,m. IS, li^'^iiLXLIBRlS';.5=':.:^ !L.v::ii!l I ■ HISTORY of the ANTI - SALOON — LEAGUE — By ERNEST HURST CHERRINGTON Editor The American Issue and The American Patriot Author of The Anti-Saloon League Year Book 1913: THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING COMPANY WESTERVILLE, OHIO, U.S.A. COPYRIGHT. 1913 BY ERNEST H CHERRINOTON A ^3 c '-t CONTENTS «^ CHAPTER I. iJi The Birth of the Anti-Saloon League 7 >- < CHAPTER II. ££ The Struggle for Existence 49 CHAPTER III. The League Becomes a Political Power 73 2 CHAPTER IV. "^ A Tidal Wave of Temperance Reform 99 ^ CHAPTER V. Reaction and Revival 123 a? S CHAPTER VI. g The Evolution of the Nation-Wide Crusade 141 3S. .■582o6^^ Chapter L The Birth of the Anti-Saloon League Before the monstrous wrong he sets him down — One man against a stone-walled ci«^y of sin. For centuries those walls have been a-building; Smooth porphyry, they slope and coldly glass The flying storm and wheeling sun. No chink, No crevice, lets the thinnest arrow in. He fights alone, and from the cloudy ramparts A thousand evil faces gibe and jeer him. Let him lie down and die: What is the right, And where is justice, in a world like this? But by and by earth shakes herself, impatient; And down, in one great roar of ruin, crash Watch-tower and citadel and battlements. \\'hen the red dust has cleared, the lonely soldier Stands with strange thoughts beneath the friendly stars. — Edward Rowland Sill. The Birth of the Anti-Saloon League THE year, 1893 m arked an epoch in the history of the temperance reform in the United States. For a century and a half before that time the liquor traffic had been growing by leaps and bounds. For almost one hundred years temperance societies and organizations by the score had spent themselves in a long series of unsuccessful efforts to stem the tide of intemperance. Hundreds of consecrated men and women, devoted to the temperance cause, had given their lives as living sacrifices upon the altar of the temperance reform, seemingly without adequate results. The annual tribute paid by the American people to the Moloch of rum had grown to the vast sum of almost $1,500,000,000. The hands of the officers of the law in the cities and towns of the nation were tied, all too often, by the cords of graft woven in the saloon. State legis- latures were submissive to the supreme author- ity of this monster liquor machine, with its un- disputed ability to make or to unmake poli- ticians. And the federal government itself, 7 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE hushed by the cold bribe of a one hundred and ei^lily niiUion dollar annual federal tax, had gffown deaf and dumb on all ([uestions affect- ing^ this institution, which, by a presumed di- vine right, held the throne in the world of finance and trade. On the other hand, in spite of the church's magnificent record of temperance sentiment building, apathy and indifference seemed to hold the balance of power among the Christian hosts. There were temperance organizations, some of which, to all appearances, possessed a hatred of other similar organizations stronger by far than their hatred of the saloon. There were even church adherents whose denomina- tionally prejudiced eyes looked upon the fol- lowers of other creeds as the direct emissaries of Satan. And there were Christian men, be- longing to various political parties, whose rev,- erepce for the mere name of the political party whose banner they followed had come to be more sacred than their religious vows. These great handicaps had constantly shown them- selves, both in the failure of the Christian moral forces to take advanced steps and in their inability to hold the ground which had been previously gained. iDuring the half century before 1893, V ft HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE eighteen states had adopted either statutory or Constitutional Prohibition, with the result that eleven had repealed the law before Pro- hibition had been given even a chance for a fair trial, while the prohibitory laws in the re- maining states had been so poorly enforced that many of these laws had practically be- come dead letters, there being no effort what- ever in certain states to give any attention to the enforcement of Prohibition. In thirty-one states and territories the people had no voice on the liquor question. Only eleven states had any form of local veto privilege, but in most of these the local option provision was so in- effective that it was all but worthless outside of three or four commonwealths?) In short, the saloon controlled politics. It dictated political appointments. It selected the officers who were to regulate and control its operations. It had its hand on the throat of legitimate business. It defiantly vaunted itself in the face of the church. It ridiculed m.orality and temperance. It reigned supreme. Such were the conditions that confronted all who claimed the right to be numbered among the temperance forces in 1893. Yet, in spite of such conditions, the early pioneers of the Anti-Saloon League had the courage and 9 HISTORY OF THE AXTI- SALOON LEAGUE the faith to present a common platform for the members of all temperance organizations; holding out a common creed, so far as the Christian attitude toward the liquor traffic was concerned. ui)c)n which all denominations might agree; advocating a common policy on which the good men of all parties might unite — a propaganda of agitation, legislation and law enforcement for the solution of the liquor problem. Thus it was that after more than a hundred V years, during which time thousands of earnest Christian temperance people had been hoping for and praying for a movement that might unite all Christian forces against the liquor traffic, there came into existence the Anti- Saloon League. , ^ The Ohio Anti-Saloon League was the off- spring of the Oberlin, Ohio, Temperance Al- liance, which was organized on the evening of March 20, 1874. The mass meeting of Oberlin citizens at which this organization took place, was called for the purpose of meeting a crisis in the temperance movement in that college town. Rev. H. H. Bowden, Professor Hiram Mead and Rev. James Brand all gave stirring addresses at this meeting, urging the necessity 10 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE of organized effort in order to successfully combat the liquor evil in the community. The object of the Alliance, as given in the^ constitution adopted at that time, was, "By all lawful measures to suppress the traffic in and use of intoxicating liquors." The first president of the Alliance was President James H. Fair- child, of Oberlin College. The membership was first limited to those who signed the pledge adopted by the Alliance. Later, how- ever, the organization was enlarged to take in all persons in the village who were friendly to the temperance cause. The president, vice presidents and eleven members-at-large com- posed the Executive Committee of the organi- zation, which, for the first two years, confined itself largely to the work of saloon suppression in Oberlin. At a meeting of this organization, held February i, 1876, it was decided to extend the activities of the Alliance to take in something more than local work, and a resolution was adopted authorizing the circulation of a peti- tion to the United States Congress, asking for a Commission of Inquiry on the Liquor Prob- lem. Early in the following year the Alliance, after having corresponded with other college II HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE lowns in the stale, decided to make an effort to secure a local option law for all such towns, and sent Professor J. M. Ellis lo Columbus to take up the matter with the members of the state legislature. Mr. E. J. Goodrich was also especially active in this movement for addi- tional legislation. A law for college towns known as the "Metcalf Law" was finally pass- ed by the legislature in 1882. Encouraged by the success of this first effort to secure state legislation and the bene- ficial results of the local option provision of the law, the Alliance soon decided to make an effort to extend this provision to all communi- ties of the state. In the meantime, however, the fight for a prohibitory amendment to the State Constitution was made in Ohio, and the Oberlin Alliance organized the entire county of Lorain in support of the proposed amend- ment. According to the minutes of the Oberlin Alliance, a meeting was held on December 8, 1887, and a resolution was adopted calling for a mass meeting on December 12 in the interest of a state-wide local option law. This meet- ing was held in the chapel of Council Hall, and was attended by about one hundred earnest citizens. At this meeting it was decided to 12 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE launch a temporary movement throughout the state in the interest of a township local option provision which would apply uniformly to all townships of the state. The Alliance employed Howard H, Russell to lead the fight, paid out of its treasury about half of the $800 raised and expended during the campaign, and furnished ministers to supply Russell's pulpit at Berea, Ohio, so that he might give his entire time to the work of securing petitions from all parts of the state and to personal work with the members of the legislature at Columbus. Rus- sell promptly opened an of^ce with stenog- raphers and clerks, arranged for helpers among the ministers and laymen in different sections of the state, and finally succeeded in securing the passage of the "Beattv Law" in the spring of 1888. This law provided for local option by town- ships. It was enacted by a majority of only one vote, and but for Russell's special efforts in a certain Senatorial District at a critical point in the fight, the measure would have been defeated. A bare majority of the senators had given their word to stand by the proposition. A few days before the measure was to come up, however, one of the senators pledged to its support informed the temperance floor leader 13 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE of the senate iliat he would be compelled to withdraw his pledge, as his constituency had raised a storm of protest against his attitude. Doctor Russell promptly went to the senator's home town, instituted a campaign of letters, telegrams and personal interviews which, to- gether with other inlUiences, brought the halt- ing senator back into line; so that when the roll was called on the final passage of the local option bill it was adopted in the senate by a majority of just one vote. This work was all carried on under the di- rection of the Oberlin Temperance Alliance, and when the campaign was over Russell made his final report and accounting to that body. The splendid success of this temporary state-wide movement made it apparent to many of those who had been active