Francais | English | Espanõl

Temperance movement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Image:Here lieth a temperance man -- cartoon.jpg

A temperance movement attempts to greatly reduce the amount of alcohol consumed or even prohibit its production and consumption entirely. In predominantly Muslim countries, temperance is a widely accepted part of Islam. In predominantly Christian countries, forms of Christianity influenced by Wesleyan views on sanctification have strongly supported it at times. More specifically, religious or moralistic beliefs have often been the catalyst for temperance, though secular advocates do exist. The Women's Christian Temperance Union is a prominent example of a religion-based temperance movement.

The biggest supporters in all countries have been women, often as part of what some describe as feminism. The strong temperance movements of the early 20th century found most of their support in women who were opposed to the domestic violence associated with alcohol, and the large share of household income it would swallow, which was especially burdensome to the low-income working class.

Movements of socialism, social democracy, Christian democracy, nationalism and fascism have also been strongly connected to the cause in instances.

Contents

[edit] Temperance movements around the world

A number of countries around the world have experienced temperance movements, a few examples of which are presented here.

[edit] Australia

Image:SonsOfTemperanceHillEnd1872.jpg

Image:Hotel Windsor.jpg
Grand Coffee Palace, Melbourne. Built in 1883
Image:Prahran rechabite hall.jpg

In Australia, the temperance movement began in the mid-1830s promoting moderation rather than abstinence. By the late nineteenth century a more successful abstinence-oriented movement emerged under the influence of the U.S. temperance movement. However, it failed to bring about prohibition in spite of a long campaign for local option. The movement's major success was in prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages after 6:00 in the afternoon, laws which led to the notorious “six o'clock swill.” This refers to the practice whereby customers would rush to drinking establishments after work and consume alcohol heavily and rapidly in anticipation of the 6:00 closing. Thus, this success was counterproductive and exacerbated drinking problems.

The Independent Order of Rechabites were regarded as the most significant of the various organisations promoting temperance in Victoria in the late 19th Century and established their own Australian headquarters in Prahran in 1871, with a larger building in 1889. The Premier of Victoria, James Munro was a charter member.

In 1880s Melbourne, the movement coincided with a land boom, that saw the construction of several Coffee Palaces, cornerstones and lasting symbols of the Victorian temperance movement in Australia.

[edit] Britain

In Britain, the temperance movement was largely a middle class phenomenon that originally focused on controlling, not preventing, drinking among the working class. However, in 1832, a group emerged in the belief that "teetotalism" or abstaining by everyone was necessary. At first the group advocated persuasion but in 1851, after the state of Maine in the U.S. passed a prohibition law, the group advocated mandatory abstinence by force of law. Lacking support from churches, labor or other groups, prohibition was never established in England.

[edit] Canada

In Canada, a temperance movement began in the 1800s. Temperance societies were established across the country except in Quebec. There, the Roman Catholic Church promoted moderation rather than abstinence. However, over much opposition, the temperance movement managed to impose prohibition throughout the entire country early in the twentieth century. Except for Prince Edward Island, which was the first province to enact prohibition (1901) and the last to repeal it (1948), other provinces maintained prohibition for relatively short periods of time. This ranged from only one year in Quebec (1918-1919) to 13 years in Nova Scotia (1916-1929).

[edit] Denmark

A temperance movement developed in Denmark in the 1860s and grew rapidly. Its base was largely labor unions and various religious groups, but the movement was never powerful enough to establish prohibition in this liberal country.

[edit] Iceland

In the last decades of the nineteenth century, Iceland’s Youth Organization and chapters of the International Order of Good Templars, both of which promoted prohibition, grew in power and influence. National prohibition existed between 1915 and 1922 However, a ban on the importation of spirits lasted until 1934 and on alcoholic beer until 1988.

[edit] India

A temperance movement in India came originally from the political leadership, most of whom had been educated in the United Kingdom at a time when prohibition was being promoted. This served to link prohibition with the independence movement and give it a broad base of popular support. This base included women and a major activity of women’s groups became picketing alcohol beverage retailers. Because temperance became so interwoven with independence, it was included in the Indian constitution.

