SHERWELL ARTHUR JAMES 1863-1942 MPAND TEMPERANCE CAMPAIGNER

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Scope and Content

Papers relating to a survey by the Temperance Legislation League of theinfluence and activities of the drink trade on the 1910 General Election:

1. Returns from constituencies and a summary of the returns.
2. Letters to Sherwell from MPs and candidates.
3. Press cuttings, prints, an anti-temperance handbill.
4. A photograph of a display of election posters.
5. A scrapbook containing press cuttings on temperance.

Administrative / Biographical History

Arthur James Sherwell 1863 - 1942

Sherwell was born in London and privately educated. Prior to enteringParliament he was occupied in sociological and politico-economic studies andliterary work. From 1906 to 1918 he was Liberal MP for Huddersfield.

His publications include:

The Drink peril in Scotland (1903)
Life in West London: a study and a contrast (1897)
The Russian vodka monopoly (1915)
State purchase of the liquor trade (1919)
The temperance problem and social reform (1899)
The taxation of the liquor trade (1906)
Public control of the liquor traffic: being a review of the Scandinavianexperiments in the light of recent experience (1903)
British 'Gothenburg' experiments and public-house trust (1910)

The Temperance Legislation League

During the early 20th century some temperance reformers became involved inthe trust house movement as a means of controlling the nation's alcoholconsumption, buying public houses and running them in ways to discouragedrinking. Other reformers, mostly Liberals, organised the TemperanceLegislation League to lobby for legislation to permit local experiments inwhich all public houses in a district would be run on the principle ofdisinterested management. At one time the League was almost entirely financedby the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust until after 1946, when the Trusteffectively gave up efforts to promote temperance reform. After World War IIthe Home Office committee liaised with the League on post-war reconstruction,and pressed for the creation of community centres on new estates where liquorwould be controlled.