Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving

The Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving (SPUG) was a campaign group in New York against pointless gifts at Christmas, and particularly against the exploitation of junior employees by their supervisors.

It was founded in 1912 by the actress and socialite Eleanor Robson Belmont[1] and Anne Morgan,[2] daughter of J.P. Morgan,[3] along with a few dozen women in New York City. Both of these ladies were rich and philanthropically inclined to improving the lot of working women in New York.

The SPUG was established in response to what the women perceived to be unnecessary Christmas-related materialism, as well as the era’s custom of employees giving gifts to bosses and higher-ups in exchange for workplace favours.[4] Frequently the gifts given were expensive, costing up to two weeks’ worth of wages.[3] This would have negatively affected female employees to a greater degree than their male counterparts, as women have been found to spend more time and money on gifts, and to experience a higher degree of gender expectations and social pressure around gifting.[5]

Between 1912 and 1913 the group grew to 6,000 members.

Rallies were held by the SPUG, and promoted female solidarity, even if class divisions lingered, giving the occasions an air of maternalistic charity and sisterhood.[6]

SPUG membership was initially restricted to women, however men were later permitted to join, primarily as a result of President Theodore Roosevelt,[7] who, in December 1912, became the first “man Spug”, promoting hundreds of others to join the movement to reduce Christmas gift giving.[6]

“I believe the group can accomplish what the individual cannot—namely, the gradual substitution of the right spirit of Christmas giving, in place of the custom of ‘collective’ and ‘exchange’ presents which exists to-day,” read the society membership card Roosevelt signed. “I agree to pay 10c. a year dues and wear during all campaigns the Spug button.”[6]

By Christmas 1914 the society stalled, as a result of war which had erupted in Europe, and which drew the attentions of SPUG founders Belmont and Morgan.

In recent years, SPUG's opposition to consumerist trivia has once again found favor.[8][9]

References
  1. Deirdre Carmody (25 October 1979). "Eleanor R. Belmont Dies at 100; Leader in Charities and the Arts". New York Times.
  2. "Anne Tracy Morgan". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  3. Paul Collins (13 December 2012). "The Original War on Christmas". Slate.
  4. "Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving Issues Its Second Call to Arms. Mrs. Belmont and Miss Anne Morgan Plan a Big Rally in Metropolitan Life Building". The New York Times. 3 November 1913. This society, formed as a vigorous protest against the growing custom of exchanging gifts at Christmas without sentiment, the custom of making Christmas gifts for the sake of expediency, or under any other form of compulsion, was organized last year, and carried on an effective and spectacular campaign in the closing weeks of the Christmas shopping season.
  5. "The perfect present: gift giving and gender norms". International Center for Research on Women. 2015.
  6. "In 1912, Thousands of Women Rallied Against 'Useless' Christmas Giving". Atlas Obscura.
  7. "Theodore Roosevelt". Whitehouse.gov.
  8. "The Society for the Prevention of Useless Giving". Radio New Zealand. 22 December 2019.
  9. Stephen Messenger (10 December 2012). "In 1912, Americans Waged War Against the Giving of Useless Xmas Gifts". TreeHugger.
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