<P> The Temperance movement was a significant mass movement at this time and encouraged a general abstinence from the consumption of alcohol . A general movement to build alternatives to replace the functions of public bars existed, so the Independent Order of Rechabites was formed in England, with a branch later opening in America as a friendly society that did not hold meetings in public bars; there was also a movement to introduce temperance fountains across the United States--to provide people with reliably safe drinking water rather than saloon alcohol--as well as a variety of temperance halls and coffee palaces as replacements for bars . Numerous periodicals devoted to temperance were also published and temperance theatre, which had started in the 1820s, became an important part of the American cultural landscape at this time . </P> <P> In 1864 the Salvation Army was founded in London with a heavy emphasis on both abstinence from alcohol and ministering to the working class, which led publicans to fund a Skeleton Army to disrupt their meetings . The Salvation Army quickly spread internationally, maintaining an emphasis on abstinence . </P> <P> Many of the most important prohibitionist groups, such as the avowedly prohibitionist United Kingdom Alliance (1853) and the US - based (but international) Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1873), began in the latter half of the nineteenth century . </P> <P> In 1862, the Soldiers Total Abstinence Association was founded in British India by Joseph Gelson Gregson, a Baptist missionary . In 1898 the Pioneer Total Abstinence Association was formed by James Cullen, an Irish Catholic, and spread to other English - speaking Catholic communities . The Anti-Saloon League was an organization that began in 1893 in Ohio . </P>

Which group or cause became the primary driver of the temperance movement