Billy Sunday in Spokane: Revivalism and Social Control Dale E

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1-1988 Billy Sunday in Spokane: Revivalism and Social Control Dale E. Soden Whitworth University, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Soden, Dale E. "Billy Sunday in Spokane: Revivalism and Social Control." Pacific oN rthwest Quarterly 79, no. 1 (1988): 10-17.

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History at Whitworth University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Whitworth University. 10 PACIFIC NORTHWEST QUARTERLY

The Pacific Northwest has frequently From the outset one must remember Billy Sunday been categorized as the least churched that Billy Sunday did not find Spo- and least religious section of the country. kane-c-Spokane found Billy Sunday, in Spokane And in general, most historians haveac- Sometime during the early part of 1907, eepted the notion that religion played a Dr. H. 1. Rasmus, pastor of the First comparatively minor role in the develop- Methodist Episcopal Church, suggested ment of urban life in the region. Nev- that Billy Sunday be brought to town. At Revivalism and ertheless, during the winter of 1908-1909, a May ministerial association meeting, Social Control as many as 35,000 people a day gathered Dr. E. 1. House, pastor of Westminster in downtown Spokane to hear Billy Sun- Congregational Church, was selected to day preach the gospel. For six weeks the secure Sunday's services. After numer- Dale E. Soden itinerant evangelist and former baseball player electrified crowds with his aero- batie antics and invective against everyone from the wealthy socialite to the tavern goer.

At first glance this event suggests simply that Billy Sunday could draw a crowd even in the relatively irreligious Pacific Northwest. But a closer look reveals much more; underlying the revival hoopla were subtle but significant ten- sions between Spokane's emerging middle class and the city's blue-collar population. Most surprising is the role that Billy Sunday played in ihe attempt of the middle class to exert social control over the working class. Perhaps one would anticipate that the "respectable" clergy distanced itself from this Iowa boy who preached the plain gospel in an enter- taining way to the "common folk." Yet such was not the case; in fact, Sunday Westminster Congregational's pastor, E. L. came to Spokane at the invitation of the House, believed that Bifly Sunday could help educated middle-class religious estab- Spokane through its moral crisis. (Sunday lishment. Mainstream pastors wanted Program) him to revive Christianity and to convert the working class. Acceptance of Chris- tianity, they hoped, would lead to acceptance of middle-class values, and thus ous letters and a personal visit from Sunday might directly influence the life- Rasmus, the evangelist agreed to come in style of the blue-collar population. It is December 1908. Notwithstanding the this use of Billy Sunday that gives his city's interest in him, Sunday considered revival significance for Spokane's re- Spokane an attractive prospect: it would ligious and social history. be the largest city in which he had held a revi val, as well as his first major venue Sunday's Spokane revival provides in- outside the Midwest.' sight into not only the issue of social control, but also the general spirit of re- Although the Spokane ministerial asso- form politics that permeated urban life in ciation embraced the denominational the early 20th century. His antisaloon, and social spectrum, the impetus for anti liquor preaching was notable, but Sunday's visit came from middle- and clearly some clergymen had more am- upper-middle-class congregations. Ras- bitious hopes for the evangelist: they mus was a Philadelphian who settled in thought he could help pave the' way for Spokane in 1902 after receiving his doc- Prohibition legislation and other mea- torate of divinity. House was a graduate sures associated with the progressive of Harvard and the Boston University movement. School of Theology,' JANUARY1988 11