[edit] Italy

A temperance movement existed in Italy for a few years in the late 1800s, but it made little headway. The greatest success temperance forces had in Italy was under Benito Mussolini and his fascist government, which closed thousands of pubs. Although Adolf Hitler was a teetotaler, he never imposed prohibition on Germany.

[edit] Netherlands

In the Netherlands, temperance activists were active as early as 1800 and even before that. By about 1880, the movement lost membership. However in the late 1800s until after World War I, the temperance movement became very strong. It received much support from the socialist movement and various Christian groups. With its increased power, the movement achieved a number of successes in reducing alcohol consumption but then it began a slow decline in membership and influence.

[edit] New Zealand

Beginning in the early 1890s until World War I, New Zealand had a growing temprance movement. The first local option poll was held in 1884, in which a local district could vote to be "wet" or "dry", (prohibition required a 60% majority.) By 1908, twelve of the 76 licencing districts had gone "dry". The first national licencing poll was held in 1911, but the prohibitionists, with 56% of the vote, failed to secure the required 60%. However, in 1917, public houses were ordered to close at 6p.m. each day ostensibly to help the war effort. The resulting rush by working men to binge drink between finishing the day's work (5p.m.) and the pub closing became known as the "6 o'clock swill". For the Interwar period, there was a political stalemate between prohibition and liberalisation. The period after World War II saw a gradual liberalisation and normalisation of alcohol use, resulting in a referendum in 1967 ending the six o'clock closing. It took another two decades, until the Sale of Liquor Act in 1989, before national licensing polls were abolished, and the last three "dry" areas vote to allow alcohol sales in 1999.

[edit] Norway

The first temperance society in Norway was established in 1836 and by 1844 there were at least 118 such societies. They promoted moderation rather than abstinence. However, they had very limited success in reducing consumption, so in 1859 a movement for the formation of societies whose members would pledge “total abstinence from the use of alcoholic drinks” was started by the quaker Asbjørn Kloster. The moderation movements, which had been plagued by drinking scandals, mostly joined the teetotaler movements or ceased to exist.

A faction of the movement led by Sven Arrestad promoted a gradual movement toward prohibition, through local referendums. However, since the prospect of winning a national referendum looked good, the majority preferred going more quickly to national prohibition. The referendum was won, and prohibition was enacted in 1916. In 1927 it was removed again, after another referendum. However, the temperance movement remains strong in Norway.

[edit] Poland

In Poland, a temperance movement emerged in the mid-1800’s that was both religious and nationalistic. Temperance rhetoric equated freedom from alcohol with freedom from political bondage and the achievement of national independence. After Poland regained political independence in 1918, prohibitionist sentiment grew with the demand for prohibition, but it subsided in the 1930’s.

[edit] The United States

Image:Merge-arrow.gif
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Prohibition in the United States. (Discuss)

In colonial America, informal social controls in the home and community helped maintain the expectation that the abuse of alcohol was unacceptable. There was a clear consensus that while alcohol was a gift from God its abuse was from the Devil. "Drunkenness was condemned and punished, but only as an abuse of a God-given gift. Drink itself was not looked upon as culpable, any more than food deserved blame for the sin of gluttony. Excess was a personal indiscretion." When informal controls failed, there were always legal ones. Alcohol abuse was treated with rapid and sometimes severe punishment.

While infractions did occur, the general sobriety of the colonists suggests the effectiveness of their system of informal and formal controls in a population that averaged about three and a half gallons of absolute alcohol per year per person. That rate was dramatically higher than the present rate of consumption.

As the colonies grew from a rural society into a more urban one, drinking patterns began to change. As the American Revolution approached, economic change and urbanization were accompanied by increasing poverty, unemployment, and crime. These emerging social problems were often blamed on drunkenness. Following the Revolutionary War, the new nation experienced cataclysmic social, political, and economic changes that affected every segment of the new society. Social control over alcohol abuse declined, anti-drunkenness ordinances were relaxed and alcohol problems increased dramatically.