in the fight that a permanent state organization should be formed. Russell strongly advised such a course, and efforts were made at the time, by the Oberlin Alliance, to effect such an organi- zation by counties. Russell, however, who was the logical man for superintendent, decided that he must fulfill the contract which he had made to become city missionary for the Con- gregationalists at Kansas City, Missouri. Ef- forts were made to secure others to lead, but 14 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE no other man seemed to be available at the time, and the state-wide movement conse- quently became dormant for a season. At a meeting of the Oberlin Alliance held on February 7, 1889, it was proposed to or- ganize an Anti-Saloon League for Lorain county. The movement took shape, and re- sults in the county were soon sufficient to further convince those in charge that the time for a permanent state-wide movement had arrived. On two occasions between 1888 and 1893 Russell was invited to return to Oberlin and deliver temperance addresses, and upon both of these occasions Russell urged that a state organization be completed in Ohio. Rus- sell was active while in Chicago, where he had gone from Kansas City, in the prosecution of liquor dealers, and in the movement to close the saloons on Sunday during the World's Fair. His experiences both at Kansas City and Chicago led him to still more strongly yearn to see the overthrow of the liquor traffic. When recovering from a serious illness at Chi- cago in November, 1892, he resolved to start another such organization as soon as possible. While convalescing he again visited Oberlin and talked with Doctor Brand, Doctor Tenney and General Shurtleff, leading members of the 15 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Temperance Alliance, and they encouraged his return to Ohio for the purpose of renewing the state-wide fight. ILirly in 1893 another do- mestic tragedy at Chicago, where drink broke up a home, led him in his sympathy for the two orphan children, still nearer to his life enlistment "for the war." In the spring of 1893 Russell again cor- responded with General Shurtleff, proposing to take the Ohio state organization work pro- vided the Oberlin Temperance Alliance would help to finance the movement until the interest of the temperance forces of the state could be enlisted. General Shurtleff took the matter up with Professor A. S. Root and other members of the Alliance Executive Committee, and at a meeting held during the first week of May the committee extended an invitation to Russell to come to Oberlin and personally present his plan of organization. The date settled upon for the conference was May 24, 1893. Russell went from Chicago to Oberlin and met the committee in the Spear Library Building on that date. The plan was fully outlined, thor- oughly discussed and finally adopted. The following resolution offered by General G. W. Shurtleff and adopted at this meeting of the Oberlin Alliance, was the first recorded action 16 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE toward the organization of the Ohio Anti- Saloon League: Resolved, That it is the judgment of this commit- tee that there is need of a state organization which shall unite the churches and all temperance people in an effort to awaken an interest and secure wise action in destroying the open saloon and securing individual total abstinence ; Resolved, That this alliance will attempt to raise $500 toward the salary of Rev. Howard H. Russell, with the understanding that his salary shall be at the rate of $2,000 a year until such time as that salary is fixed by the State Executive Committee. A resolution was also adopted at this meet- ing asking the pastors of the churches to call a mass meeting for the purpose of securing the support and co-operation of the church and temperance forces of Oberlin for the new movement. The mass meeting was held on the evening of Sunday, June 4, at the First Congregational Church. All Oberlin churches joined in the service. Rev. Doctor James Brand, the pastor, presided. General Shurtlefif and Professor Root spoke, and Doctor Russell presented to the audience the plans for the proposed departments and methods of state work. The following resolutions were adopt- ed by the congregation by a rising vote : Assembled in a union mass meeting in the First Congregational Church of Oberlin, Ohio, on this 4th 17 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE day of June, 1893, the friends of temperance in Oberlin adopt the following : Resolved, That it is highly important, in our view, that there should be formed in the state of Ohio an organization, permanent and aggressive in character, in which all classes of the friends of temperance can unite, and led by a superintendent who shall give his entire time to the development and prosecution of the work. Resolved. That this organization shall have in view the following ends: (i) The development and unification of a temperance public sentiment through the agency of local organizations, public addresses and such other methods of education and direction as may from time to time suggest themselves ; (2) The en- forcement of laws already on the statute books; (3) The enactment of further legislation as public senti- ment may warrant in order that our people may be saved from the evils of the drink habit and delivered from the debauching curse of the drink traffic; (4) That to bring about such an organization we will undertake to raise $500 toward the expenses of the same, and hereby authorize the officers of the Oberlin Temperance Alliance to appoint temporary officers and take whatever measures may be necessary to carry this action into effect. An appeal for funds at this same meet- ing^ resulted in the securing of a subscription amountinie: to $513 a year for three years. This subscription is believed to have been the first public subscription taken for the support of the Anti-Saloon League. Russell immediately 18 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE closed up his pastorate at the Armour Mission in Chicago, and at once proceeded to push the work in Ohio. During the months of July and August, Elyria, Medina, Berea, Port Clinton, Lakeside and other places were visited by Russell and local organizations were formed. At a meeting of the Oberlin Alliance held August 26, 1893, plans were laid for a confer- ence at which a provisional state organization might be effected: Professor F. W. Jewett, Secretary W. H. Pearce and Professor A. S. Root were made a committee to send out a call for such a con- ference, and Rev. James Brand, D. D. ; Rev. H. M. Tennv, D. D., and General G. W. Shurtleff were appointed a committee to prepare plans to be submitted to the conference. On Tuesday, September 5. 1893, at 2 p. m., the first session of this conference was held in the chapel of the First Congregational church of Oberlin. President Jewett, of the Alliance, read the call ; Rev. John F. Brant was made chairman, and Mr. C. A. Metcalf was made secretary. Professor A. S. Root, speaking for the Alliance, made a statement as to the origin and purpose of the movement and the part which the Alliance had already taken in the work. Doctor Russell reported that subscrip- 19 m ffi^^TORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE .Lu>ns 10 the amount of about $3,000 a year for three years liad already been received, and that the work was already receiving the support of many newspapers, pastors and temperance workers. On motion of Rev. J. P. Mills, then pastor of the Methodist Church at North Am- lierst, the conference proceeded to a provis- ional org-anization. At the evening- session of the conference, at which Rev. James Brand, D. D., presided, a final draft of a proposed constitution was re- ported and adopted; the Committee on Nom- inations reported a full list of oflficers, including Rev. David O. Mears, of Cleveland, for presi- dent, five vice presidents, a secretary, a treas- urer and an Executive Committee, which re- port was adopted in full. Thus, the provisional organization of the Ohio Anti-Saloon League was formally launched. In the meantime, a non-partisan organiza- tion of the "Interdenominational Christian Temperance Alliance" had been started by Rev. Dr. A. J. Kynett for the state of Ohio at Columbus the previous February. Rev. Dr. Taylor (pastor Central Presbyterian Church, Columbus), the president of the Kynett or- ganization, wrote Russell telling him they had an "unorganized organization'' and would be 20 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE glad to merge it into the Anti-Saloon League. This was done in October by the addition of several of their officers to the provisional Board of Trustees of the Anti-Saloon League. R.ussell opened a state headquarters at Colum- bus and brought his family there in September. As he could not secure co-operation in appoint- ments from the pastors and churches by mail, Rev. R. Hicks, of Oberlin, was put into the field to make Russell's dates, and from Sep- tember to January Russell was continuously filling appointments, forming local committees and raising subscriptions. In November the state committee felt it was safe to employ an assistant, and Rev. Harry B. White, of Toledo, was made the first District Manager. When the first legislative campaign opened in Janu- ary, 1894, and the Haskell Local Option Bill was introduced, Rev. E. C. Dinwiddle, who had been employed by the League in December, 1893, "^^s called as an assistant for the legis- lative department. E. W. Metcalf, of Elyria, and A. L Root, of Medina, each contributed a special gift of $500 to start the legislative campaign. By May, 1894, the end of the first year's operations, three hundred local organi- zations (committees) had been formed; the Haskell Bill had received thirty-six votes in 21 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE the House side of the le£2:islature; several town- ship local option campaiG:ns had been won; a few local convictions of lawbreakers had been secured; a state paper, "Anti-Saloon," with a circulation of five thousand subscribers, had been started; ei,c:ht thousand dollars had been raised for all departments of state work, and the Anti-Saloon Leap^ue had found a probable footincT as a permanent state organization. Howard H. Russell, the man chosen in 1888 to lead the temporary state organization in Ohio, and who later on was elected superin- tendent of the permanent state movement when it was be.8:un at Oberlin in 1893, was peculiarly fitted for such a service. After pre- vious experiences, helpful in preparation for this kind of work, he had been a successful lawyer in Iowa for six years, had been a clergy- man for seven years in city pastorates in Kan- sas City and Chicago, and had always been an active and efficient leader in local and state temperance