The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1874-03-26
The Liquor Crusade.

The Liquor Crusade.
1t is evident that the country is passing
through out of the periodical excitement
on the subject of the use of alcoholic
drinks, which may be classed among those
exhibitions OF human emotions, contagious
and uncomfortable. which have from time
to time peryaded the land. They have
their uses in the moral world but are in
their p..ture incapable Of being long sus-
tanned
The temperance revival Of 1910 was one
of these periodic excitements The pre-
ceding year had come news of the mag
nificent crusade in which Father Mathew
had for time wrested Ireland from the
grasp of King Alcohol In Baltimore, in
April, 1910, six Incorporate men, who
had been in the habit of meeting nightly
for convivial purposes, We're suddenly led
to frame and sign pledge of total absti-
nence. They formed themselves into a
body, which they called the Washington
Temperance Society, and forthwith began
to proselytize. In less than year they
had gathered into their ranks over one
thousand reformed drunkards
A prominent member Of this parent
society was John H. W Hawkins, who
early the next year headed a delegation to
visit, hold meeting and organize societies
in New York, Boston and several OF the
New England cities. The contagion of
the enthusiasm generated at these meet
ings spread like prairie fire. During the
summer and autumn of 1871 the whole
country was in 3 blaze of excitement. In
the State Of Ohio &C, 900 signed the pledge ;
in Kentucky 30 1000; in Pennsylvania an
equal number The parent Washingtonian
society in New York in one year had
gathered in 1000 members and had TWEEN
ty-two au1iliaries, with 4 membership OF
1G 900 The St Louis societies had : 800
members. In January, 1912, the fire
caught in Washington, and Tom Marshall,
the first convert. led a movement which
swept through the halls OF congress and
carried away several of the city fire com
panies The birthday of Washington, Feb
ruary %, 1912, Wasa grand jubilee of tenn
perance throughout the country Three
thousand reformed drunkards marched in
procession on that day in Baltimore alone.
The following summer was one of prod
gious activity in the cause. Nearly every
distillery in Brooklyn was closed in New
York meetings We're held weekly in fifty
two halls, and signatures were received
for the pledge at the rate Of two hundred
a day. The production OF liquor in the
country had decreased absolutely one half.
and relatively to the population was not
a third of what it had been ten wears be
fore Before the close of 1912, also, the
organization of the Gold Water Armies
lodges OF the Order of the Sons of lem
perance" had begun, the latter being de-
NlStu loi tHt Itlltl Oh reformed men IN
destitute circumstances. The Van Pelt of
that day was Alexander Welsh, Of New
York, known as king Of the rumsellers, =
who took the stump as an advocate of to-
tai abstinence in New York, and two in
Brooklyn surrendered to the prevailing
enthusiasm the mayor of the former city
and very generally the municipal and
state officials OF New York publicly dis
countenanced the use of alcoholic beyer-
ages
The period OF natural reaction was to
some extent postponed by the advent of
John b. Cough in the field in 1874. In
June Of that year Mr.. Cough and Rev. DIR.
John Marsh, secretary of the American
Temperance Union, made Il tour of New
York state arousing great tervor and ex-
element wherever they went.
Having endured for four years, the
movement eliminated and declined. Poll
ticians got hold of it, and endeavored to
divert the reform and use it for party
purposes In 1886 a prohibitory law was
passed in New York, and was dead let
ter from the day OF its enactment.
Thus it may be seen that the present
crusade has reached neither the intensity
nor the dimensions which marked the
revival of thirty years ago. Its results
are now impossible of prediction; but the
plan appears to be less reasonable, and
therefore likely to achieve a less plen-
teous harvest.