It was in this environment that people began seeking an explanation and a solution for drinking problems. One suggestion had come from one of the foremost physicians of the period, Dr. Benjamin Rush. In 1784, Dr. Rush argued that the excessive use of alcohol was injurious to physical and psychological health (he believed in moderation rather than prohibition). Apparently influenced by Rush's widely discussed belief, about 200 farmers in a Connecticut community formed a temperance association in 1789. Similar associations were formed in Virginia in 1800 and New York State in 1808. Within the next decade other temperance organizations were formed in eight states, some being statewide organizations.

The future looked bright for the young movement, which advocated temperance or moderation rather than abstinence. But many of the leaders overestimated their strength; they expanded their activities and took positions on gambling, profanation of the Sabbath, and other moral issues. They became involved in political bickering and by the early 1820s their movement stalled.

But some leaders persevered in pressing their cause forward. The American Temperance Society was formed in 1826 and benefited from a renewed interest in religion and morality. Within 10 years it claimed more than 8,000 local groups and over 1,500,000 members. By 1839, 15 temperance journals were being published. Simultaneously, many Protestant churches were beginning to promote temperance.

[edit] Prohibition

Between 1830 and 1840, most temperance organizations began to argue that the only way to prevent drunkenness was to eliminate the consumption of alcohol. The Temperance Society became the Abstinence Society. The Independent Order of Good Templars, the Sons of Temperance, the Templars of Honor and Temperance, the Anti-Saloon League, the National Prohibition Party and other groups were formed and grew rapidly. With the passage of time, "The temperance societies became more and more extreme in the measures they championed."

Image:WeinWeibUGesang.jpg

While it began by advocating the temperate or moderate use of alcohol, the movement now insisted that no one should be permitted to drink any alcohol in any quantity. It did so with religious fervor and increasing stridency.

The prohibition of alcohol by law became a major issue in every political campaign from the national and state level down to those for school board members. In promoting what many prohibitionists saw as their religious duty, they perfected the techniques of pressure politics. Women in the movement even used their children to march, sing, and otherwise exert pressure at polling places. Dressed in white and clutching tiny American flags, the children would await their instruction to appeal to "wets" as they approached the voting booth.

The Civil War (1861-1865) had interrupted the temperance movement while Americans were preoccupied with that struggle. Then, after the war, the Women's Christian Temperance Union was founded. The organization did not promote moderation or temperance but rather prohibition. One of its methods to achieve that goal was education. It was believed that if it could "get to the children" it could create a "dry" sentiment leading to prohibition.

[edit] Temperance Education

In 1880 the Women’s Christian Temperance Union established a Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction in Schools and Colleges, with Mary Hunt as National Superintendent. She believed that voters "must first be convinced that alcohol and kindred narcotics are by nature outlaws, before they will outlaw them." She decided to use legislation to coerce the moral suasion of students, who would be the next generation of voters. This gave birth to the idea of the compulsory Scientific Temperance Instruction Movement.

By the turn of the century, Mary Hunt’s efforts proved to be highly successful. Virtually every state, the District of Columbia, and all United States possessions had strong legislation mandating that all students receive anti-alcohol education. Furthermore, the implementation of this legislation was closely monitored down to the classroom level by legions of determined and vigilant WCTU members throughout the nation.

Temperance writers viewed the WCTU's program of compulsory temperance education as a major factor leading to the establishment of National Prohibition with passage of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Other knowledgeable observers, including the U.S. Commissioner of Education, agreed.

Because of the correlation between drinking and domestic violence -- many drunken husbands abused family members-- the temperance movement existed alongside various women's rights and other movements, including the Progressive movement, and often the same activists were involved in all of the above. Many notable voices of the time, ranging from Lucy Webb Hayes to Susan B. Anthony, were active in the movement. In Canada, Nellie McClung was a longstanding advocate of temperance. As with most social movements, there was a gamut of activists running from violent (Carrie Nation) to mild (Neal S. Dow).

Many former abolitionists joined the temperance movement and it was also strongly supported by the second Ku Klux Klan. Often called the KKK of the 1920s.