These two clergymen pressed for Sun- horse racing, and pool selling at the in- for their city what Finney had done for day's visit in part because it would draw terstate fair held in Spokane each year. Rochester. They hoped he would set the national attention to Spokane. More im- One week before Billy Sunday's revival stage for more progressive reforms and portant, however, they and their col- began, local ministers extensively de- help control the mores of the young leagues hoped to use the evangelist to bated what should be done about the males who dominated the working class. shape the moral ethos of the city. By 1908 city's red-light dlstrict.s "Spokane is at a crisis in its life's his- the progressive movement was well es- tory," said the Reverend House in an in- tablished in the region. The notion that Until recently, scholars have not con- terview just prior to Sunday's arrival. "It cities could be reformed by legislating nected urban revivals to this tension be- is confronted by an opportunity such as against vice and improving institutions tween the middle class and working is given to few cities to purify itself .. was a part of the progressive con- class. However, Paul Johnson, in his It is predicted that Mr. Sunday will con- sciousness that Spokane's ministers vert 5000 young men in Spokane." An- shared. But the key to explaining their other minister, C. Ross Baker of Em- motivation and hopes for the Sunday re- manuel Baptist Church, announced, "We vival can be found in the increasing ten- shall hope to see a mighty moral up- sion between the growing middle class heaval, polluted fountains of social life and the laboring class. purified, dishonest business methods corrected, the public conscience up- Spokane had developed rapidly in the lifted, and the partial, if not complete two previous decades. In 1890 the popu- overthrow, of that monster whose head is lation was just under 20,000. By 1900 the the gambling den, its heart the saloon, figure had reached 37,000, and by 1910 and its viscera the brothel." Baker went the population would be 104,000. The on to underscore the particularly mid- city was quickly changing from a rela- dle-class agenda for Sunday's revival. tively quiet western town into an urban All of these results can not obtain without re- center. Built on the riches of the mining fleeting a beneficial change upon all of our operations in the Coeur d'Alene Moun- environments: Men and women made better, tains, it had a strong blue-collar identity. families happier and life sweeter; the drunk- ard made a sober man; men and women Miners, loggers, and railroad hands re- whose Jives may have been covered with sided there, particularly during the shame and disgrace, become upright in char- winter when work was scarce. People acter; the dishonest gambler transformed into like Dutch Jake Goetz made handsome a saint of God; the selfish and miserly become profits from enterprises, such as the unselfish, generous and benevolent; the jeci- Coeur d'Alene Theatre, that appealed to The Reverend H. I. Rasmus of the First itinerant workers. The strength and ac- Methodist Episcopal Church gathered 360 new tivism of the Spokane work force were sheep into his fold at the end of the Sunday revival. (Sunday Program) reflected in the presence of the Industrial 1. Trevor Orton, Souvenir: "Billy" Sunday Workers of the World. By August 1908, Spokane Campaign (Spokane, 1909). Many local membership had reached nearly details concerning the planning of the revival 3,000, and in late 1909 the IWW orga- and its general organization can be found in this "Official 'Billy' Sunday Spokane nized its first major effort in the city, a Shopkeeper's Millennium, made histo- Campaign Program" published shortly after mass protest against a ban on free rians more aware of the role that re- the revival. Authorized by the Spokane speech.a vivalism played in class conflict. Ministerial Association, the program is in the ephemera collection at the Eastern Johnson found that in Rochester, New Washington Historical Society in Spokane, It was during the first decade of the 20th York, in the 1830s Charles Grandison Washington. Hereafter, the document will be century that the progressive movement Finney, the most widely known evan- referred to as Sunday Program. gelist of his day, helped convert hun- helped identify clearly the differences 2. Sundcy Program. between white-collar and blue-collar so- dreds of blue-collar workers to evan- ciety. The two groups had generally dif- gelical Christianity. Johnson concluded 3. Gregory R. wcirol, ed., "Two Letters on the ferent views on alcohol, different sexual that the middle class was able to achieve Spokane Free Speech Fight: A Document Note," PNQ, Vol. 77 (1986), 68-71: Robert L. mores, and different work habits. Their social control of the blue-collar class by Tyler, Rebels of the Woods: The I.W.W. in the attitudes and expectations about the city inculcating workers with a religion that Pacific Northwest (Eugene, Oreg., 1967), were also dissimilar. Concern about the proscribed drinking and premarital sex 33-40. nature of urban life-strong primarily and emphasized the importance of 4. Spokane Spokesman-Review, Dec. 20, within the middle class-found expres- rigorous work habtts.> 1908. sion in reform. Middle-class reformers had urged and won passage of ordi- 5. Paul E. Johnson, A Shopkeeper's MiI1ennium: Society and Revivals in nances that closed saloons on the Sab- It is clear that in Spokane, middle-class Rochester, New York, 1815-1837 (New York, bath and prohibited liquor, gambling on ministers looked for Billy Sunday to do 1978). 12 PACIFIC NORTHWEST QUARTERLY

