Temperance+Movement

Many social, urban, and industrial issues were linked to alcohol. Reformers believed alcohol caused crime, carelessness, bad working habits, and promoted illegal activities. Many rural reformers thought that the elimination of alcohol would clean up morals and politics. Urban Progressives, on the other hand, recognized that saloons were often headquarters of political machines, they did not back the movement. The movement and idea of temperance had been around well before the civil war and earlier reform movements. Lemonade Lucy, Rutherford Hayes' wife eliminated alcohol from the white house and earned her name in doing so. Women were the biggest advocates of temperance. The formed the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1873 and by 1911 consisted of more than 245,000 members. They publicized the evils of alcohol and the connection between drunkenness and family violence, unemployment, poverty, and disease. The Anti-Saloon League joined their movement in 1893 and their solution to the problem gradually moved from the legal abolition of saloons to the complete prohibition of the sale and manufacture of alcoholic beverages. By 1916, nineteen states had passed prohibition laws and as alcohol abuse rose in many other areas the movement pushed harder. They prohibitionist eventually steered a through Congress a Constitutional Amendment.
 * __Temperance and Prohibition__ **



The amendment made illegal the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors. The amendment would change America and cause a huge increase in organized crime and the overall consumption of alcohol. Saloons, boot-legging, and gangsters prospered hugely due to the prohibition of alcohol. The Noble Experiment was unsuccessful during the 20's and great depression. Alcohol became so widely used the amendment was eventually repealed by the 21st amendment.
 * __The 18th Amendment__** [[image:http://amhist.ist.unomaha.edu/module_files/news_dry.gif width="194" height="267" align="right"]]

__**Sources**__ //AMSCO American History, Alan Brinkley Prohibition_in_the_United_States www.u-s-history.com//