The issue of temperance, which included an awareness of the problems caused by alcohol and campaigned for closing saloons and banning the use, sale and production of alcoholic beverages, was a popular topic for social reformers in Sedalia during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Temperance organizations such as the Independent Order of Good Templars, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League actively worked for laws mandating prohibition. Other organizations, such as the Salvation Army, the Y.M.C.A., and most Protestant churches, encouraged their members to avoid alcoholic beverages.
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