People from all walks of life attended the revival; indeed, women stormed the tabernacle for a session closed to men. (Spokane Spokes- man-Review, Jan. 24, 1909)

DUS and envious become patient and loving; the revengeful and unforgiving become tender-hearted and jorgtvlng."

The question remains: Why did these ministers think Billy Sunday was the right person to accomplish this conversion to middle-class values? His back- ground was irregular and anything but middle class. Born in 1862, Sunday lost his father in the Civil War and spent time in an orphanage in Glenwood, Iowa. He worked at a number of odd jobs until 1883, when he began playing professional baseball and attending pre- paratory school at Northwestern Univer- sity. In 1891 he had a religious experience and shortly thereafter quit baseball and started work for the Y.M.C.A. For three Sunday quickly established a national my way to glory." Not a strict Calvinist, years he traveled with J. Wilbur Chap- reputation and a distinctive preaching he preached a basic message of repen- man, one of the foremost evangelists in style that emphasized nonstop physical tance and forgiveness while emphasizing the Presbyterian church, but by 1896 he activity. A typical sermon included acro- the importance of a formal commitment had begun to conduct his own batic stunts performed atop a chair and to Jesus Chnst.e campaigns." earthy criticisms of almost everything and everyone. His biographer, William McLoughlin, stressed Sunday's simple Sunday must have seemed the perfect theology as one of the important keys to solution to the problem faced by reform- his success as a revivalist. The evangelist ers like House and Rasmus. They knew Designed to seat 8,000 people for revival once proudly exclaimed, "I don't know that they, with their academic pedigrees meetings, the Spokane tabernacle also slept and their refined speech, had little ap- up to 800 indigents during subzero nights. any more about theology than a jack-rab- (Sunday Program) bit knows about ping-pong, but I'm on peal for the common man; but Sunday had enormous drawing power among blue-collar workers. Spokane ministers might find some of his theology, or lack thereof, disagreeable, but they recog- nized that Sunday attacked what they attacked-the saloon, the brothel, the gambling den-and that he advocated many of their own principles-respect for au- thority, the importance of the family, and the necessity of moral order.

6. Spokesman-Review, Dec. 27,1908.

7. William G. McLoughlin, [r.. Billy Sunday Was His Real Nome (Chicago, 1955); idem, Modern Revivalism (New York, 1959); George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture (New York, 1980); the two earlier biographies of Sunday are Elijah P. Brown's The Real Billy Sunday {New York, 1914) and William T. Ellis, Billy Sunday: The Man and His Message (Philadelphia, 1914).

