TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT

                                                                        The temperance movement began around

                                                               the 1820s and ended around 1919. It was a social

                                                                        movement that was against the excessive                                                                   consumption of alcohol and wanted people to

                                                                 pledge and promote abstinence from it. People

                                                               who supported this movement tried to have laws

                                                              passed to limit the amount of alcohol available

                                                       and tried to prohibit the use and sale of it completely. 

        Supporters of this reform, like Benjamin Rush, made a pamphlet to alert people of the harmfulness alcohol does to the body. Organizations like, ATS and the Washingtionians, tried to convert people to pledge to abstinence. John Bartholomew lead the pledge of abstinence in the US. Alcohol was believed to lead to family abuse and increased crime rates. Drunken men were thought to be more likely to lose their jobs because they would be less productive at work. It was also believed to be harmful to the body and to one's health. 

       Results from the boycotts and organizations against

alcohol were very positive. In 1851, Maine was the first

state to pass a prohibition law stating that made the

making and selling of alcohol illegal. Women were also

 allowed to be involved in a union against alcohol called

the Women's Christian's Temperance Movement (WCTU). 

When America changed from rural to urban culture, the

preferred drink changed from whisky to beer because

it was cheaper to buy. Women in the WCTU demanded

the shutdown of saloons that sold beer to men. In

1895, Protestant men built an Anti-Saloon League so

so they could live in a society that didn't offer alcohol. This group achieved that goal when the 18th amendment was created in 1919 and started the Prohibition Era from 1920-1933.

                                                         Though there were many successes of this movement,

                                                      there were also plenty of failures. After Main passed its

                                                 prohibition law, a few states followed and also passed laws

                                                  that prohibited the consumption of alcohol. Unfortuntely,

                                              most of the laws were repealed or declared unconstitutional.                                                   The prohibition caused bootlegging, the illegal selling and

                                           making of alcohol, in speakeasy clubs. Public support decreased

                                            on the movement because many people dissagreed over whether

it there should be abstinence from all alcohol or just from hard liquor. The Prohibition Era ended when the Volstead Act was passed in 1933. This act allowed men to drink alcohol as long as they lived by the rules that came with that privilege.

     I think the idea the organizations and group had of attempting to stop the excessive consumption of alcohol was a good idea because the men were becoming harmful to their families and to their health and bodies. However, because of the legal restrictions on alcohol, people started bootlegging in clubs and finding other ways to drink. These clubs still allowed men to get alcohol even though it was prohibited which defeated the purpose of the movement. If there were no speakeasy clubs and bootlegging, I think that the movement would have had the effect it was intended to have.