campaigns. He had studied at Oberlin for five years and had been stirred by the Oberlin spirit to activity and service in the field of evancrclism and reform. The preliminary movement looking toward the creation of some such organization as the 22 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Anti-Saloon League in the District of Colum- bia began in the spring of 1893. On March 3 of that year, a new liquor measure, passed by Congress for the District of Columbia, was signed by President Benja- min Harrison and became a law. While this law had been drafted in the interest of the liquor dealers, some features which were added in the form of an amendment constituted a real advance along the lines of temperance re- form, and encouraged many of those interested in the promotion of temperance in Washington to follow up the points of vantage gained and revive in a special way, if possible, the organiz- ed efforts for the suppression of the liquor evil. The first public effort along this line mani- fested itself in the voluntary organization of what was called "the No-Compromise Publish- ing Company," the promoters of which includ- ed Mr. Andrew N. Canfield, John R. Mahoney, Jesse C. Suter, Henry F. Smith, J. T. Hensley, Professor H. R. Stewart, T. L. Salkeld and others. This company was formed for the purpose of issuing a paper under the name, "No Com- promise," the primary reason for which was to get to the public the names of those who from time to time signed indorsements for the 23 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE granting of retail liquor licenses in the District of Colmnbia, since the daily newspapers at that time in Washington refused to publish such lists of names; which publication the temper- ance forces of the District felt would greatly help in keeping many from placing their names to such indorsements. The first issue of "No Compromise" is dated May, 1893, and the object of the publication of the paper and the movement behind it is shown in an article which appeared on the first page of Number i, Volume I, entitled, "A Union of Forces." In this article the pro- moters of "No Compromise" set forth the reasons why a union of all temperance forces in the District should be cfifected, and an- nounced that a call would soon be issued for a mass meeting to take up the consideration of some such movement. This call followed early in May, and the meeting was held on May 12, 1893. John R. Mahoney was made chairman, and W. Seward Rowley was chosen secretary. A number of stirring addresses were made by Rev. Scott F. Hershey, Rev. Walter H. Brooks, Mr. F. M. Bradley, Rev. J. J. Muir, Rev. Dr. Lemon and others. A committee was appointed to make arrangements for a larger mass meeting for 24 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE the purpose of adopting some definite line of action, which committee consisted of H. R. Stewart, Rev. W. H. Brooks, F. M. Bradley, Rev. J. J. Muir, Rev. Thos. B.Marche, J. A. Van Vleck, Rev. W. A. Creditt, Mrs. S. D. La Fetra, Mrs. Margaret B. Piatt, Mrs. W. S. Rowley, Mrs. M. E. Cohen and Mrs. Gillenwater. Later Rev. J. J. Muir was excused at his own request, and Mr. John R. Mahoney was elected in his place. Mrs. H. K. Gofif was also added to the committee. Arrangements were promptly made for the proposed larger mass meeting, which took place at 3 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, June 4, 1893, at the First Congregational Church at Washington. Rev. W. H. Boole, D. D., of Brooklyn, New York, made the principal ad- dress, and a resolution was adopted calling a delegated meeting of organizations with the provision that each organization would be al- lowed two delegates. This meeting of dele- gates duly appointed met at the Fletcher Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church on June 23, 1893, ^^^ the Anti-Saloon League of the District of Columbia was duly formed. Major 5. H. Walker was elected president, Mr. H. R. Stewart vice president, Mrs. H. A. Gillen- water recording secretary, Mr. E. C. Palmer 25 IIISTOKV OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE corresponding secretary, and Mr. Thos. B. Marche treasurer. At this meeting, also, a coniniillce was ai)pointcd to prepare a consti- tution and by-laws. This was done, and at a meeting of the League on July 7, 1893, the con- stitution and by-laws were adopted and an Ex- ecutive Committee was chosen consisting of John R. x\Lihoney, Mrs. M. B. Piatt, S. H. Walker, A. N. Canfield, S. H. Williams, Rev. Walter H. Brooks and E. J. Redmond. This executive committee, of which Mr. A. N. Canfield was made chairman, promptly em- ployed Mr. Jesse C. Suter to represent the League before the Excise Board in all matters in which the League was interested. Mr. Suter continued in the employ of the League until February 2, 1894, when he resigned and was succeeded by Mr. Albert E. Shoemaker, who is still the attorney for the District League. The Ohio and District of Columbia Anti- Saloon Leagues, although they proved to be the first successful attempts at a permanent organization under the name, "The Anti-Sa- loon League," cannot be said to have been the only movements in this direction up to that time. In 1892 there was organized by a few 26 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE earnest men in the state of Massachusetts an "Anti-Saloon League," which, although it was not sufficiently fortunate to stem the tide of early opposition and indifference, nevertheless presented in the main the same general plan as that afterwards adopted by the Anti-Saloon League of Ohio and the District of Columbia L.eague, except that it attempted to make local church bodies the units of organization. At this point the Massachusetts movement com- pletely failed. Dr. Russell, moreover, made two distinct attempts to organize an Anti-Saloon League outside of Ohio before 1893. After the successful termination of the efifort to secure a township local option law in Ohio, Russell accepted a call to Kansas City, Missouri, where he organized and built the Tabernacle Congregational Church. In 1890, while pastor of this church. Doctor Russell, re- membering the success of the temporary state organization under his leadership in Ohio, led in the formation of a state organization in Missouri. At a meeting of two hundred repre- sentative delegates, called together by a com- mittee organized by Russell at Pertle Springs, Missouri, in July, 1890, the Missouri Anti-Sa- loon League was launched. Russell was elect- 27 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE ed president, and for the months of July and August, 1890, during a vacation granted him by his cliurch, he gave his time without salary to organizing local Leagues and to spreading the movement throughout Missouri. In Sep- tember, when Russell returned to his church work, W. J. Reese was employed as field secre- tary for the purpose of extending the local or- ganization work which Rdssell had begun. In February, 190 1, however, Russell was called to the Armour ]\Iission, in Chicago, and the Mis- souri movement gradually suspended. It is interesting in this connection to note that when the effort was made by Doctor Rus- .sell to organize the Anti-Saloon League in Missouri he found himself unable to secure +'unds sufficient to send out the letters for a call to a state convention to launch the League. He made known this situation to the local or- ganization of the non-partisan Woman's Chris- tian Temperance Union at Oberlin. The con- secrated women who were members of that local W. C. T. U. promptly responded by send- ing to Doctor Russell a check for fifty dollars to pay the necessary postage for sending out the call. Again, in the spring of 1893, while pastor of the Armour Mission in Chicago, Russell 28 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE heard that a state convention had been held in Indiana with a view to starting a state non- partisan temperance organization, and that a minister at Kokomo had dechned the call to be state superintendent. Russell at once went to Terre Haute and conferred with Rev. R. V. Hunter, D. D., who had presided at the state meeting, and also to Indianapolis to see other temporary officers, but found them unwilling to adopt the plan which he had in mind, and he returned to his Chicago work. In other sections of the country, moreover, prominent ministers and churchmen had draft- ed on paper suggestions for an organization of a similar character to the ones which were formally launched at Oberlin and Washington, thus showing that the need for a common, ag- gressive movement against the liquor power had appealed to the judgment of prominent Christian temperance men throughout the land almost simultaneously. The organization of the National League was not effected until December, 1895. ^^ 1894, Archbishop Ireland, of the Catholic Church, and Rev. A. J- Kynett, D. D., chair- man of the Permanent Committee on Temper- ance and Prohibition for the Methodist Epis- copal Church, traveling together on a railway 29 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE train from Chicago to Philadelphia, discussed the liquor problem at length and agreed upon the advisability of a plan for uniting all the forces opposed to the saloon. In the early spring of the following year (1895), Doctor Kynett and Bishop Luther Barton Wilson, of the Methodist Church, then pastor of Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D. C, talked together in re- gard to the advisability of forming a national organization along Anti-Saloon League lines, and it was suggested that the Anti-Saloon League of the District of Columbia take the in- itiative in calling a convention for the purpose of organizing such a League. The District of Columbia League, under the leadership of Bishop Wilson, having already considered such a move, promptly fell in line with the suggestion. On April 15, 1895, at a meeting of the Dis- trict ori^anization, Bishop Wilson presented the matter and read a communication on the subject from Doctor Kynett. A committee of the District League was appointed and author- ized to issue a call sicfned by the president and secretary of the District Leacrue, for a con- sultation preliminary to holding a convention for the organization of a National League. 