Temperance organizations

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Temperance organizations (that is, organizations in the temperance movement) of the United States played an essential role in bringing about ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution establishing national prohibition of alcohol. They included:

• the Abstinence Society
• the American Issue Publishing House
• the American Temperance Society
• the National Temperance Society and Publishing House
• the Anti-Saloon League of America
• the Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction
• the Independent Order of Good Templars
• the Ku Klux Klan
• the Lincoln-Lee Legion
• the Prohibition Party
• the Scientific Temperance Federation
• the Sons of Temperance
• the Templars of Honor and Temperance
• the Women’s Christian Temperance Union
• the National Temperance Council
• the World League Against Alcoholism

There was often considerable overlap in membership in these organizations, as well as in leadership. Prominent temperance leaders in the United States included Bishop James Cannon, Jr., James Black, Ernest Cherrington, Neal S. Dow, Mary Hunt, William E. Johnson, Carrie Nation, Howard Hyde Russell, John St. John, Billy Sunday, Father Mathew, Andrew Volstead and Wayne Wheeler.

A variety of organizations promoted temperance in Australia. While often connected with Christian groups, including the Roman Catholic and the Anglican churches and Methodist groups, there were also groups with international links such as the Independent Order of Rechabites, the Band of Hope and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

[edit] Sources

• Hanson, David J. Preventing Alcohol Abuse: Alcohol, Culture, and Control. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995. Chapter three, American Experiences with Alcohol, pp. 69-114.
• Alcohol: Problems and Solutions
• The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Alcohol, & Prohibition