The daily morning oasis. [volume] (Nogales, Ariz.) 1917-1920, 1919-05-15
END OF LONG CAM.
PA|CN TO DOWN
THE DEMON rum
A Great Moral And Economic
Issue Comes To a Final
SettIem ent
ITS development AND SUCCESS

| WASHINGTON, May 14.-Discon-
tinuance of the liquor business in the
United States, set for July /, viii
mark the decision in America of one
of the worlds oldest and most bitterly
contested issues.
Use of alcoholic beverages prob
And, although the first temperance
society was not organized until 1883,
advocacy Of abstinence is little less
ancient than use of intox.cants.
Mahomed was among the original
advocates of prohibition.
Use of distilled liquors did not be-
come prevalent in Europe till toward
the close of the seventeenth century.
Inception of the temperance nave
ment came 100 years later, but its
development during nearly two CEN
turies was very slow.
Liquors used in ancient times were
fermented beverages.
Discovery of the process of distii-
lation is attributer to the Chinese,
who impaired the knowledge to the
Arabs. Spaniards got the secret
for it was kept secret for time
from the Moors and in turn gave
it to other European countries. Use
of distilled liquors in, the old world
became general and drunkenness COM
mon.
Hard drinking in England came to
be regarded as grave national dan
ger. In 1875 London grand jury
held the traffic responsible for a great
crime wave, and regulation of the
liquor business by law was institut-
ed. Similar experiments were in the
meantime being made in America.
| The battle in this country against
use and abuse of liquor began in a
mild way as a protest in pulpits
against drunkenness. A New England
society went so far as to bind les
members not to get drunk except on
the Fourth of July and general train
ing days.
| Advocates of moderation gave way
to those who felt that only total aD-
stinence was the remedy. Then the
battle began.
East Hampton, l.. l., in 1861, for
bade the sale of more than two drams
of distilled liquor for immediate
drinking.
The constitution of Virginia, 1876,
prohibited sales of wines and ardent
spirits, except in jamestown.
In 1760, Quakers abolished the ha-
bit of drinking at funerals.
The first Congress of 1777 recon-
mended that laws be passed stopping
the distilling of grain.
Churches took definite stand
against the use of intoxicants.
In 1889 the first temperance So
ciety was organized by 200 Connec-
ticut farmers.
The first recorded demand for pro-
hibition was made by John Chalmers,
of Nassau, N. H., in 1875. 1t attract
ed little attention.
In 1927 it was announced that 200
temperance societies had been form
ed in sixteen States and that 10000
men pledged abstinence.
In 1888 it was estimated that 5000
Temperance societies had 1,250,000
members.
State legislators commenced to pass
laws in an effort to limit the traffic.
The Illinois legislature enacted a 90
cal option" law.
The first large temperance society
was founded in Washington in 184o.
Many others soon sprang into being
Next a "sign-t -the-pledge" wave
swept the country. This movement
was given it's impetus by churches IN
America and Great Britain.
By this time the liquor question
had become a great national issue in
politics. Maine took revolutionary
step when it adopted stase-wide pro-
hibition in 1916. Other States swung
into line.
But 72 years elapsed from the time
the first State voted liquor outside
its borders before national prohibition
was ratified by SO States.