30 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE The committee was also instructed to get in touch with prominent temperance workers throughout the country in order, if possible, to secure their co-operation in the enterprise. After some correspondence, the committee found an almost unanimous sentiment in favor of the movement, but also found that a later date than the one selected would be preferable. The District League, therefore, proceeded with the work of preparing and issuing the proposed call. This preparatory work was very largely done by Mr. James L. Ewin, who drafted the call and whose office force was employed in the clerical work necessary with- out stint. Mr. Ewin, a patent attorney of Washington, had already been very active in the work of the District League, and was one of those whose devotion to the cause in those early days was of a character that demanded sacrifice and service of a degree to which but few of the League's friends in the beginning were willing to go. The nature of his business was such that the boycott methods of the liquor interests could easily and quickly affect it, and that the sympathizers of the saloon saw the opportunity and used it with telling effect, the records of Mr. Ewin's office before and after his activity along League lines show con- 31 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE \ incing cvickncc. Tliis, however, in no sense affected Mr. IC win's zeal and activity; he be- came cviMi more active than before, and his sincere and enthusiastic devotion to the LeaLjue and its work has continued to the present time, in spite of discouragements and obstacles whicli would easily have dampened the ardor of a less determined and sacrificing si)irit. Mr. Ewin was present at the mass meet- ing which authorized the District of Columbia League organization on June 4, 1893. He was one of the early members of the District League, having been sent as a delegate from the Sunday School Temperance Society of Foundry Methodist Episcopal Church. Wash- ington, D. C. He was the first vice president of the District organization, and executive officer under President Luther B. Wilson, 1894-1895; president for eleven years, 1896- 1906; editor The Protest, the of^cial organ of the District League, 1902-1908, and at present ])residcnt pro tem of that organization. His office was the headquarters of the District League for thirteen years, 1894-1906. He was also secretary of the First, Second, Third and Fourth National Conventions; compiled and published the proceedings of the First, Second 32 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE and Third Conventions; was secretary of the National League from December, 1895, to De- cember, 1898; was a member of the National Executive Committee from 1899 to 1901 ; cor- responding secretary, 1902-3 and 1906-9, and chairman of the National Executive Commit- tee, 1 899- 1 90 1. The call drafted by Mr. Ewin and sent out from his office was finally issued on October 18, 1895, and the convention met in Calvary Baptist Sunday school house in Washington, D. C, on Tuesday, December 17, and, on Wed- nesday, December 18, 1895, the American Anti- Saloon League was formed by the coalition of the Anti-Saloon League of the District of Co- lumbia, the Anti-Saloon League of Ohio and forty-five other state, national and local tem- perance organizations. Hon. Hiram Price, of Washington, D. C, was elected president; Rev. Luther B. Wilson, D. D., LL. D. (Bishop Wil- son), first vice president; Archbishop John Ire- land, of Minnesota, second vice president; Rev. John J. Beacom, of Pennsylvania, third vice president; Mr. James L. Ewin, recording secretary; Mr. F. W. Walsh, Jr., of Massachu- setts, treasurer; Rev. Howard H. Russell, su- perintendent of the Ohio League, was made National Superintendent; and an Executive 33 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Committee was elected consisting of the fol- lowing members, in addition to the officers: Hon. Elijah A. Morse, M. C, of Massachu- setts; Rev. A. J. Kynett, D. D., LL. D., of Pennsylvania ; Bishop C. B. Galloway, of Mis- sissippi; Rev. Harry B. White, of Ohio; Bishop E. B. Kephart, of Maryland ; Mrs. Annie Wit- tcnmyer, of Pennsylvania; Rev. F. N. Lynch, of West Virginia; and Rev. F. M. Edwards, of Virginia. Doctor Kynett was elected presi- dent, and Rev. Alford Noon, Ph. D., of Massa- chusetts, secretary of the National Board of Direction. The death of Hon. Hiram Price in May, 1901, left the presidency of the National League vacant until the time of the National Convention, in December of the same year. At this convention, Rev. Luther B. Wilson, D. D. (Bishop Wilson), was elected to succeed Mr. Price as president, and has remained at the head of the League from that time. Others who have served from time to time as vice-presidents of the national organization are: P. S. Henderson, D. D.; B. B. Tyler, D. D.; Newman Smyth, D. D. ; Bishop B. W. Arnett; William C. Lilley; Hon. John D. Long; Rev. J. Q. A. Henry; Judge Charles A. Pollock; Rev. G. S. Burroughs, D. D. ; Bishop 34 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE Charles B. Galloway; Rev. David J. Burrell, D. D.; Bishop J. W. Hamilton; F. D. Power, D. D.; Rev. Father James M. Cleary; Prof. E. W. B. Curry; Mr. Jesse C. McDowell; Bishop E. E. Hoss, D. D. ; Rev. W. B. Crumpton, D. D.; Bishop G. M. Matthews; Rev. Washington Gladden, D. D. ; Rev. William L. McEwan, D. D.; Rev. J. C. Barr, D. D; Rev. Doctor ElHs; Bishop H. C. Morrison; Bishop W. N. Mc- Vickar; Bishop Samuel P. Spreng; Rev. R. F. Coyle, D. D. ; and Rev. J. H. O. Smith, D. D. Additional treasurers of the National League since its organization have been: Hon. John W. Cummins ; Mr. William C. Lil- ley; Prof. J. M. Barker, Ph. D. ; Dr. D. H. Car- roll; and Mr. Foster Copeland. So far as the first permanent official organi- zation under the name, "The Anti-Saloon League," is concerned, that organization took place in Washington, D. C, when the Anti- Saloon League of the District of Columbia was organized on June 23, 1893. To that District organization also unquestionably belongs the credit for the initial step which resulted in the convention at which the organization of the National Anti-Saloon League (later changed to the Anti-Saloon League of America) was effected. So far, however, as the Anti-Saloon 35 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE League movement is concerned, as that move- ment is now known and represented by the Anti-Saloon League of America and the Anti- Saloon Leagues of the several states, that movement without doubt had its origin at Oberlin, Ohio, and was the logical and natural (•ffspring of the Oberlin Temperance Alliance. This does not mean that the Anti-Saloon League of the District of Columbia was a mere paper organization or that it was not what its name signifies. As a matter of fact, the Anti- Saloon League of the District of Columbia has met the demands in the District. In the very nature of the case its most important work has been that of law enforcement. Since Congress is the legislative body for the District, natur- ally the temperance forces of Washington and vicinity are dependent largely upon the work of the states for the kind of legislation secured. Nevertheless, the record of the District League shows that the pioneers of the movement there had in mind the League idea, and that the movement there has w^orked the threefold Anti-Saloon League plan of agitation, legisla- tion and law enforcement. The movement born in Ohio differed from the movement born in Washington in three marked particulars: First, The Ohio League 36 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE included the idea of an active executive officer, the "executive human shoulder," as it was termed by Doctor Kynett, w^ith assistant su- perintendents and agents giving their entire thought and undivided attention to the direc- tion of the League v^ork. Second, The Ohio plan included a financial system founded on the per-month subscription card now used by all the Anti-Saloon League organizations every- where; which system, perhaps, more than any other one thing, aside from the active State Superintendent idea, has been mainly respon- sible for the success achieved by the League movement throughout the nation, not only in solving the problem of financial support, so essential, but more especially in securing the active co-operation and close affiliation of the hundreds and thousands of small monthly con- tributors, every one of whom has had a per- sonal and direct interest in seeing that all phases of the League work received the largest possible measure of co-operation and active support in their local communities, as well as in the larger political units. Third, The Ohio organization, from its inception, devoted the major part of its efi'orts to the securing of proper temperance legislation in the state law- making body, by directly applying itself to the 37 3bJ^^SH'- HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE defeat of candidates for the state legislature who were against the measures supported by tile League, as well as to the election of such men to the legislature as could be depended up- on to stand by the temperance forces in the effort to secure remedial temperance legisla- tion and to block the progress of measures favorable to the liquor interest. These differences, due perhaps largely to the difTerent form of government in the Dis- trict of Columbia and in the states, have un- questionably been responsible for the fact that the movement most commonly known as the Anti-Saloon League in the several states has followed the plan of organization which orig- inated with the birth of the Ohio Anti-Saloon League at Oberlin. Nine out of every ten of the state superintendents of the Anti-Saloon Leagues of the several states, as well as dis- trict superintendents and field secretaries, now numbering several hundred, either received their training or experience in League work in the Ohio League or in a State League organiz- ed on the "Ohio model." A significant fact in this connection is that thirty-four State Su- perintendents of the Anti-Saloon Leagues of the several states since the birth of the move- ment have been secured from Ohio. The Anti- 38 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Saloon League, therefore, as it is known and recognized today in the Anti-Saloon League of America and in the several State Anti-Saloon Leagues which are affiliated with the national organization, was unquestionably born at Oberlin. Whether the date of birth may be said to have been when the Ohio Anti- Saloon League was formally organized on vSeptember 5, 1893, whether at the mass meet- ing on June 4, 1893, when the first special fund was raised for its support, whether at the meeting of the Alliance on May 24, when Russell was employed as superintendent of the movement, or whether in 1887, when the non-partisan, interdenominational movement known as the Oberlin Temperance Alliance, put Russell in the field and began the state-wide movement for a township local option bill, is really only a matter of passing interest. That the unique plan of the present Anti- Saloon League movement, with the three pe- culiar essentials above referred to, originated out of the Oberlin Temperance Alliance and was born under the influence and in the re- markable reform atmosphere of that Western Reserve College town, is the essential fact which must forever stand out as