Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-09
TOTAL ABSTINENCE
4 THEME OF PAST, PRESENT AND
FUTURE.
The Rise and Progress Of Temper.
ance Sentiment and Reform In
teresting Facts and Figures


showing how it led to indecencies and pre-
vented any advantage from religious exer-
cises He wrote soon after another COM
munication concerning offering liquors to
ministers, a practice then quite common
and often disastrous. These documents had
considerable influence.
In 1912 a teamster partially intoxicated
fell under the wheels of his wagon and was
crushed. Another tending coal pit be-
came drunk and laid down, when he was
burned to death. These events led to two
discourses of great power by Lyman Beecher
on the wretchedness of incorporate men,
and how to get free, and how to prevent
others from becoming drunkards. The
means, it was shown, must be abstinence
from the use of intoxicants. This was new
doctrine and most startling. 1t caused vast
talk all over the land, and the conviction
of the truth of the idea was very generally
accepted.
In 1925 the first temperance tract was
published, entitled "The Well-condacted
Farm" showing that abstinence enabled
the workman to be better nourished, to
perform his labor with greater ease, to have
mind for his work, and to carry away his
wages for himself and family; that absti-
nence was equally advantageous TO the en-
ployer because he got better work done /;
cattle and horses were more kindly treated,
tools were better cared for, and the men
more respectful and friendly.
The agitation was very general, and the
hope was strong that the living generation
of drunkards having passed away, any
further drinking might be stopped. They
hoped to establish the nation in sobriety.
The arguments broadened out, asserting
that temperance would save vast amount
of property, remove one of the principal
causes of pauperism and crime, disease, in
sanity and death; one of the greatest dan
gers to our free institutions, and one Of the
mightiest distractions to religion.
The famous DR.. John Ware, Of Boston,
said: at is an impression among laboring
men that ardent spirits, if not absolutely
necessary, are at least of great Importance
as a support during labor, and that mod
erately used they are salutary; or at least
innocent. No opinion can be more fatally
false. None labor SO constantly, with so
little exhaustion and endure so we'll hard
ships and exposure as those who totally
abstain" DR.. Darwin said that chronic
QlStdStS dlOSc HULL thC uSC va dlQGlt
spirits and tended to become hereditary
Statistics began to be accumulated. 1t
was found that of 781 maniacs in two hos
pitfalls in Great Britain 392 were made
such by intemperance The proportion
was about the same in American hospitals.
Dr. william said that "the use of liquors in
large cities produced more diseases than
confined air, unwholesome exhalations,
and the combined influence of all other
evils" DIR. Rush, OF Philadelphia, in
sisted that "men in all kinds of business
would be better without the use of spirit
uous liquors, and there are but few cases
where they can be prescribed without
essential injury"
In 1926 the American Temperance So
ciety was formed, on the principle of total
abstinence, and Immediately AFTER i'll the
same year, the first paper devoted to the
cause of temperance was established in
Boston, entitled the National Phildatltropist
1t bore for motto, Temperate drinking
is the down-hill road to intemperance"
Branch societies were formed very soon
after, and temperance literature multiplied
In 1927 the Massachusetts society could
report that it was becoming questionable
to drink intoxicating liquors in decent
company, and it was no longer considered
a necessary mark of hospitality to offer
them. Many large establishments ceased
to furnish liquors to their laborers. Farm
ers were refusing to have them in their
hay and harvest fields. The effect was
better than anticipated. Ship Captains
caught the reform and flung overheard all
intoxicants. ''One Captain refused grog
on an India voyage, and all the men came
home in fine health" One of the largest
New jersey folIndries tried the expert
ment. "The furnace went in to blast in
April and continued until October All
employees had the best OF health during the
whole season, and went home with better
health and fuller purposes than ever be-
FORE" In two years the use of intoxicants
fell off in many towns to one-fourth, and
even one-sixteenth of the former sales
Ecclesiastical bodies began to pass resolu-
tions favoring the movement Churches dis
cussed it, and in some cases took pledge
unanimously. The clergy, as rule, gave
up gin and whisky. Medical societies III
dorsed abstinence, as rule. Military
companies followed on the same line. Even
the lawyers of several counties in Massa-
chusetts, and the Legislature of New
Hampshire, voted to abstain"
BY the beginning of 1880 there were
formed more than 1000 total abstinence
societies, embracing more than 100000
members. The reform began also to show
in the way of large numbers of reformed
drunkards restoring to respectability and
to happy homes. The contrast was so
marked that it preached louder than all
other agencies combined Estimates were
also made of savings by abstinence. In
one Vermont town $4,000 was saved by
those who had been accustomed to drink.
The bill of mortality was reduced one
third in some large towns, and through all
New England at least one-fourth. The
result was startling to a degree we can not
now estimate
In 1929 the new reform caught across
the ocean. and the first society was formed
in New Ross Island. This was owing TO
letter from Rev. Joseph Penny, afterward
President of Hamilton College. Before
the close of the year there was $4,000
members of abstinence societies in Scot
land and Ireland. Our Southern States
and Western were now thoroughly alive
to the work, and the Government at Wash
ington lent it what aid it could Pres
ident Jackson gave it as his opinion that
drinking habits were decreased one-half.
The Secretary of War stated that deser-
tions were mainly caused by whisky, as
well as most of the sickness among soldiers.
He therefore cut off whisky from the ra-
tions. For the first time in the history of
the country ships began to sail without
ardent spirits, and the number of wrecks
decreased one-half Crime decreased and
the general tone of society began that change
which has gone on ever since, from
coarse and rioting behavior to orderly re-
finement. twas not long before the young
people Of native American families were
very generally brought under the influence
of the new ideas. Special efforts were made
to educate, and children's Temperance So
cieties existed in almost every school dis
trict. Monthly meetings were held in
school houses to discuss and listen TO those
who were converted from making ard SELL
ing or from using. A few stubborn mer-
chants were, however, found everywhere
who preferred gain to clear conscience.
The estimate OF liquor consumed in the
United States per head by adults was over
one pint day.
So far there had been great deal of zeal
and activity, bat a remarkable absence of
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