TEMPERANCE LITERATURE.
The greatest and most effective agency in any work of enlightenment andreform is the press. By it the advanced thinker and Christianphilanthropist is able to speak to the whole people, and to instruct,persuade and influence them. He can address the reason and conscience ofthousands, and even of hundreds of thousands of people to whom he couldnever find access in any other way, and so turn their minds to the rightconsideration of questions of social interest in regard to which theyhad been, from old prejudices or habits of thinking, in doubt orgrievous error.
No cause has been more largely indebted to the press than that oftemperance reform. From the very beginning of agitation on the subjectof this reform, the press has been used with great efficiency; andto-day, the literature of temperance is a force of such magnitude andpower, that it is moving whole nations, and compelling Parliaments,Chambers of Deputies and Houses of Congress to consider the claims of aquestion which, if presented fifty years ago, would have been treated,in these grave assemblages, with levity or contempt.
For many years after the reform movement began in this country, thepress was used with marked effect. But as most of the books, pamphletsand tracts which were issued came through individual enterprise, theeditions were often small and the prices high; and as the sale of suchpublications was limited, and the profit, if any, light, the efforts tocreate a broad and comprehensive temperance literature met with butfeeble encouragement. But in 1865, a convention was called to meet atSaratoga to consider the subject of a national organization socomprehensive and practical that all the friends of temperance inreligious denominations and temperance organizations could unite thereinfor common work. Out of this convention grew the
NATIONAL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY AND PUBLICATION HOUSE,
which began, at once, the creation of a temperance literature worthy ofthe great cause it represented. The president of this society is Hon.William E. Dodge, of New York. The vice-presidents are ninety-two innumber, and include some of the most distinguished men in the country;clergymen, jurists, statesmen, and private citizens eminent for theirpublic spirit and philanthropy. It has now been in existence some twelveyears. Let us see what it has done in that time for temperanceliterature and the direction and growth of a public sentiment adverse tothe liquor traffic. We let the efficient corresponding secretary andpublishing agent, J.N. Stearns, speak for the association he so ablyrepresents. Its rooms are at No. 58 Reade Street, New York. Referring tothe initial work of the society, "It was resolved," says Mr. Stearns,"that the publishing agent should keep 'all the temperance literature ofthe day.' This was found to consist of less than a dozen differentpublications in print, and these of no special value. All the plates ofvaluable works before in existence were either shipped across the wateror melted up and destroyed. The society commenced at once to create aliterature of its own, but found it was not the work of a moment. Thefirst publication outside of its monthly paper, was a four-page tract byRev. T.L. Cuyler, D.D., in February, 1866, entitled 'A Shot at theDecanter,' of which about two hundred thousand copies have beenpublished."
FIRST BOOK PUBLISHED.
"The first book was published in May of the same year, entitled,'Scripture Testimony against Intoxicating Wine.' Prizes were offered forthe best tracts and books, and the best talent in the land sought andsolicited to aid in giving light upon every phase of the question. Theresult has been that an immense mass of manuscripts have been received,examined, assorted, some approved and many rejected, and the list ofpublications has gone on steadily increasing, until in the eleven yearsit amounts to four hundred and fifty varieties upon every branch, ofthe temperance question. There were over twenty separate so-calledsecret temperance societies, each with a different ritual andconstitution, with subordinate organizations scattered all over theland. These contained probably about one million of members. Then therewere churches, open societies, State temperance unions, etc., eachoperating independently and with no common bond of union. Some were formoral suasion alone, others for political action, while others were forboth united. The great need for some national organization which shouldbe a common centre and ground of union, a medium of communicationbetween all, and to aid, strengthen and benefit every existingorganization and denomination, was felt all over the land.
"This society was organized to supply such a need. It is both a societyand a publication house. The need and demand came from every quarter forfacts, statistics, arguments and appeals upon every phase of thequestion, in neat, cheap and compact form, which, could be senteverywhere and used by everybody. Public opinion had settled downagainst us, and light was needed to arouse it to right action. Thepulpit and the platform were to be supplemented by the press, which,henceforth, was to be used in this great and rapidly strengtheningcause, as in every other, to reach the individuals and homes of everyportion of the land."
AFTER TWELVE YEARS.
"Twelve years have passed--years of anxious preparation and toil, ofseed-planting and sowing, and they have been improved. This society nowpublishes books and tracts upon the moral, economical, physiological,political, financial, religious, medical and social phases of thereform. We have the writings of over two hundred different persons inalmost every walk and station in life. We already have a literature ofno mean character. Its influence is not only felt in every State andTerritory in the land, but in every country on the globe.
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"Among the early publications of the society were those printed upon'The Adulteration of Liquors,' 'The Physiological Action of Alcohol,''Alcohol: Its Nature and Effects,' 'Alcohol: Its Place and Power,' 'IsAlcohol Food?' Text-Book of Temperance,' etc., followed later by'Bacchus Dethroned,' 'The Medical Use of Alcohol,' 'Is Alcohol aNecessary of Life?' 'Our Wasted Resources,' 'On Alcohol,' 'Prohibitiondoes Prohibit,' 'Fruits of the Liquor Traffic,' 'The Throne ofIniquity,' 'Suppression of the Liquor Traffic,' 'Alcohol as a Food andMedicine,' etc.
"The truths of these books and pamphlets, which have been reproduced ina thousand ways in sermons, addresses, newspapers, etc., have alreadypermeated the community to such an extent as to bear much fruit."
In the creation of a literature for children, the society early issuedThe Youths' Temperance Banner, a paper for Sunday-schools. This hasattained a circulation of nearly one hundred and fifty thousand copiesmonthly. It has also created a Sunday-school temperance library, whichnumbers already as many as seventy bound, volumes; editions of whichreaching in the aggregate to one hundred and eighty-three thousand fivehundred and seventy-six volumes have already been sold. The society alsopublishes a monthly paper called the National Temperance Advocate,which has a wide circulation.
REMARKABLE GROWTH OF TEMPERANCE LITERATURE.
The number of books, pamphlets and tracts which have been issued by theNational Temperance Society during the twelve years of its existence, isfour hundred and sixty, some of them large and important volumes.
To this extraordinary production and growth of temperance literature inthe past twelve years are the people indebted for that advanced publicsentiment which is to-day gathering such force and will.
And here, let us say, in behalf of a society which has done such grandand noble work, that from the very outset it has had to struggle withpecuniary difficulties.
Referring to the difficulties and embarrassments with which the societyhas had to contend from the beginning, the secretary says:
"The early financial struggles of the society are known only to a veryfew persons. It was deemed best by the majority of the board not to letthe public know our poverty. Looking back over the eleven years ofsevere struggles, pecuniary embarrassments, unexpected difficulties,anxious days, toiling, wearisome nights, with hopes of relief dashed atalmost every turn, surrounded by the indifference of friends, and withthe violent opposition of enemies, we can only wonder that the societyhas breasted the storm and is saved from a complete and total wreck. * * *This society never was endowed, never had a working capital, never hasbeen the recipient of contributions from churches or of systematicdonations from individuals. It never has had a day of relief fromfinancial embarrassment since its organization; and yet there never hasbeen a day but that the sum of ten thousand dollars would have lifted itout of its embarrassments and started it with a buoyant heart on towardsthe accomplishment of its mission."
And he adds: "Notwithstanding all these constant and ever-pressingfinancial embarrassments, the society has never faltered for one moment,but has gone steadily on doing its appointed work, exploring new fields,and developing both old and new truths and documents and principles, andit stands to-day the strongest and most solid and substantial bulwarkagainst intemperance in the land."
A MOST IMPORTANT AGENCY.
As the most important of all the agencies now used for the suppressionof the liquor traffic, and as the efficient ally of all let us rally tothe support of our great publication house and see that it has amplermeans for the work in which it is engaged. There are hundreds ofthousands of men and women in our land who are happy and prosperousto-day because of what this society has done in the last twelve years tocreate a sentiment adverse to the traffic and to the drinking usages ofsociety. Its work is so silent and unobtrusive in comparison, with thatof many other efficient, but more limited instrumentalities, that we areapt to lose sight of its claims, and to fail in giving an adequatesupport to the very power, which is, in a large measure, the source ofpower to all the rest.
If we would war successfully with our strong and defiant enemy, we mustlook to it that the literature of temperance does not languish. We arenot making it half as efficient as it might be. Here we have athoroughly organized publication house, with capable and active agents,which, if the means were placed at its disposal, could flood the countrywith books, pamphlets and tracts by millions every year; and we leave itto struggle with embarrassments, and to halting and crippled work. Thisis not well. Our literature is our right arm in this great conflict, andonly in the degree that we strengthen this arm will we be successful inour pursuit of victory.
"Whatever revenue license pays the State is fully counterbalanced by theincreased cost of jails, poorhouses and police, for which the patientpublic pays immense taxation. The moral burdens from the infamoustraffic are all additional to the financial."