8. Quoted in McLoughlin, Billy Sunday, 123. JANUARY 1988 13

The intent of Spokane's ministers was vised by the Reverend J. Gordon McPher- clearly indicated in the advertising cam- son, the restaurant- its patronage by "no paign they mounted for the revival. They means confined to the colored people"- planned to place placards announcing was open to all who attended the revival, the event in the windows of all the according to the Spckesmcn-Jteview.» downtown saloons six weeks before Sun- day's arrival. Aside from the 5,000 win- But it was Sunday himself that people dow cards, the publicity committee had come to see and hear; as he walked printed 10,000 prayer cards and 12,000 onto the platform for that first service, convert cards; 400 streetcar signs urged the packed house stood and began to everyone to attend, On November 30, wave handkerchiefs and hymn books. with Sunday's first appearance still a "Off his mark like a sprinter, at full speed month away, J. W. Allen, pastor of the from the start, Billy Sunday told the peo- Dean Avenue Christian Church, pro- ple how he loved God and hated the claimed in a sermon excerpted in the devil," reported the Spokesman-Review. newspaper that Sunday would purify the "His collar [is] wilted and limp, his voice city. In fact, he argued that all good cit- hoarse and his hair matted to his brow izens would see the merit of the revival, with sweat. He hits the pulpit tre- particularly if they believed in middle- mendous blows with his fist and per- class values. forms feats of balance on that piece of furniture that would lay the ordinary Drunkards will be reformed, hearts wilJ be re- preacher by the heels with general break- claimed, the whoJe atmosphere wiII be pu- down." It was the age of vaudeville, and rified and Spokane wijJ be in every way a cleaner, better city in which to live. Every Sunday certainly understood the me- good citizen, whether he be a Christian or not, dium; he impersonated the "worldly ought to faJ1in line and help to boost for Billy deacon and the college 'rah rah' boy. Sunday and his revivcl.v with equal fidelity." He never paused from beginning to end; between exhort- The site of the revival was a wooden ing his listeners to commitment and structure on Second and McClellan pleading with them to change their ways, within walking distance of the Northern he performed college yells that brought Pacific depot. As early as 1901, Sunday his audience to its feet screaming and had required that his revivals be held in shouting.ra specially built wooden tabernacles. Ex- tremely functional in design, the teber- From the outset, Sunday worked dili- nacles, according to McLoughlin, had gently to legitimize himself with the walls made of half-inch-thick pine blue-collar element in the crowd by at- boards fastened by only two nails. The tacking the barons who owned the facto- relatively flimsy construction assured es- ries and ran the mines. In his first ser- cape in case of fire-people could push mon, he explained why Spokane needed the boards off the support posts. The a revival: "This is a busy age. Men are feeding their muscles and bone and floor was covered with sawdust to absorb Billy Sunday, evangelist-showman, mixed noise. Spokane's ministers worked preaching with vaudeville, interspersing advice sinew into the commercial mill that closely with organizers of what was and exhortation with acrobatics and grinds out dividends, and the men who billed as the first National Apple Show, cheerleading. (Sunday Program) get the dividends sit by and watch it- hoping to build a structure to Sunday's the big, fat, hog-jowled. weasel-eyed, specifications that could house both pussy lobsters." Sunday repeatedly made events. The cost, about $4,200, was split terial association and a choir that sang clear his sympathies for the plight of the between the ministerial association and the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," working class. the apple show promoters, whose exhibi- "Blest Be the Tie That Binds," and "All tion ran December 7-12 and attracted Hail the Power of Jesus' Name." Across 100,000 visitors. Located across the street the street in the armory, an information from the new state armory, the tabernacle bureau had been established, visitors 9. Spokesman-Review, Nov. 14, 30 (qtn.), was ready for a different crowd when could be directed to lodgings, and a nur- 1908; Sunday Program. Sunday made his first appearance on sery was provided for the benefit of 10. McLoughlin, Billy Sunday, 19; Christmas night, 1908.10 mothers. The feature that received the Spokesman-Review, Nov. B, Dec. 12, 1908; most attention was the kitchen and res- Sunday Program. Approximately 8,000 folk gathered for taurant in the basement of the armory. 11. Spokesman-Review, Dec. 25,1908. the opening of the revival, and they were Organized by the women of Calvary Bap- met with introductions from the minis- tist, a black Baptist church, and super- 12. Ibid., Dec. 26,1908. 14 PACIFIC NORTHWEST QUARTERLY

