Prohibition was a bad idea. But the Temperance movement was originally about decreasing the insane amount of alcohol Americans consumed in the country's youth, and it was shockingly successful at that. The American Temperance Society was founded in 1826. Although we cannot easily distinguish correlation from causation, historical evidence points to it being a great success. The raw amount of alcohol consumed per capita decreased by as much as 75% over the next twenty years. Most of this was achieved without legislative intervention: the first law that limited alcohol distribution was the Maine law was passed in 1850, after this change occurred