Small Rant: WHO THE FREAK STARTED THE TERM "FAMILY VALUES"?

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Earliest citation in the OED: 1916

1916 J. H. Tufts in Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 26 228 For the majority (of women) I believe that greater happiness, as well as fuller development, lies rather in magnifying family values and freeing them from the survivals of subordination, of unscientific and ill-organized methods, which belong to former days.

1928 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 38 347 Such disintegration of the large-family system does not mean the destruction of the old family values.

1966 A. M. Greeley & P. H. Rossi Educ. Catholic Amer. iii. 69 Marriage and family values do show some relationship with Catholic education.

1993 New Republic 16 Aug. 13/2 Bauer and Buchanan view ‘family values’ in the Reaganite way: as a chance to assert themselves as the moral guardians of the past, a world of two-parent families and heterosexuality.

And the reference to Reagan in that last citation does show that Reagan and the Republicans of his day were using it, eg from 1980:

Nation: On Traditional Family Values

"Anothing issue," said Congressman Henry Hyde in Detroit last week, dismissing Senator Charles Percy's outrage over the Republican platform plank that urges the appointment of judges "who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of human life." To the approving cheers and laughter of the Illinois delegation, Hyde wondered: "Who could be against traditional family values?"

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922066,00.html