I have always been a friend of the laboring jected to his style and methods. The middle class was organizing cottage man, for no one knows better than I what it Episcopalian minister W. L. Bull decried meetings with socially respectable means to earn bread by the sweat of the the "blasphemous utterances of that ac- women in the community. With the aid brow .... Wherever 1have gone I have put myself on record as the friend of organized Jabor. robatic, jocose minister of the gospel." of his wife, called simply Ma Sunday, The man with the dinner pail is my friend, for The Reverend George W. Fuller, pastor of and Mrs. Rae Muirhead, a member of his I have been there myself.13 the First Unitarian Church, chastised his party, he lectured to small groups of fellow clergymen for supporting Sunday: women throughout Spokane beginning But clearly Sunday's intent was to "I wonder at the spiritual condition of in January. Cottage meetings became an change the basic life-style of the un- the parsons who are amused by these element of his future revivals. At the churched working class. In one sermon things [referring to Sunday's use of alang] tabernacle, too, Sunday called upon on the 10 commandments, he spoke of but are unwilling to attend good perfor- Muirhead, who told female audiences the importance of family while rebuking mances at the theater." In fact, one about her husband abandoning her and those who had wandered from the woman telephoned the police during the the death of her ta-month-old baby; straight and narrow. "Say! If your mother second day of the revival and asked that about her years as a detective in Chicago had thought more of herself and less of the evangelist be arrested for using lan- and in New York, where she served on you," Sunday chided his audience, "she guage to which she did not want her chil- the police commission under Theodore might wear better clothes now than she dren exposed, "the kind of language. Roosevelt; and about her conversion in does and you would not be ashamed to heard in the lowest saloons. "17 1902 and subsequent Bible work. Appar- have her come around when some of ently, this attention to the female gender your little fool dancing, card-playing, Sunday occasionally ran afoul of rabbis, was effective; Spokane women stormed wine-drinking gang comes to see you. "14 spiritualists, and Christian Scientists for the doors of the tabernacle to hear Sun- things he said, but through it all, the day speak, in a session closed to men, on Topics from laziness to swearing gave ministers who brought him to town came marriage, divorce, child raising, and the Sunday opportunity to preach of indus- to his defense and argued that his mid- important role of women in reforming try and piety, qualities he intended to in- dle-class credentials were fully intact. wayward men.ac still in his audience. "1 tell you, man, no The Reverend House wrote at length in good man ever swears, no man who re- the Spokesman-Review: "We investi- spects himself swears, no gentleman gated Sunday's record carefully .... [He] Unseasonable weather abetted the local swears," asserted the evangelist. "Why came to Spokane as the result of enthusi- clergy's desire that Sunday reach as does a man cuss? Does it add to his integ- astic letters from bankers, lawyers, busi- many indigent and working-class people rity or character?" On another occasion ness men, college men, city builders all as possible. The tabernacle and armory he tried to emphasize statistically how over the east, who testified that [his] became the winter shelter for as many as Americans had strayed from God's ways. good work was permanent, that he 1,200 men during January 1909. Spokane [His figures were hyperbolic but his effected tremendous movem[e]nts for was beset by a particularly brutal winter. point was clear.) "Last year we spent civic righteousness and for transforming The temperature dipped well below zero $2,000,000,000 for strong drink alone'; communities. "18 on a number of evenings and reached $900,000,000 each year is what we spend only two to three degrees above zero for a for tobacco. Last year we spent The Spokesman-Review, a bastion of number of days. When the cold wave hit $700,000,000 for amusements. Our the- middle-class thinking, received Sunday on January 5, four large stoves were aters are full and our churches are very warmly, An editorial emphasized placed in the corners of the tabernacle; empty. "15 the newspaper's endorsement of his Sunday soon invited men to remain all agenda. night if they had nowhere to go. On Janu- ary B, 400 stayed there, and by the next Like many progressive reformers, Sun- Everywhere Mr. Sunday goes he brings under day combined this attempt to shape the spell of his zealous preaching thousands working-class mores with a view of civic of people who could not be reached by the righteousness. He believed that a direct standard methods of mission work. ... When 13. Spokesman-Review, Dec. 26,1908 (tst connection existed between salvation all has been said that can be said upon the subject the fact will remain that Mr. Sunday qtn.), Jan. 10, 1909. and a healthier urban environment. wages splendid warfare upon vice and evil, 14. Ibid., Jan. 14, 1909. Son Francisco, first. No wonder God shook and at the same time is exalting righteousness that old town with an earthquake and swept in the home, in business and in public service. 15. Spokesman-Review, Jan. 11, 1909 (tst their cussedness with fire. There wasn't a rot- qtn.), Dec. 30,1908. tener city on the American continent than Son Francisco. Then comes Chicago with her It was Sunday's affirmation of middle- 16. Ibid., Jan. 14, 1909. perfect pandemonium of iniquity and vice, class institutions and values, and the 17. Spokesman-Review, Dec. 30 (Bull, Fuller theaters open and grog shops open, until they commitment he could inspire from the go with a petition and beg the legislature to qtns.), 27 (last qtn.), 1908. pass a low making Chicago immune from any hitherto uncommitted, that House and necessity of closing the saloons on Sunday." the other orthodox ministers sought.w 18. Ibid., Dec. 31,1908. 19. Spokesman-Review, Jan. 19, 1909. Although the vast majority of Protestant One of the ways in which Sunday ministers supported Sunday, some ob- strengthened his connections with the 20. Ibid., Jan. 26, 29, 1909; Sunday Program. JANUARY 1988 15