the important 39 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE iriilh in connection with the birthplace of the Anti-Saloon League movement. The Anti-Saloon League came into ex- istence as a natural evolution of the reform spirit of the .times. That spirit did not mani- fest itself alone in any one man or in any one particular company of men, either at the be- ginning of the movement or in its development since. To the hundreds of consecrated, earnest men and women who have toiled, sacrificed and stubbornly pressed the battle on the firing line of this new crusade during the twenty years of its existence, must be given in divided portions the credit for creating the movement and for building the great organization which in the last analysis must be said to have been divinely or providentially appointed. But if there is one man, who above any other has the right to justly claim the honor of having founded the Anti-Saloon League, the unpreju- diced investigator, in view of all the evidence available and all the testimony which has been given on all sides of the question, must un- questionably be compelled to give that honor to Howard H. Russell. Not that he sacrificed more than many others, not that he had greater ability than others, not that his devotion to the cause was 40 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE stronger than that of others, not that others under the same circumstances and conditions might not have done so much as he did or se- cured so large a measure of tangible results in the beginning, but simply that the facts as they are show beyond the question of a reasonable doubt that Howard H. Russell was the leader of all the leading spirits in the inauguration of the League movement, and the principal pro- moter in the early days of its struggle for ex- istence. The Anti-Saloon League movement has been successful in the United States because of the special circumstances attending its genesis and development. A conflict started in 1893, against the rich, well-organized, pow- erful and politically entrenched liquor trust, was by all existing human standards and ex- periences foredoomed to failure. The unique combination of elements and constituents prepared and combined to initiate and promote a victorious cause may be sum- marized as follows: First, A leader providentially called, who was equipped with the following qualities and training: i. A lawyer of seven years' very active general practice, frequently prosecuting lawless saloon men. 2. A clergyman for seven 41 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE vears in important pastorates, five in large cities and all in the midst of constant war against saloons. 3. A previous diversified ex- perience as government clerk, frontiersman, newspaper man, teacher and superintendent of schools. 4. A man with a hereditary bent for organization, having the confidence of the public, based upon previous record of success in temperance leadership. 5. One with a burn- ing hatred of the saloon because when a youth it nearly entrapped him; because for fifteen years it had buffeted and almost despoiled a brother; because it had sent three near rela- tives and many close friends to premature graves, and because in his pastorates the tragedies of the saloon were ever before him. 6. One with a Pauline conversion with the spirit of sacrifice and service. 7. A wife in full sympathy, of simple tastes, economical thrift, and a sublime power of sacrifice for duty. 8. One gifted in persuasive speech; of strong and wiry physical strength and endurance; firm for reform yet tactful and diplomatic; skillful in the raising of funds; absolutely fearless and staunch in character. 9. One willing to accept the unpleasant features of the duty — absence from home and the hardships of early, inade- quate support and able to hold on with tenacity 42 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE when, again and again, everything seemed to indicate that defeat had come. Second, A providential environment for its genesis. Oberlin had been founded by re- formers. Finney, Mahan, Fairchild and Tap- pan v^ere all sturdy men of devotion to duty. In its justice to women, its anti-slavery spirit, its patriotism and its prolonged and militant anti-saloon warfare, it was the very place of all places to cradle and nourish the anti-saloon movement. Where else in the United States could a community of 2,000 people have been found who would have become sponsors for the movement and out of meagre resources would have contributed such steady and gen- erous financial support? For, in addition to aggregate gifts of nearly $1,000 annually, on two occasions Oberlin has added another thousand dollars to her regular support. Northern Ohio, with its Western Reserve, too, was full of the New England spirit of reform which helped in the early expansion of the Anti-Saloon League's environment. Ohio also, as a state, taken as a whole, has been a good seed-bed in which to plant and propagate a new "idee" for human welfare. It is full of schools, thinkers and virile doers of deeds.. It was the state in which, in 1893, ^^^ ^^^^ was 43 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE ripe for an answer by an organization of men to the prayers of the women of 1873. Third, Inspired methods of organization. I. The essential needs of the reform — first, agitation; second, legislation, and, third, law enforcement, were fortunately combined in the work proposed to be done locally and state- wide. 2. In this League also it was to be demonstrated that the waser method was the iion-partisan or omni-partisan political meth- od. In the primaries and at the polls it has been possible to secure, through state legisla- tures and at last through the Congress, a dom- inant majority who, though members of various parties, unite to forget their partyism and factionalism, and to execute upon this paramount question the will of their constitu- ents at home. 3. Difficult of achievement as it was at the time, this League further pro- posed to unite the various churches for tem- perance reform regardless of their sect or creed. The working of this miracle set the death-seal upon the liquor traffic of America. 4. Adequate financial support, another abso- lute essential, also was an inspired feature. The monthly subscription card invented and used by the founder, and after him by his pu- pils and associates in the leadership, has been 44 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE the lifebuoy for the movement in all the states, as, into one after another, the Ohio model has been almost universally installed. 5. The early plan of administration which took care to provide for the selection instead of election of Managing Boards or Trustees, until a per- manent non-partisan footing was insured, has been essential to prevent the capture and de- struction of the organization by unfriendly partisans. 6. Altogether essential, too, was the plan to provide supervision in office and field by men who devoted their entire time and strength to the service. Volunteer aides giv- ing part time have been availed of, but no State League would have been victorious without the State Superintendent and his district as- sistants constantly employed. The Anti-Saloon League system thus set in motion by the Oberlin Temperance Alliance and at last developed into a conquering force in Ohio, and from there expanded into the other states of the Union, must be deemed the basic and historic germinant and developed system of Anti-Saloon League organization. Other agencies which have, from time to time, affiliated or co-operated in anti-saloon work have all been merely tributary to this main stream of influence and power, and not only 45 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE have all the other State Leagues of the Union adopted what was termed at the Convention of 1895 (called to organized the National League) the "Ohio System," or the "Ohio Model," in their organized anti-saloon work; but the Canadian anti-liquor organization, the Canadian Temperance Alliance, has done the same; and its officers give due honor and credit for their largely increased income, equipment and efficiency to the Anti-Saloon League methods of service which the anti-saloon forces in the states have been happy to have their Canadian brothers import, free of duty, across the border. The rapid growth of the Anti-Saloon League, the results of its work during the first twenty years of its existence, together with the consternation which it has succeeded in bringing to the ranks of the liquor forces, are nothing short of marvelous — a record, indeed, wiiich, in point of time, may be truthfully said is unsurpassed by that of any other great moral reform of history. This matchless record of achievement, however, has not been merely accidental. It is the record of long years of sacrifice, patient toil and persistent devotion to a great cause. 46 Chapter IL The Struggle for Existence Then welcome each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go! Be our joys three parts pain! Strive, and hold cheap the strain; Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe! — Robert Browning. The Struggle for Existence THE first three years of the history of the Anti-Saloon League movement may well be termed, "The Struggle for Existence." Denominational ties were strong. Political prejudices were deep-rooted, and any movement attempting to overcome such prejudices, for whatever pur- pose, was at once face to face with a task of Herculean proportions. Temperance men and women prominent in various reform or- ganizations stood aloof, awaiting develop- ments. Financial support was extremely meager, and the Christian public seemed in- clined to wait for the new movement to dem- onstrate its fitness to survive without giving it even a fair chance for such demonstration. There were many times during these early years when, but for timely financial assistance which seemed almost divinely provided, the Anti-Saloon League as a real, militant organi- zation might have found an early grave. One of the most remarkable instances of this kind occurred in Ohio at a time when prospects of continuing to do business and maintain an 49 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE office from day to day were most discouraging. Doctor Russell, the State Superintendent, had borrowed to the liwiit of the credit of both the League and himself, and had been driven to the necessity of pawning his watch in order to meet certain small expenses which had to be met. It was under such stress as this that Doctor Russell went to the late E. W. Met- calf, of Elyria, Ohio, and appealed for im- mediate help. After Doctor Russell had left Mr. Metcalf's house, the latter become con- vinced that it was his duty not only to pour into the movement as much money as he him- self could afiford, but also