BECKLEY, W.Va. — The National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union is still waging its war on booze, but the battle has moved from the saloon to the classroom.

At their 116th national convention, 500 delegates planned new ways to attack their classic foe, the alcohol industry. The four-day convention in this southern West Virginia city began Wednesday.

“We believe in teaching children not to start drinking. Then someday we’ll be able to sit back and watch legalized prohibition,” said the group’s president, Rachel Kelly of Portland, Maine.

Founded in 1874, the Evanston, Ill.-based group helped hasten passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919. Its members stormed speakeasies with hatchets until Prohibition was repealed in 1933.