The Temperance Movement
The Temperance MovementAs the 1800's came to a close the calendar was not the only
thing which was changing. The tirn of the century also saw a radical
change in the ways in which Americans conducted their lives. No more
were people's lives based around farms in small rural neighborhoods.
Instead people moved into the cities, and factories started sprouting
up in every major urban area. However, the industrialization of
America also brought with it problems which hurt many Americans. The
People most hurt by these new problems called themselves the
Progressives. This new political group tried to "recapture" America by
attacking a myriad of political issues. These issues differed in
almost every facet, however the Progressives felt that America needed
a complete overhaul in its way of thinking. Thus the progressive
movement burst onto the stage of American politics.
One of the issues which the Progressives felt most strongly
about was the anti-alcohol, or Temperance movement. From the turn of
the century, until the early twenties, organizations made the issue of
prohibition a national issue. This effort culminated with the passage
of the eighteenth amendment banning the sale, or consumption of
alcohol anywhere in the US. Prohibitionists, like the Anti-Saloon
League, achieved their goals because of their group tactics, their
social makeup and composition, and the relative success of the
Progressive movement as an entity. The prohibitionists seized on many
tactics in order to have alcohol banned. It is important to see what
these tactics were, where they came from, and how the prohibitionists
were able to get the American public to buy into them.
In order to get their point across prohibitionists needed to
prove the inherent evils which were presented by the consumption of
alcohol. As pointed out by Document C, groups like the American
Medical Association, along with other members of the educated public,
joined forces in order to fight the evils which alcohol presented.
These people, along with businessmen, tried to explain how alcohol
violated the theories of proper social life (Document E). Other groups
tried to show how alcohol would ruin the American way of life. As
pointed out in Documents R and S, women were demeaned by the
consumption of alcohol, and it threatened to destroy the family
structure. Documents A and B used threatening tactics in order to show
the destruction which alcohol brought to the American family, and
Document D showed how the social status of women would be destroyed
by alcohol.
Religion also played a big role in the push for temperance. In
Documents A and I people tried to show how God looked down on the
consumption of alcohol. These people claimed to be working for the
"common good" of mankind (Document S)....
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