that an impelling obligation was upon him to enlist others in the financial support of the movement. He knew of Mr. A. L Root, the president of the Root Bee Company, at Medina, Ohio, who was a prominent layman in the Congre- tional Church, to which denomination Mr. Metcalf also belonged. So convinced was Mr. Metcalf that he had been divinely commis- sioned to get special financial co-operation from Mr. Root that he took the train for Medina, promptly went to Mr. Root's ofifice and laid the matter before him. Mr. Root, who had always been a very lib- eral contributor to all the church benevolent 50 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE enterprises, was just at this time hard pressed financially. The Root Company was close run for funds, and the prospects for the year's business were not extraordinarily good. Mr. Root had already sent to Doctor Russell his Anti-Saloon League contribution for the year. Mr. Root, therefore, in reply to Mr. Metcalf's appeal, said that he had given all that he could possibly give, and that his obligations along other lines were such that he must meet them, at the same time being financially hard pressed. Mr. Metcalf, however, seemed inspired. He laid before Mr. Root the situation as it was. He told him that he believed this move- ment to be the beginning of a great national movement against the saloon, but that the work could not go forward unless he (Mr. Met- calf) and Mr. Root came to the rescue at that critical time with a check for five hundred dollars each. Mr. Root finally became con- vinced that Mr. Metcalf had been divinely sent to him on this mission and, after having con- sulted with his son, Mr. Ernest R. Root, who, having heard the conversation, strangely enough had reached the same conclusion, he wrote out his check for five hundred dollars, which was promptly forwarded, with a similar one from Mr. Metcalf himself, to Doctor Rus- 51 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE sell in Columbus. So long as Mr. Metcalf lived he continued to contribute largely year after year, while the A. L Root Company has con- tinued to make annual contributions of in- creasing amounts until the present time, the total amount contributed by this one firm to the League movement since that time amount- ing to about thirty thousand dollars. There were many other times in the early history of the movement when financial as- sistance at the time of an impending crisis came in a way that seemed providential. There were sacrifices in the early days of the League, made by men who were among the early workers, of which the world will never know. As a matter of fact, to accept a posi- tion with the League during the first years of its existence meant sacrifice as a part of the price for the opportunity for service. This was well illustrated in the case of Mr. Canfield, of Washington, D. C, who was the leading spirit in the organization of the District of Columbia League. Mr. Canfield was employ- ed in the government civil service at Wash- ington. When the liquor interests of Wash- ington began to feel the effects of his influence and work against them, they brought pressure to bear upon the congressman from his home 52 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE district, through whom he had secured his position. When, however, it was suggested to Mr. Canfield that he might lose his position if his anti-saloon activities continued, he prompt- ly refused to be silenced, and added that, so far as his position was concerned, he was willing to run the risk and, if necessary, take the issue to the people of his Congressional District, which district, fortunately, was even at that time strongly against the liquor traffic. To even briefly give a history of the sacri- fices of the men who became the early pioneers of the League would require a book in itself larger than this brief history. Carhart, of South Dakota; Colman, of Wisconsin; Craw- ford, of Minnesota; Harry White, of Ohio; Saunderson, Hartley, Henry, Hubbard, Brad- ley and Walker are but a few of those in addition to those already mentioned and others still actively connected with the League move- ment, whose names must for all time be inter- woven with the detailed history of the early struggles and hardships in the several states, and whose spirit of sacrifice and service made the Anti-Saloon League a permanent move- ment. Moreover, the names of scores of the real heroes of the League's struggle for ex- istence, including the wives and children of 53 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE the men who went out upon the firing line, will never be known; for, like the tens of tlKuisands of those who sacrificed most in the terrific struggle of the sixties, they belong to the class marked by the word, "Unknown." The men who in this day of achievement and victory give themselves, with their time and efiforts, to the promotion of a winning cause, can know but little of what it meant in the early, doubtful days of the Anti-Saloon League's existence for men to cut loose from positions which insured a livelihood to throw themselves into a struggle for the maintenance of a movement for temperance reform, with but meager prospects that they would be able to maintain themselves while the Anti-Saloon League was on trial for its life. Immediately after the launching of the National Anti-Saloon League in 1895, the work of organizing the movement in the several states was begun and vigorously prosecuted. The following year, 1896, witnessed the or- ganization of branches of the League in Penn- sylvania, South Dakota, Michigan, West Vir- ginia and Iowa. The Anti-Saloon Leagues of Nebraska, Northern and Southern California and Tennessee were organized in 1897. ^" 1899, New Hampshire, New York, Colorado 54 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE and Arkansas fell into line, making in all twenty-one states and territories where the League movement was started during the first five years of the National League's activities. In several of these states the first organiza- tion was not permanently successful, and in some of them several years elapsed after the first organization before the right men were found and adequate financial and moral sup- port was secured to make the' movement per- manent and efifective. But the seed sown in the first half-decade in these twenty-one states have since borne a rich harvest, and the move- ment, though dormant for a time in some of these states, never died. During these first years of organization not much in the way of tangible results was se- cured. In a number of state's, however, helpful legislation was enacted, the number of saloons was reduced, and there were other evidences of the results of organized effort. The first three years of the League's existence in the state of Ohio showed a reduction of 1,442 in the num- ber of retail liquor establishments in that state, whereas, before 1893, when the League was or- ganized, the number had been steadily in- creasing from year to year. The League's local option bill, moreover, which was present- 55 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE ed to the Ohio legislature, received thirty-six and fifty votes respectively, in the legislatures of 1894 and 1896; but a similar measure v^as smothered in committee in the legislative ses- sion of 1898. Van Buren county, Michigan, during this period, abolished the saloons under the county option law of that state, and Tennessee's four-mile law, prohibiting saloons in rural dis- tricts, was extended to include cities of 2,000 or less than 2,000 population. Over against these victories, however, were a number of set- backs to the temperance cause. The Prohibi- tion law of South Dakota was repealed in 1897, and the poor enforcement of the laws in other Prohibition states showed increasingly the need of a real, practical revival in anti-liquor activity. It was soon manifest that the mere or- ganization of an Anti-Saloon League in any state was far from sufficient to bring results. The League was not a machine that could run itself. The human shoulder was absolutely essential. There was a crying need for field men to give their entire time to the work of agitation and organization. Each state promptly came to a realization of the need of an official paper, through which the League 56 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE might speak to the Christian pubHc. There was need for Hterature, tracts, leaflets, pam- phlets and periodicals bearing upon the League work and presenting to the public the general economic and social aspects of the liquor ques- tion before the League could hope to crystal- lize the sentiment already in existence against the liquor traffic. The three years of 1900, 1901 and 1902, therefore, witnessed what might be called the workman's scaffolding about this structure of anti-saloon reform. The foundation had been well laid, but the building of the superstructure was compelled to conform to the slow yet only sure plan of pressing the work of saloon suppression by the crystallization and proper application of public sentiment. Pages of literature, by the million, were accordingly scattered throughout the land. The main part of the revenues of the League was expended in printer's ink, stere- opticon lectures, and in general agitation meet- ings in the cities and towns of the several states. The public sentiment aroused in this way and directed according to League methods began to tell in the changing attitude of mem- bers of state legislatures, town councils, and in the activity of state and municipal executives, as well as that of other officers of the law. 57 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Early in 1900, Minnesota passed a splendid search and seizure law, which was the first temperance legislation enacted in that state for several years. In Ohio, the Clark Local Option Bill, providing for local option on the liquor question in incorporated villages and cities, passed the House of Representatives by a majority of a few votes, the total vote being fifty-nine. This measure, however, was lost in the Senate by the narrow margin of fifteen to sixteen. The League's fight on the Governor of Arkansas, who had placed himself in a light favorable to the liquor interests, was success- ful to the extent of reducing his majority by 20,000 votes. The same kind of fig^ht ae:ainst the re-election of the Governor of Nebraska, for similar reason, reduced his majority so greatly that he was re-elected only by the nar- row margin of 800 votes, while the rest of his ticket won by approximately 8,000 majority. In a number of other states, moreover, the po- litical strength of the League began to show itself in various ways. During this same year, twelve additional Iowa counties abolished the saloons; seventy-five Nebraska villages voted dry. Queen Anne's county, Maryland, joined