Advocates of local option legislation harnessed their biffs to Billy Sunday's temperance work. (Spokesman-Review, Feb. 2, 1909)

day, the figure had reached nearly 600. On that evening sandwiches were brought in, along with baked beans and a tub of coffee. The tabernacle restaurant did a brisk business. By January 13, some 1,200 people were being fed. Not until the 18th, when warmer temperatures re- duced the risk of freezing, did the number of homeless sheltering in the tabernacle decrease. There is no evidence that Sunday exploited the plight of the poor by trying to convince them that their cir- cumstances would improve if they joined a church; nevertheless, he took the opportunity to hammer away at the traditional vices and emphasize middle- class values.et

Ren Rice, the Spokane chief of police, described the situation in some detail, He recalled his conversations with Sun- class was serious. On January 18, two po- The revival climaxed with an attempt to licemen and a private contractor were at- pass legislation controlling alcohol. On day at the city jail and how the evangelist January 19, the Spokesman-Review pub- suggested that the scores of transients tacked by laborers desperate for work. sleeping in the jail corridors and vacant That evening, three blocks from the tablished a list of legislators from Spokane ernacle, an angry mob estimated at be- and their probable votes on a bill allow- cells be allowed to sleep on the warm tween 2,000 and 3,000 jobless men ing communities to prohibit alcohol. On sawdust floor of the tabernacle. But Rice recounted a few of the problems. gathered in frustration over promised January 28, the paper reported that the employment that was denied. James state senator W. H. Paulhamus had wired All went well until one night when the wife of Walsh, an IWW leader, managed to dis- Sunday urging him to send a "monster a Spokane councilman who had attended the perse the crowd with the admonishment petition" to Olympia in support of the services found her person infested with tiny insects. She phoned the wife of the city clerk that this was not the time or place for legislation. In response, someone, per- who hod been her evening companion and rioting. Billy Sunday did not become in- haps Sunday himself, suggested that the told her of the discovery. The other woman volved, but this incident surely under- evangelist head a delegation of Spokane responded that she also had found her person scored the anxiety of Spokane's religious civic leaders to lobby at the state capital infested. community. The city seethed with ten- for the local option legislation. Here The newspapers agreed not to say any- sion between the middle and working again the particularly middle-class na- thing for fear of undermining the revival, classes.v ture of Sunday's efforts is evident. On but the sponsoring ministers came to January 31, 112 businessmen and pastors Rice and asked that the men no longer be left the Northern Pacific depot for Olym- sent to the tabernacle. Rice refused, say- Sunday continued to attract enormous pia. Included were H. C. Blair, principal ing that Sunday had given the invitation crowds throughout the month; on Janu- of Blair Business College; Zachariah and Sunday would have to rescind it di- ary 17, 35,000 people came to the various Stewart, Spokane county treasurer; Judge rectly. And according to the police chief, services at the tabernacle. He maintained the ministers never did tell Sunday. "Fi- the themes that he established in the first nally the preachers reluctantly left my two weeks as he railed against dancing, officef.] Then as the revivals went on we alcohol, and the theater. On a lighter note 21. Spokesman-Review, Jan. 6-20,1909. continued to send the homeless men to he gave the Spokesman-Review his selec- 22. Ren H. Rice, "When Hoboes Stayed the tabernacle where the audiences con- tions for the all-time greatest baseball Warm," MsSC4, Folder 2-10, Ren H. Rice tinued to itch and scratch while the de- team, which the paper featured promi- Papers, EasternWashingtonHistorical generate outsiders snickered. "22 nently. On January 24 a virtual riot oc- Society. curred as people pushed at the taberna- 23. Spokesman-Review, Jan. 19, 1909. While many in Spokane may have in- cle door in order to hear him, and 5,000 deed snickered, the plight of the working people were turned away.e- 24. Ibid.. Jan. 24, 25, 1909. 16 PACIFIC NORTHWEST QUARTERLY

