Fredericton Temperance Reform Club, Fredericton, New Brunswick.
By the 1870s, there were literally thousands of societies, lodges and churches across Canada dedicated to tem- perance. Some were concerned only with moderation in drinking; some advocated total abstinence, but felt it had to be an individual decision and so opposed laws which would prohibit alcohol. Still others, probably most, felt that drinking must be prohibited by law. In 1876, all groups favouring prohibition were brought together under the Dominion Alliance for the Total Suppression of the Liquor Traffic with branches in each province. Its purpose was to coordinate the demand for prohibition, and it was the major force that won prohibition in Canada. A similar organization. the Anti-Saloon League. was formed in the United States, but it came twenty years after the Dominion Alliance. Clubs such as the one in the illustration were to be found in almost every centre of population and had long been centres of community social and political activity. They were ready made bases for prohibition agitation.