the no-license ranks, and the District of Co- lumbia, largely through the efforts of Mr. A. 58 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE E. Shoemaker, the attorney for the District League, succeeded in reducing the number of licenses for the sale of liquor to 641, which number was less by 359 than the number in operation in the District in 1892, one year be- fore the Anti-Saloon League was born. Up to this time not much had been done in the way of efforts to secure legislation in Con- gress. The Anti-Saloon League had a Nation- al Legislative Committee which had succeeded in doing good work in a small way, but the necessity for work along national legislative 4ines became so imperative that, as a result of action taken at the Fourth National Conven- tion of the Anti-Saloon League, held in Cleve- land in December of 1898, legislative head- quarters were opened at Washington and the office of Legislative Superintendent was creat- ed. This office was filled in 1899 by the elec- tion of Rev. Edwin C. Dinwiddie, and special efforts looking toward favorable temperance legislation by Congress were inaugurated. The first crying need for remedial legisla- tion, from a Federal standpoint, grew out of conditions at the army posts; and the* first fight made by the newly-organized Legislative Department of the League was to secure the passage of what is commonly known as the 59 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE Canteen Law, prohibiting the sale of intoxicat- ing liquors at army posts. The strong resolu- tion adopted by the convention of the Anti- Saloon League of America which was held in Chicago in May of 1900 constituted the plat- form upon which the fight for the canteen law was made. As a result of the organized effort on the part of the League forces, assisted by other temperance organizations throughout the country, the Anti-Canteen Law was passed by Congress on January 9, 1901. Among other victories of this same year may be mentioned the passage of a law in Iowa prohibiting the soliciting of liquor orders in dry territory, and the successful fight for the election of a strong temperance man to the Supreme Bench of Ne- braska by the sweeping majority of 12,000 votes, which was effected in spite of all the efforts of the liquor forces to the contrary. These specific victories, while they were not of large proportions, were nevertheless most significant in their bearing on the gen- eral movement, and especially in their dem- onstration of the possibilities of the League when backed by the united support of the church forces in the local communities and in the states at large. 60 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE From the beginning it was evident that the League presented the only possible ma- chinery for securing tangible results in the fight against the liquor traffic, through the unification of temperance forces represented in the different church denominations. It was also evident from the very inception of the movement that the League machinery, unique and potentially powerful as it was, would prove to be worthless without the co-operation and support of the church forces, regardless of de- nomination, so absolutely essential in the very nature of the case. The endeavor to win the church, therefore, was by all odds the most im- portant and vital of all efforts on the part of the Anti-Saloon League management during the years of its struggle for existence. The movement was dependent upon the church, first of all, for financial support. It was also dependent upon the church for the necessary influence and power to turn the tide along non-partisan lines in the election of members of the legislatures favorable to tem- perance legislation, and in the election, as well, of public officials who would enforce the law. n'he church voter's lists, therefore, constituted the real key to the situation.-^ With the en- dorsement and co-operation of the churches, 6i HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE the information as to men and measures sent to the Christian voters was bound to receive attention and secure results. Without the active and pronounced co-operation of the churches, such information was bound to re- ceive but Hmited consideration. The church bodies, consequently, held in their hands the destiny of the Anti-Saloon League; and while many years of dif^cult and persistent endeavor^were necessary to line up the church on the right side of this new move- ment, the effort from year to year was in- creasingly successful in this direction, until by 1901 there was no longer a question on the part of the general public but that the church forces in the main were lined up back of the League, and that the League's fight was in reality the fight of the organized church forces against the organized liquor forces. The result of this condition and the im- pression on the Christian public was soon made manifest in the tangible results secured. During the year 1902, victories for the anti- saloon forces came thick and fast. A number of important laws were written on the statute books of the several states The Beal Law, pro- viding for local option in incorporated villages and cities, was passed by the legislature in 62 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Ohio, thus furnishing the weapon in that state which was later used in cleaning up more than 300 incorporated villages and small cities. Under the leadership of the Kentucky branch of the National Anti-Saloon League, one of the most stringent law enforcement measures ever enacted was written on the statute books of the Blue Grass State. The Maryland leg- islature during this year passed twenty-eight different local temperance laws, while Con- gress, seemingly catching the spirit of temper- ance progress, appropriated $1,000,000 for the erection of temperance substitutes for the can- teen at army posts. In the matter of actual saloon suppression, this same year 1902 witnessed greater results than any preceding year in the history of the League movement. Ninety-three Ohio mu- nicipalities voted dry. Forty-four Maryland saloons were outlawed. Of the seventy-five counties in Arkansas, forty-four abolished the saloon, thus showing an increase of fifteen dry victories in that state over the record of the election in 1900. In California, two-thirds of Los Angeles county voted no-license, as did also one-half of the counties of San Diego and San Bernardino. These victories in Southern California 63 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE were very largely the result of the efforts of one man, Rev. E. S. Chapman, D. D., LL. D., who has been in charge of the League work in Southern California since 1898. When Doctor Chapman began League work on the Pacific Coast, the nine counties composing the South- ern part of the state of California were almost completely under the control of the liquor traffic, and the transformation of the wet and dry map of that section in a few years has been a most remarkable achievement, especially in view of the peculiar conditions in California favorable to the traffic. Doctor Chapman's work, however, has not been limited to those few counties, although the greater part of his time as a League repre- sentative has been given to that section. He was for a time superintendent of the State Anti-Saloon League and, as well, superintend- ent of the Anti-Saloon League of Oregon. His most important national work was the "Stainless Flag" tour of 1907, when he went from Coast to Coast, under the direction of the National League, delivering his lecture on "A Stainless Flag," which was not only a terrific arraignment of the liquor traffic, but a most re- markable legal argument to the effect that the Supreme Court of the United States must 64 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE eventually declare the liquor traffic an outlaw on Constitutional grounds. This address has been printed and circulated by the millions all over the United States. Doctor Chapman has made several other valuable contributions to Anti-Saloon League literature, among them being "Particeps Criminis," "The Czolgosz of Trade and Commerce" and "An Arraignment of the License System.'^ During the year 1902, moreover, Missouri closed forty-four dramshops. Texas temper- ance sentiment succeeded in carrying forty- one of the forty-eight county option elections in the Lone Star State, bringing the number of no-license counties in that state up to 100. More than 200 remonstrances against saloons in the state of Indiana were successful, while the New York temperance forces outlawed sixty concert hall saloons in Buffalo and, un- der the provisions of the Raines law, added 100 dry townships to the no-license column. During the three years of 1900, 1901 and 1902, the League movement continued to ex- pand, and State League organizations were effected in Texas, Washington, Virginia, Mas- sachusetts, and in the Territory of Hawaii. The significant success attending the work of the Anti-Saloon League, especiallv during 65 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE 1902, now began to excite the liquor interests, which had already come to view with appre- hension this increasingly successful temper- ance crusade. The liquor press throughout the length and breadth of the nation sounded the note of alarm, and the various organizations of the brewers and liquor dealers throughout the country began to unite in common cause for mutual protection. The liquor forces at length, in sheer des- peration, made a concerted attack on a few of the weakest places in the temperance lines. This was evidently done in the hope that a few successful raids into no-license territory might put the temperance forces on the de- fensive and thus turn the tide of battle. As a result of this concerted effort, the Prohibition Laws of Vermont and New Hampshire were practically repealed by the adoption of local option provisions. While the enemy was employed in these conflicts in New England, however, the fight- ing forces of the League were also busy in other parts of the field of battle, and as a result of these efforts, during 1903 Virginia passed what was known as the Mann Law, practically abolishing saloons in the rural sections of the state; while North Carolina enacted what is 66 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE known as the Watts Law, limiting the sale and manufacture of liquors to incorporated mu- nicipalities and giving the right of local option to all municipalities throughout the state. As a result of the Mann Law in Virginia, one-fourth of the entire number of saloons in that state were outlawed during the first year of the law's operation. In addition, eighteen of the twenty-four towns and cities voting in the Old Dominion State went dry. In this number was included Danville, with a popula- tion of 25,000. In North