Shontz, Eva M.

In 1906 Eva M. Shontz, a close friend of Frances Willard, ran as a Prohibition Party candidate for University of Illinois Trustee. She polled 30,128 votes (1.25%) and did not win any one of the three positions to be filled in this election for trustees. As a young woman she was interested in the idea of the "One Million Club," a movement intent on organizing one million voters to cast ballots against the liquor traffic. The movement differed from the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in its singular commitment to the use of the ballot-box as a weapon against liquor. Shontz organized and spoke on behalf of temperance. She was president of the Young People's Christian Temperance Union. She lectured about prohibition all over the country. In 1905 she was well received as a temperance speaker by the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen at their convention. Shontz also worked for the cause of labor.