The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-06-19
PROGRESS OF
PROHIBITION
Lewis Tells 81. Conditions Be-
fore Civil War
CAUSE MUCH CHECKED
BY That Struggle Physicians Opinions
Given by Marcy--CeneraI Sentiment
Again the Use Of Liquor, He
Asserts.
CAUSE MUCH CHECKED

Saratoga, N. ", June lo. The SEES
sions Of the Worlds Temperance Con.
gress we're continued here yesterday
Among the speakers were Hon j. B
Lewis and Dr. Henry q, Marcy, both d
Boston. Mr.. Lewis said IN part;
aThe study of the evolution OF q
great reform il one Of intense interest
1t II especially ~ III Tho case Of The
temperance movement, aiming as il
does to change the social habits of q
people, and affecting the moral, ecopo.
mic and political conditions of nations.
II il Of course impossible ID the limit.
I'd time at my disposal to do more than
briefly glance AT the conditions and
events during the twenty year period
that have to deal with. 1s4s 10 1868.
This period was one Of the most Inn
portaHt and eventfui in the history Of
the great struggle against the drink
curse. Total abstinaBee frateTnal or-
carnations sprang up on every hand,
until their number was not thousands
but hundreds of thousands. The tenn
perance reform came down te the year
1855 with fifteen ont Of thirty-one
states ia our Union under total prolii-
bition. aud most of the Others under
stringent local option laws. The hori-
ION was widening upon q drinkless ma
ton. But by the Civil War the clock
Of temperance reform was turned back
ward ton halt century. State after
state repealed the prohibition legisla-
tion which it had previously placed up
on the statute book Temperance or
eaniza ticns declined III membership, and
even the churches seemed for time to
move backward instead Of forward IN
The conflict against their greatest foe.
AS we look back over this entire
period we &C that It Il one III peculiar
interest. Among the worlds renowned
temperance feformefs who we're con.
spicuoiis IN their agitation against the
drink evil will ever stand prominent the
names 81 Father Matthew. the Irish
apostle Of temperance; John B. Cough,
the eloquent advocate Of total absti-
nence, and Neal Dow, the champion Of
legal prohibition These men left their
impress upon the history OF this move
ment, and the world i better for their
having lived. Ii is interesting also to
note that Abraham Lincoln, who had
carly identified himself with the tenn.
perance cause, also took q position in
favor of promotion and against regn-
Iation In speech made on Jan. %.
1858. he thus declared himself let
every friend Of Temperance frown upon
. II o{Yo.,ts "a ra,.i.ls 49,, Ala -, .,c...
Any license law, however stringent,
must eventually increase the evil On
the Goth Of September, 1868, IN the
midst Of The great struggle for the ma.
TONS life, be again reafliFmed his in
Eerest in this cause by declaring; In
The advocacy Of the cause Of temper
anoe you have friend and sympathiz- |
Il in me- NintemneTauce Is one of
he greatest. il not the very greatest
i all evils among uankind,' In a per- /
'onal interview with ldaior J B. Mer- /
siH, he expressed his opinion as 70 the !
necessity for effort against the drink /
surse. He said: eaIerwin, after re- |
construction. otu next movement will /
1e for the prohibition Of tie LIQUOR
4afic in Oil the states and territories
Had he lived. our cause would undoubt- !
idly have found in him a gallant cham /
oion Although IN 1855 fifteen states
we're under prohibition law onlv three /
tates retained this law upon their
tatute books in 1865 The Temperance
which during the latter
art Of the period had d,rindled IN mem
lership and influence under the biirht- /
ns effects If the Civil War. were now.
IoWever, beginning 80 reoreanize their
auks, and thus the period closes with
the general hopeful feeling that tie