The middle-class Spokesman-Review gave the DID BILLY SUNDAY MAKE GOOD? Sunday revival full reportage, along with cartoons and editorials. (Feb. 9, 1909)

very least, the evangelist had helped to crystallize the debate between those who advocated an open town and those who wanted a closed town. Two of the most vocal dissenters, the tavern owners Jimmy Durkin and Dutch Jake Goetz, fought against banning alcohol, and Goetz chastised the city leadership for its support of the revival. If the mayor, city council and chamber of commerce would pay as much attention to the freight rates to this city as they did to Billy Sunday's revival meetings and running excur- sions to Olympia, it would be more beneficial to the city and they could soon have the freight rates.21l

Wherever Sunday went, the issue of his expenses received a significant amount of press coverage. In Spokane, as elsewhere, local organizers made a spe- cial effort to raise an appropriate amount for him on the final day of the revival. Several ministers served as tellers, and ushers began asking for $100 pledges, gradually reducing the amount requested until everybody had an opportunity to give. On that final day, the Spokane au- W. H. Ludden; M. M. Higley, president A large crowd met the party on its return dience gratefully donated $10,871 for of the Northwestern Business College; to Spokane and escorted it from the train Sunday and his party. Another $15,000 Dr. Charles O. Linder, physician; E. W. station to the tabernacle for another ser- had been raised previously in order to Conrad, mineowner; and James Paine, mon. The immediate result of the lobby- cover the cost of the tabernacle and other secretary-treasurer for the Spokane Dry ing effort was failure, for opponents revival expenses.ee Goods Company, among others.ee amended the local option bill to death; a compromise bill finally passed both Whether Billy Sunday succeeded in con- Once in Olympia, Sunday preached to houses later that year. Sunday had rallied verting the working class to middle-class women in the afternoon, and in the eve- Spokane's middle class to the great sym- values is not entirely clear. By the end of ning he delivered what was known as his bol of moral reform in the progressive his Spokane stay, an estimated 5,666 booze sermon at the opera house to sen- era. It is likely that the Olympia experi- people had professed conversion or re- ators, representatives, and the general ence not only increased his own interest commitment to Christianity. On Febru- public. That two-hour exhortation in antisaloon activities but also encour- against liquor elicited enthusiastic ap- aged leaders in other Washington cities plause from the listeners, who repeatedly to see him as an instrument for legis- rose, cheered, "waved their hands and lative reform. Everett leaders booked him 25. Sunday Program; Spokesman-Review, shouted at the unique climaxes and ex- for a week-long tent revival prior to their Jan. 31,1909. local option election in 1910. Specifi- pressions made by the noted speaker." 26. Spokesman-Review, Feb. 2,1909: Marion Hay, the acting governor, hosted cally, they asked him to counter the Olympia Daily Recorder, Feb. 2,1909 (qtn.). a banquet for the Sunday party. The Spo- speeches of Clarence Darrow, who advo- kane group met with its state representa- cated personal liberty.v 27. Spokesman-Review, Feb. 18, 1909; Norman Clark, The Dry Years: Prohibition tives and presented a petition with more and Social Change in Washington {Seattle, than 8,000 signatures urging passage of Shortly before the end of the Spokane re- 1965), 89-90, 96. the local option bill. The United States vival, approximately 250 businessmen senator Miles Poindexter, along with se- and professional men held a luncheon 28. Spokesman-Review, Feb. 14, 1909. lect members of the Sunday party, spoke honoring Sunday for his efforts to im- 29. McLoughlin, Billy Sunday, 110; in favor of the measure.ee prove the character of the city. At the Spokesman-Review, Feb. 8,1909. JANUARY 1988 17

ary 11, four days after the end of the re- ter the revival. Interestingly, of the 133, Clearly, the Sunday revival did not revival, the Spokesman-Review ran the 88 were women. Perhaps this reflects the solve the tension between the city's mid- headline, "BEER SALES FALL; BIBLES IN DE- effect of the cottage meetings that Sun- dle class and its laboring class; that au- MAND." Although half of the converts re- day held primarily for women. Of the 45 tumn would bring the IWW's free speech portedly gravitated toward Baptist and men, 22 can be clearly identified by oc- demonstration. Yet the middle-class's Methodist churches, a substantial num- cupation. Four were conductors or wire- effort to use religion as a means of sober sought membership at Westminster men for streetcar companies; four were cially controlling the working class was Congregational and the Central Christian clerks; three were salesmen; two were an important part of Spokane's early so- Church. In late January, E. L. House said, students; and the remaining male con- cial history and a phenomenon that oc- "There were more than 10 times as many verts included an electrician, painter, curred elsewhere in the Pacific North- at our church as have ever attended a carpenter, bookkeeper, teacher, printer, west. Billy Sunday's activities in prayer meeting in my experience." On foreman, laborer, and druggist. It is con- Spokane and in Everett the next year re- February 14, many churches received ceivable that some of those who could mind one how religious impulses were new members as a result of the revival: not be identified in the city directories intertwined with various reform efforts H. I. Rasmus's church welcomed approx- were strictly blue-collar workers. But associated with progressivism. D imately 360 new members on that Sun- these records suggest that Sunday had day; Vincent Methodist Episcopal his greatest success among women and Dale Soden, who earned his Ph.D. in Church baptized 50; Westminster Con- among people who prior to the revival American intellectual history from the gregational admitted 30. At First Baptist, had strong middle-class asptranons.ai University of Washington in 1980, is co- ordinator of American studies and direc- 42 were accepted and 40 more had ap- tor of continuing education at Whitworth plied for membership.sc Nevertheless, while Sunday may not College. He has published in several have had the exact effect desired by the journals and is presently researching the Sunday's actual impact on the working middle-class establishment, he seems to influence of Presbyterianism on ur- class is less certain. McLoughlin con- have impressed that establishment with banization in the 20th century. cluded, largely on the basis of revivals the importance of civic reform and the other than Spokane's, that the con- necessity of espousing middle-class val- version of the working class was mini- ues to a blue-collar population. The edi- mal. The best remaining records in Spo- tor of the Spokesman-Review said: 30. Spokesman-Review, Jan. 20, Feb. 15, 1909, kane, at St. Paul's United Methodist "Billy" Sunday bears from Spokane the re- Church, provide a glimpse of some of the spect and admiration of thousands, and in 31. McLoughlin, Billy Sunday, 210-15. people affected by the revi val. During the this host are hundreds of the able, upright Church records at St. Paul's United Methodist business men of the city, who feel deeply that month of February 1909, at least 133 indi- Church, Spokane, Washington; Spokane city Spokane is better for his coming and has directories, 1909, 1910. viduals joined the church. Most com- higher standards of life and duty in the home, mitted themselves on the first Sunday af- the counting room and the public office.32 32. Spokesman-Review, Feb. 7, 1909.