELEBRATES 125 YEARS NEW YORK - For more than a century, alcohol's greatest foes have not been firebreathing preachers or federal agents with Tommy guns but women wearing white ribbons. The anti-liquor ladies of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union celebrate their 125th anniversary this year, but while times have changed the group's message has not. "We think that our bodies are the temple of God and therefore we should keep impure things out of them," WCTU president Sarah Ward told Reuters. "We still think the safest thing is not to drink." Trying to keep up with the times, the WCTU has added a host of new evils such as marijuana, crack and cocaine to its list of thou shalt nots. But total abstinence has been its core agenda since it was founded in 1874 when women frustrated by their husbands' drinking began occupying saloons -- a shocking action at a time when women were banned from bars. "They went in and laid their Bibles on the bar and knelt and prayed," Ward said. The women wore white ribbons to symbolize their purity and lived by the slogan "Agitate - Educate - Legislate." A BUNCH OF OLD LADIES? The group's shining moment, and its biggest disappointment, came with its successful push for Prohibition, the 1919 amendment to the U.S. Constitution that banned drinking until it was repealed in 1933. Ward admits times were rough after Prohibition ended but says the group refused to quit. She insists the WCTU still has a role to play in modern America despite shrinking membership and a perception that it is a bunch of old ladies out of touch with the times. "It's a popular thing to say, `Oh well, that group's had their day.' But as long as we have young people who are becoming alcoholics or are dying ... there's a definite need for us," Ward said. While she concedes that Americans are not "joiners" as they once were - -- WCTU membership has fallen from about 176,000 in the late 1800s to 10,000 -- Ward says a Web site and e-mails between members show the group can stay up with the times. For one loyal WCTU member, a commitment to stay drink-free seems to defy time altogether. At 106, Lois Addy has been a WCTU member for 99 years, since she turned eight in 1900. The daughter of teetotaler parents, she was raised in Saluda, South Carolina, and has never tasted a drop of alcohol. HAPPY OUTLOOK, CLEAN LIVING Addy, who spoke to Reuters over an amplified phone to aid her hearing, said she attributed her long life to heredity, a happy outlook and clean living. "Somebody asked the other day if I'd eaten ... rum cake," she said. "I didn't know there was such a thing as rum cake." Addy once ran the WCTU in South Carolina and for 20 years brought young members to a "temperance" camp in the mountains. She says her positive Christian outlook has helped her, despite some trying times: the end of Prohibition and the death of her first husband in 1919 from the influenza epidemic. "My theme song is `Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, fills my every morning, keeps me singing as I go,"' she sang over the phone. As for alcohol, she agrees with the group's current stance that it is not only a moral scourge but bad for the health. "It's a killer, a killer drug," she said. Her hopes for the WCTU's survival are also strong. "My hope is it'll never die," she said. Coming from a 106-year-old, that seems pretty realistic. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea