The Church Temperance Society. That’s the short name of the Temperance Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America. The society was established in 1881 to promote temperance, ‘rescue’ the intemperate, and eliminate the perceived causes of intemperance.

In promoting temperance, the Society considered the moderate consumption of alcohol and the total abstinence from alcohol to be equally acceptable options.

Other Activities

In addition to  religious preaching, the Society engaged in other activities.

• Promoting coffee houses as alternatives to saloons.
• Prohibiting alcohol sales on Sunday.
• Improving housing for the poor.
• Prohibiting alcohol sales to minors.
• Increasing fees and taxes on saloons.
• Prohibiting alcohol sales to intoxicated customers.
• Restricting the number of saloons to one for every 500 residents.
• Establishing local option laws permitting local areas to impose local prohibition,
• To support its views, the society published a monthly paper, Temperance.

Two youth organizations, the Knights of Temperance and the Young Crusaders, were outgrowths of the Society.

Other Temperance Groups

A number of similar organizations, usually religious in nature, existed. They included these.

• Cadets of Temperance
• Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America
• Friends of Temperance
• Knights of Father Mathew
• Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals
• National Temperance Society and Publishing House
• Royal Templars of Temperance
• Sons of Temperance
• Templars of Honor and Temperance
• United Friends of Temperance

Readings

• The Manual of the Church Temperance Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church. NY: The Society, 1882.
• Proposed Excise Bill for the State of New York.  NY: The Society, 1885.
• Graham, R. Church Temperance Society. In: Spooner, W. (Ed.) The Cyclopaedia of Temperance and Prohibition. NY: Funk & Wagnalls, 1891, p. 81.