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The Temperance Crusade

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 23, 1908

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 17.

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The Temperance Crusade

By C. M. S.

The growth of the temperance movement in the United States has been a matter of astonishment to both friends and foes of the temperance cause. There have been other temperance waves that have swept over large portions of the country, but they seem only to have prepared the way for the great movement which is now in progress.
In the Review of Reviews for April, 1908, there appears a lengthy article by Ferdinand C. Iglehart, which treats in a thorough and comprehensive manner the progress of the work of temperance reform throughout the entire country. From the introduction of that article we quote the following paragraph:—
In two thirds of all the territory of the United States the saloon has been abolished by law. Forty years ago there were 3,500,000 people living in territory where the sale of liquor was prohibited. Now there are 36,000,000 people under prohibitory law. Since that time the population of the country has scarcely doubled, while the population in prohibition territory has increased tenfold. There are 20,000,000 people in the fourteen Southern States, 17,000,000 of whom are under prohibitory law in some form. In 1900 there were 18,000,000 under prohibition in the United States; now there are 36,000,000. In eight months State-wide prohibition has cleared the saloon from an area as great as that of France. In that area there is a solid block of territory 320 miles north and south by 720 miles east and west, in which on the first day of next January a bird can fly from the Mississippi to the Atlantic Ocean, and from the boundary of Tennessee to the Gulf of Mexico, without looking down upon a legalized saloon. Great Britain and Ireland could be set down over this space without covering it. There would be 10,000 square miles of “dry” territory left as a border.
Naturally the liquor men have set themselves to do all within their power to counteract this movement. Money and misrepresentation have been the chief instruments of its warfare. Several years ago it was able through these instrumentalities to win back to the liquor column several of the States that had voted prohibition; but the fact that the States which have lately joined the prohibition column have done so after having ousted the majority of the saloons of the State through local option indicates that the present victories of the temperance forces will be more permanent than those gained in past years. We condense the following epitome of the situation largely from the article referred to above:—
Maine went prohibition in 1851, repealed the law in 1856, re-enacted it in 1858, and is still under prohibitory law.
New Hampshire abandoned prohibition in 1902; but out of her 224 towns 183 are “dry,” and the people are agitating the matter of resubmitting prohibition to the vote of the people.
Vermont abandoned prohibition in 1903; but three fourths of her people are now living under prohibitory law through local option, and 221 of her 246 towns have voted “dry.”
Massachusetts has abolished the saloons from a large number of her manufacturing cities, such as Lynn, Worcester, and Brockton.
Although Rhode Island has local option, only sixteen towns have abolished the saloons.
Connecticut has voted out the saloons from more than half of her towns.
New Jersey has as yet given little encouragement to the temperance movement, though strong efforts are now being made to secure local option.
New York has 30,000 retail liquor dealers, but under local option a large number of towns have recently voted the saloons out.
The Pennsylvania legislators have refused a local option law, and the State thus far seems to stand solid against temperance reform.
On November 5 of last year Delaware voted on the question, one half of the State voting “dry.”
Maryland has expelled the saloon from half of its area.
In Ohio 490 villages and cities have expelled the saloon. Of her 1,376 townships, 1,150 have forbidden the liquor traffic.
The saloon is strongly entrenched in Illinois, and yet the temperance forces are making gains. Chicago has as many saloons as all the fourteen Southern States. Within a year sixteen “dry” counties have been added to the ten already existing; and by the election of April 8, thirty-six counties out of the 102 in the State are now anti-saloon territory.
Indiana has 683 “dry” townships out of a total 1,016. In seventy-two of her ninety-two counties a majority of the citizens have recorded themselves against the saloon.
Wisconsin has no single county in the State entirely “dry,” but through local option half of her territory has voted out the saloon.
Michigan has only one “dry” county out of her eighty-five, and there are but fifty towns and cities out of 412 that have abolished the saloon.
In Minnesota about forty-five per cent of the population live under prohibitory law. Twelve hundred of the 1800 organized townships have no saloons.
Of the ninety-nine counties of Iowa only twenty-two grant a license to sell liquor.
Only one tenth of Nebraska’s counties have voted out the saloon.
Kansas has incorporated prohibition in its constitution, and the people of the State generally hold that it is a success.
South Dakota has gone back from prohibition to license. Only two of her sixty-six counties and thirty of her 136 towns and cities have abolished the saloon.
North Dakota retains her constitutional prohibition, and the governor states that her population has increased seventy per cent within the last ten years.
Montana, Wyoming, and Nevada are strongholds of the liquor power.
Colorado passed a local option law last year, and the temperance forces are making a strong campaign against the saloon.
Idaho is under license law, with the provision that municipalities may prohibit the sale of liquor by ordinance. This provision has made it possible for several cities to prohibit the liquor traffic.
The State of Washington has proceeded no further than to close about two thirds of its saloons on Sunday, which is an exceedingly doubtful victory for temperance.
Eight of Oregon’s thirty-three counties are “dry,” and seventy precincts in other counties have abolished the saloon.
In California the temperance forces are having a hard battle, and are winning some victories, especially in the southern part of the State.
Missouri has a local option law, and the temperance movement is gaining ground there. Of Missouri’s 114 counties, forty-seven are now “dry,” and within the last three years 700 saloons have gone out of business in St. Louis alone.
In Arkansas fifty-eight of the seventy-five counties are “dry,” and eighty per cent of the territory of the State has expelled the saloon.
Texas has 243 counties; and of these 147 are entirely “dry,” and more than half the others are partly so.
Two thirds of the territory of the State of Louisiana has voted for prohibition. Twenty-four of her parishes have outlawed the saloon, and other sections have done the same.
Florida is under local option law, and of her forty-six counties thirty-three have prohibition. About three fourths of the people live under prohibitory law.
South Carolina has dispensed with her State dispensary. Of her forty-one counties, twenty-three have dispensaries, and eighteen are “dry.”
Virginia has, within a few years, abolished half of her saloons. Of her 140 incorporated towns, 120 are “dry.”
In spite of the fact that Kentucky has $160,000,000 invested in distilleries, her people have expelled the saloon from ninety-four of her 119 counties. Ninety-seven per cent of her territory is “dry.”
In Tennessee all but five of the ninety-six counties are now “dry,” and in only three of her cities is liquor sold.
Ninety-nine per cent of the territory of North Carolina is “dry,” and the State is to vote on prohibition the last Thursday in April.
Ninety per cent of the territory of Mississippi is “dry,” and a prohibitory law has been adopted to take effect, Jan. 1, 1909.
Alabama has passed a State prohibitory law to take effect, Jan. 1, 1909.
Oklahoma has incorporated prohibition into its constitution.
Georgia adopted prohibition last summer; but 135 of her 150 counties had already voted for the expulsion of the saloon under the local option law.
This movement against the saloon is more than a wave. It resembles more the uprising of a people long oppressed by a malignant foe. The saloon outlawed itself long before the people arose to outlaw it. The saloon has ridden roughshod over every desire of the people for peace, happiness, and prosperity, and now finds itself sorely attacked on front, flank, and rear. May the good work go on until no State in all the Union can put the stamp of legality upon the soul-destroying traffic. C. M. S.