816 



TEMPERANCE INSTRUCTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



and went to Lansing, drafted the bill, and ad- 

 dressed the Committee on Education and a joint 

 session oi: the Legislature in its behalf. The bill 

 provided, in addition to the requirements of the 

 V ennont law, that the study should be taught " all 

 pupils in alf schools." lioth this and the New 

 Hampshire bill become laws, to take effect one 

 year from their passage. Mrs. Hunt then said, 

 If we can carry New fork and Pennsylvania for 

 this legislation, we can carry the country by, 

 force of their example," and to the constituencies 

 of the New York legislators she and her co- 

 laborers went. Letters and petitions addressed 

 to the Legislature and visiting committees fol- 

 lowed, until a majority of the members were in- 

 structed from home to vote for the temperance 

 education bill. It passed on March 4, 1884, in 

 exactly the form in which it had been presented 

 to both House and Senate, as follows : 



1. Provision shall be made by the proper local 

 school authorities for instructing all pupils, in all 

 schools supported by public money or under State 

 control, in physiology and hygiene, with special refer- 

 ence to the effect of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and 

 narcotics upon the human system. 



2. No certificate shall be granted any person to 

 teach in the public schools of the State of New York 

 after the first day of January, 1885, who has not 

 passed a satisfactory examination in physiology and 

 hygiene, with special reference to the effect of alco- 

 holic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics upon the hu- 

 man system. 



The Legislature of Rhode Island a few weeks 

 later enacted a similar law. The Pennsylvania 

 campaign of 1835 was one of the most extended 

 and memorable. The State had been thorough- 

 ly organized for the work the year before, and 

 now the subject was presented to the people 

 back of nearly every legislator. In addition to 

 this canvass of the State, Mrs. Hunt addressed a 

 joint session of the House and Senate in behalf 

 of the bill. The opposition roused by its strin- 

 gent features was overcome as their need was 

 set forth, and it passed the Senate unanimously 

 and the House by a good majority. The Penn- 

 sylvania law provides : 



That physiology and hygiene which shall, in 

 each division of the subject so pursued, include 

 special reference to the effect of alcoholic drinks, 

 stimulants, and narcotics upon the human system 

 shall be included in the branches of study now re- 

 quired by law to be taught in the common schools, 

 and shall be introduced and studied as a regular 

 branch by all pupils in all departments of the public 

 schools of the Commonwealth, and in all educational 

 institutions supported, wholly or in part, by money 

 from the Commonwealth. 



It shall be the duty of county, city, and borough 

 superintendents, and boards of all educational in- 

 stitutions receiving aid from the Commonwealth, to 

 report to the Superintendent of Public Instruction 

 any failure or neglect on the part of boards of school 

 directors, boards of school controllers, boards of edu- 

 cation, and boards of all educational institutions re- 

 ceiving aid from the Commonwealth, to make proper 

 provision, in any and all of the schools or districts 

 under their jurisdiction, for instruction in physiology 

 and hygiene which, in each division of the subject so 

 pursued, gives special reference to the effect of 

 alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics upon the 

 human system, as required by this act ; and such 

 failure on the part of directors, controllers, boards of 

 education, and boards of educational institutions re- 

 ceiving money from the Commonwealth, thus reported 

 or otherwise satisfactorily proved, shall be deemed 



sufficient cause for withholding the warrant for State 

 appropriation of school money, to which such dis- 

 tricts or educational institutions would otherwise be 

 entitled. 



No certificate shall be granted any person to teach 

 in the public schools of the Commonwealth, or in any 

 of the educational institutions receiving money from 

 the Commonwealth, after the first Monday of June, 

 Anno Domini 1886, who has not passed a satisfactory 

 examination in physiology and hygiene, with special 

 reference to the ettect of alcoholic' drinks, stimulants, 

 and narcotics upon the human system. 



Nine other State legislatures in 1885 enacted 

 temperance education Jaws, viz., Maine, Alabama, 

 Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, Nebraska, 

 Oregon, and Massachusetts, all using in sub- 

 stance the language of the New York statute, 

 except Massachusetts, where the law is more 

 like the Pennsylvania statute. 



In 1886 Mrs. Hunt presented to Congress a 

 temperance education bill which applied to all 

 the Territories, the District of Columbia, the 

 national military and naval academies at 

 Annapolis and West Point, and the Indian and 

 colored schools under Federal control. This bill 

 had all the features of the Pennsylvania statute, 

 with the more definite specifications that " the 

 study shall be pursued with text-books by pupils 

 able to read, and taught orally in the case of 

 those unable." It was presented to the Senate 

 by Senator Henry W. Blair, of New Hampshire, 

 and in the House by Hon. Byron M. Cutcheon, 

 of Michigan. Mrs. Hunt addressed the Senate 

 and House Committees on Education in its be- 

 half. It passed the Senate unanimously in 

 March. The opposition that kept it three 

 months in the House Committee was overcome 

 by a popular demand from all parts of the 

 country, and it finally passed the House May 17, 

 1886, without amendment, with only eight votes 

 against it, and received the President's signature 

 May 20. 



During the same year, in addition to this act 

 of Congress, the States of Iowa, Maryland, and 

 Connecticut enacted temperance education laws, 

 and Michigan and Vermont amended their 

 statutes on the subject, making them more 

 stringent, adding in each case the important 

 specification that the study shall be taught with 

 text-books that shall give "at least one fourth 

 of their space to the consideration of the nature 

 and effects of alcoholic drinks and other nar- 

 cotics, and the books used in the highest grade 

 of graded schools shall contain at least twenty 

 pages of matter relating to this subject." In 

 1887 West Virginia, Colorado, California, and 

 Delaware enacted temperance education laws; 

 in 1888. Ohio and Louisiana; in 1889, Florida 

 and Illinois. In 1890, North and South Dakota, 

 Montana, and Washington, on coming into 

 Statehood, either re-enacted the national law or 

 substituted a statute of their own, as did Idaho 

 and Wyoming in 1891. North Carolina also en- 

 acted an admirable temperance education law in 

 1891, and Mississippi in 1892, and Alabama add- 

 ed strengthening amendments to her statutes. 

 For specifications of the statutes of these and 

 other States, see the accompanying map. The 

 following is the explanation of the marks : 



x The cross signifies that scientific temperance is 

 a mandatory study in public schools. 

 * The star signifies a penalty attached to the en- 



