The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1920-01-29
Chronological History of
Fight Against Liquor
In the United States

II L IGSDN JCildh dSliCldl Assembly,
in Philadelphia at that time also de.
clared against the liquor traffic. Nea.
Dow, the 'father of prohibition in
Maine" organized the Maine Tenn
peranee Union in 1887 and in 1885
Connecticut invented 'local option
by leaving the licensing of saloons to
the towns themselves.
Inauguration of the Washington
ian Movement was announced in
1910 and within a year it reported
100000 signers of the pledge In
1912, Abraham Lincoln, addressing
the Washington Society of Spring
field, ILL.,, urged "a temperance revo-
luton" The next year, Oregon pass
ed a %prohibitary law but repealed it
in 1848. In 1843, John B. Cough,
"arch foe of temperance" began to
lecture in Massachusetts for rs cents
a night. Two years later, "~ensnared
by a trick of his enemies" he became
intoxicated but continued his cam
paign against drink both at home and
abroad.
The democratic legislature of
Maine in 1916 enacted a p%rohibitory
law. In 1S48 the Methodist Episco-
pal church forbade members "buy-
ing, selling or drinking intoxicants."
Father Matthew, the renowned Cath
Ole temperance advocate, arrived
from Ireland in 1849 and began his
pledge signing crusade throughout
the United States. A riot over the
license question in Chicago called
out the militia in 1885. Prohibitory
laws which had been passed in ever
al states were repealed and in other
cases license amendments made
them ineffective.
President-elect Lincoln in 1860 re-
fused to furnish drinks to the Noti-
fication Committee sent on June 10
to notify him of his election and re-
turned unopened the hampers of
wine and liquors sent to the White
House. In 1861 he signed an act of
congress Hforbidding the selling or
giving of intoxicants to soldiers" In
1862 congress repealed the law, al
lowing a gill of whiskey ration to
men in the navy. Kansas in 1866
passed a local option and prohibitory
law. Ohio in 1870 passed the Adair
law making the liquor seller and the
property owner jointly responsible
for "injury caused by liquor"
Francis Murphy delivered his first
temperance sermon in 1871 and
to organize the Catholic-Tota
Abstinence Union of America. Three
years later women actively entered
the crusade for temperance, the Wo-
Christian Temperance Union
being organized on November 19,
1874. Vermont, in 1876, passed a
law declaring saloons to be "nuis-
ances." In 1883 came the era Of
high license laws, several states I'M
dertaking to control the traffic by
taxation.
In 1884 the third plenary council
IF the Roman Catholic prelates at
Baltimore, Md, declared against the
liquor business. The Protestant Epis-
church organized the Knights
IF Temperance society in 1885 and
organizations were formed by
1ther religious denominations. In
1886 congress enacted that 'instruc-
ion concerning the effects of alco-
lolic liquors shall be given in the
of the District of Columbia,
n the United States military and
laval academies and in other schools
lnder government control"
Ohio in 1888 passed a Sunday anti
iquor law. In 1890 the secretary of
var ruled that mo ardent spirits or
vine shall be sold in army c~anteens,"
ruling, however, which some years
alter was ~rescinded. Men and women
'eformers in a temperance crusade in
3loomville, Ohio, in 1891 wrecked a
aloon and destroyed its contents.
drs Carrie Nation took up the same
actics elsewhere and made the hat
.het more famous than it had been
ince the days of George Washington.
The first worlds convention of the
Vomen's Christian Temperance I'm
was also held in Boston that year.
The Anti-Saloon league vas founded
n Oberlin, Ohio, by Howard H. Rus
ell that year and spread all over the
States. In 1894 enforcement
f the state ~dispensary law in South
,arolina resulted in the killing of a
lumber of men in liquor raids.
By 1900 many counties throughout
he nation had become "dry" through
peal option. Omaha, Neb., in 1902
AIRED women and music from sal
ons.. In 1904 Virginia "outlawed"
SO places for the sale of liquor. To-
" o,,o+oJ rioid apfi-hoot1pO