For decades prohibition had been touted as the almost magical solution to the nation's poverty, crime, violence, and other ills. On the eve of prohibition the invitation to a church celebration in New York said "Let the church bells ring and let there be great rejoicing, for an enemy has been overthrown and victory crowns the forces of righteousness." Jubilant with victory, some in the WCTU announced that, having brought Prohibition to the United States, it would now go forth to bring the blessing of enforced abstinence to the rest of the world.

The famous evangelist Billy Sunday staged a mock funeral for John Barleycorn and then preached on the benefits of prohibition. "The reign of tears is over," he asserted. "The slums will soon be only a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs." Since alcohol was to be banned and since it was seen as the cause of most, if not all, crime, some communities sold their jails. One sold its jail to a farmer who converted it into a combination pig and chicken house while another converted its jail into a tool house.

U.S. History: The Temperance Movement was made in the early 1900's because wives and families were fed up that their husbands were spending all of their money on buying alcohol instead of buying household necessities. Many women believed that it was important to ban alcohol which is why they got the churches involved and made them join and form the Temperance Movement. Because of the huge success caused by this Movement, the US government formed the 18th amendment stating that alcohol and alcoholic product are illegal to be consumed, imported, and exported.

[edit] Anti-Saloon League

The Anti-Saloon League, under the leadership of Wayne Wheeler, stressed political results. It did not demand that politicians change their drinking habits, only their votes in the legislature. Other organizations like the Prohibition party and the WCTU lost influence to the League. The League mobilized its religious coalition to pass state (and local) legislation. Energized by the anti-German sentiment during World War I, in 1918 it achieved the main goal of passage of the 18th Amendment establishing National Prohibition.

[edit] Linguistics

The use of the word "temperance" to mean "abstinence" and even "prohibition" is an example of doublespeak and political framing. Temperance - one of the classical virtues - might be a Good Thing.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Jack S. Blocker, David M. Fahey, and Ian R. Tyrrell eds. Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia 2 Vol. (2003)
  • Bordin, Ruth. Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873-1900 1981
  • Ernest Cherrington, Evolution of Prohibition in the United States (1926). by dry leader
  • Ernest Cherrington, ed., Standard Encyclopaedia of the Alcohol Problem 6 volumes (1925-1930), comprehensive international coverage to late 1920s
  • Clark; Norman H. Deliver Us From Evil: An Interpretation of American Prohibition. W.W. Norton , 1976. supports prohibition
  • Dannenbaum, Jed. "The Origins of Temperance Activism and Militancy among American Women", Journal of Social History vol. 14 (1981): 235-36.
  • Heath, Dwight B. (ed.) International Handbook on Alcohol and Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995.
  • Jensen, Richard. The Winning of the Midwest, Social and Political Conflict, 1888-1896 University of Chicago Press, 1971
  • McConnell, D. W. Temperance Movements. In: Seligman, Edwin R. A., and Johnson, Alvin (eds.) Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. , 1933.
  • Odegard, Peter H. Pressure Politics: The Story of the Anti-Saloon League. 1928.
  • Sheehan, Nancy M. The WCTU and education: Canadian-American illustrations. Journal of the Midwest History of Education Society, 1981, P, 115-133.
  • Smith, Rebecca. The Temperance Movement and Class Struggle in Vicorian England. Loyola University, 1993.
  • Timberlake, James H. Prohibition and the Progressive Movement, 1900-1920. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963.
  • Tracy, Sarah W. and Caroline Jean Acker; Altering American Consciousness: The History of Alcohol and Drug Use in the United States, 1800-2000 U of Massachusetts Press, 2004
  • Tyrrell, Ian; Woman's World/Woman's Empire: The Woman's Christian Temperance Union in International Perspective, 1880-1930 U of North Carolina Press, 1991

[edit] See also

Compare: William Hogarth's "Gin Lane" 1751.

[edit] Source

[edit] External links

de:Abstinenzbewegung eo:Senalkohola kulturo sv:Nykterhetsrörelse

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Temperance_movement"
Personal tools