New York Christian Prohibitionist Calls Alcohol An Awful Effect On Morality, Religion, Poverty

New York was the center for reform movements, including temperance, in the late 19th century. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was religiously motivated and advocated for temperance. This group also supported women’s suffrage. Notable speakers included Mary Hunt and Rev. Anna Howard Shaw. The topic was on the minds of many in 1896 when the Raines Law passed as a means of controlling liquor sales and restricting locations of businesses that could sell it. Prohibition would not end until December 5, 1933 with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

Offering a 3 pp, 8 ½ x 11, manuscript prohibition speech, in pencil, and written on the stationary of E. Wertheimer & Co., Manufacturing Jewelers, 545 Broadway, New York, December 15th, 1896. Unsigned but complete and entitled “Christian Endeavour – Temperance Address.” Bound with string. The speech strongly bears the sentiments of a Christian prohibitionist. 

In part, “Practical Christianity ought to make men more democratic...This is clearly taught in the teachings of the New Testament. There we are plainly told that no means ought to be left untried to elevate mankind. All men are brethren. 

“...The poverty of the masses today is probably more due to social causes than to political ones. The causes – call them by what name we will, which keep men in their low condition, are causes which work at the root of the matter by making and keeping men weak and helpless in sin.

“These causes readily suggest themselves to every thinking person...The soil still remains – that the truth is constantly staring us in the face. These facts cannot be shunned. We are forced to admit that every year more money is spent for liquor than for bread – more than for clothes – more than for meat – more than for education – more much more than for education...by millions of dollars than for the service of God! What a confession!

“Now all this awful waste affects religion, morality and the public good. Every dollar spent for drink is not simply a dollar wasted...It is nothing less or more than a dollar spent to make a man less than he is – to make him less able to earn a second dollar...It is the beginning of poverty – of ruin – of death!

“Many things are needed in fighting this gigantic evil. The war is a relentless one...The stronghold of this baneful habit – this social curse, is the sociability which accompanies it. The saloon is the drunkards’ club room. It is the citadel of drunkenness...It is the fortress of evil...

“We must never forget that man needs brotherhood – a helping hand and a loving heart. He needs something to live for – needs sympathy as well as advice – needs recreation as well as religion – deeds more than words. Man needs companions who believe in Christ. Need men with big hands – full of sympathy and great hearts – filled with the spirit of Jesus. Men moving about them, who are not ashamed to shake hands with their unfortunate brother ... as a speaker once remarked at a Temperance meeting, ‘they were coming out of the same holes together.’

“...The true spirit in which we ought to approach the fallen is the spirit of the Good Samaritan...It is one of the most cheering signs that the great temperance reform is on the increase – fighting with better chances of success when we see the battle is being fought out on these lines. Such tactics are based on truth – the truth as it is in Jesus – divine truth, and the truth will prevail...

“It is truly encouraging to find that this spirit is not only prevailing among the humbler ranks, but permeating through the higher circles of society. Let us then take courage to ourselves – throw ourselves with more fearlessness into the battle when we see such men as Mr. Moody, Governor [Frank Swett] Black and the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury taking their stand on the platform of Christianity, and fighting the demon of strong drink with Christian weapons. We have every reason to be thankful and every hope that we will – sooner or later gain the victory...The cause we have all so much at heart is spreading – extending on the sound scriptural principles...I can earnestly urge you – one and all to take up the motto of good John Wesley and cry – ‘All at it, and always at it,’ in our preceding war – face with this relentless foe of God & man – strong drink!

Folds, toning, light soiling

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