Carolina, under the operation of the Watts Law, twenty of the twenty-seven municipal elections held during the year were carried by the anti-saloon forces, Raleigh, the capital city, being one of the mu- nicipalities voting dry. During 1903, moreover, Tennessee passed the Adams Law, which extended the four-mile provision in the liquor laws of that state to all cities of 5,000 or less, thus prohibiting saloons within four miles of a school house in all sec- tions of the state, with the exception of about fourteen cities. Washington, during the same year, enacted a splendid search and seizure law and an anti- gambling measure. Congress appropriated an additional $500,000 for army canteen substi- 67 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE tiites. The number of no-license towns in Con- necticut was increased by five. Ravalli county, Montana, voted dry, this being the first county in the entire state of Montana to abolish the saloons. Fifty-seven additional villages and cities in Ohio voted in favor of no-license under the Beal Law, and 450 convictions of saloon violators were secured in the same state during the year. As a result of a special campaign for law enforcement on the part of the Maryland League, 430 cases were brought against dive- keepers in that state who had violated the pro- visions of the anti-liquor laws, most of which cases resulted in convictions. A similar movement in Omaha, Nebraska, resulted in the debarring of women and music from all saloons in that city, while numerous other victories in the way of additional tem- perance legislation and law enforcement char- acterized the Anti-Saloon League movement during the year. As a result of the great inroads which the temperance forces had made on the saloon during this eventful year, the liquor fraternity finally awoke to the fact that the so-called temperance wave, which had been ridiculed by them as a spasmodic affair and which they had 68 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE continually prophesied would quickly recede, showed no signs of recession. In fact, the year 1903 closed with a most discouraging outlook for the liquor interests and with the brightest possible promise for the success of this comparatively new antagonist of the sa- loon. 69 Chapter III, The League Becomes a Political Power Not in dumb resignation we life our bands on high ; Not like the nerveless fatalist, content to do and die. Our faith springs, like the eagle's who soars to meet the sun, And cries exulting unto Thee, "Oh, Lord, thy will be done." When tyrant feet are tramping upon the common weal. Thou dost not bid us bend and writhe beneath the iron heel, In thy name we claim our right by sword or tongue or pen. And even the headsman's axe may flash thy message unto men. Thy will; It bids the weak be strong; it bids the strong be just; No lips to fawn, no hand to beg, no brow to seek the dust. Wherever man oppresses man beneath the liberal sun. Oh ; Lord, be there ; Thine arm made bare, thy righteous will be done. — JoJm Hay. The League Becomes a Political Power THE history of the first decade of the Anti- Saloon League movement, from its inception in 1893, is largely a history of the installation of League organizations in the several states and the creation of machinery for the crystalliza- tion of public sentiment into the enactment and enforcement of law. The history of the second decade of the League's existence is largely a record of how this organization gen- erated strength which gave to the League movement the political balance of power in a large majority of the states and in the Federal Congress. When Dr. Howard H. Russell, who was the founder of the Ohio Anti-Saloon League, and who furnished the human shoulder which gave vitality to the movement in the pioneer days, accepted the position of National Superintend- ent at the inception of the American League, he undertook the work of organizing branch Leagues in all the states of the Union, and of placing the movement on its feet as an active, 73 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE fighting force representing the Christian peo- ple of all churches. o for substitutes of liquor saloons in the army canteens. A provision in the Oklahoma Statehood Bill was also secured which required the Prohibition of the liquor traffic in Indian Territory and on all Indian reservations in that state for a period of twenty-one years and thereafter until the peo- ple themselves should change the organic law, thus insuring that for at least twenty-one years Prohibition could not be interfered with, even by a vote of the people, in the new state of Oklahoma, so far as the Indian Territory section was concerned. Twenty-five thousand dollars was also appropriated for the better enforcement of the law against selling liquor to Indians or on Indian reservations. An amendment to the Sundry Civil Appro- priations Bill, practically prohibiting liquor selling in the National Soldiers' Homes, and the Humphreys-Gallinger Bill, providing that United States Internal Revenue Collectors should furnish certified lists of persons paying the United States Internal Revenue Tax as retail liquor dealers, were also secured as a part of the year's work for temperance reform in Congress. With all the splendid results, however, 90 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE which had been secured up to this time, includ- ing the thousands of municipahties that had abohshed the saloons, the numerous town- ships, counties and residence districts of cities that had adopted the no-license policy, as well as the large number of anti-liquor laws written upon the statute books of the several states — these tangible victories in reality constituted only a small part of the results thus far achiev- ed through the agency of the Anti-Saloon League and the operation of the anti-saloon plan of saloon suppression throughout the country. The greatest achievement by far which up to 1907 had been registered in favor of the temperance forces was to be found in the strength of the organization of the Anti-Sa- loon League which had been developed during these years of active political work. The leaders of political parties in practically every state had come to know by experience that to nominate men favorable to the liquor interests in communities where the majority of the people were favorable to the no-license policy was suicidal from the party standpoint. In many sections, indeed, party leaders had come to understand that before they could launch the candidacy of any man for a legisla- 91 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE tive office with any assurance of success, they must needs first make sure that his candidacy would not arouse the active opposition of the Anti-Saloon League. The thousands of po- litical graves which were to be found in almost every state of the Union, due to the active work of the League, had come to be a constant and wholesome reminder to the political lead- ers everywhere that this new movement, back- ed by the Christian citizenship in the counties, cities and villages of the several states, had come to hold the balance of power wherever temperance issues were involved in political campaigns. During this same period, while the League was developing political strength, it by no means neglected the moral suasion wing of the reform. A special Moral Suasion Department of the League work was organized at the very beginning of this second decade of the League's existence. This department, first founded as "The Lincoln Legion" and later re- christened "The Lincoln-Lee Legion," was organized at Oberlin, Ohio, at the Tenth An- niversary of the Anti-Saloon League's birth. The manner in which this department came to be known as the Lincoln-Lee Legion is of interest. Abraham Lincoln as a young man 92 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE was not only a total abstainer, but a great ad- vocate of temperance reform. His notable temperance speech, made at Springfield, Illi- nois, on Washington's Birthday, 1842, is but one of many temperance addresses he made in various places throughout the state of Illinois. In 1846 at the South Fork Schoolhouse in Sangamon county, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln made a temperance address and appealed to his hearers, both old and young, to sign the pledge which he had written and to which he had placed his own signature. The wording of this pledge is as follows : "Whereas, the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is pro- ductive of pauperism, degradation and crime, and believing it is our duty to discourage that which produces more evil than good, we there- fore pledge ourselves to abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage."' Doctor Howard H. Russell discovered this pledge at Springfield, Illinois, in I902,and found still living in Sangamon county some of the original signers, whose signatures were secured by Lincoln at the South Fork Schoolhouse meeting. When the Tenth Anniversary of the Anti-Saloon League was held at Oberlin in 1903, Cleopas Breckenridge and Moses Martin, two of the original signers of this pledge, came 93 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE to Uberlin at the request of Doctor Russell and enrolled themselves as the first two sign- ers of the pledge under the Lincoln Legion. Fifteen hundred more signatures were secured on the same day at Oberlin. Before 191 1 al- most 500,000 pledge-signers had been enrolled in the Lincoln Legion. On Sunday, February, 12, 191 1, in the special Lincoln Pledge Ser- vices held in the Sunday schools throughout the country, more than 280,000 additional pledges were signed in a single day. In Feb- ruary, 1912, another special pledge-signing day was observed, with the result that the total membership in the Lincoln Legion passed the raillion mark. During the same year the Lincoln Legion Patriots, composed of boys and girls under twenty-one years of age, and organized as a part of the Lincoln Legion, in- creased by several thousand the number of L.incoln pledge signers. 'While Abraham Lincoln was himself a total abstainer and used his influence and ef- forts in behalf of total abstinence in the Union ranks during the War of the Sixties, General Robert E. Lee was likewise a total abstainer and was at the same time exerting his influence in behalf of temperance among the Confed- erate soldiers. Recognizing, therefore, the 94 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE leadership of these two great men in temper- ance reform, as well as their leadership in the two sections of the nation during the War of the Sixties, the Lincoln Legion in 1913 was re- christened the Lincoln-Lee Legion, and during the first year under this name, through the leadership of Doctor Howard H. Russell, the general secretary, and Rev Milo G. Kelser, the assistant general secretary, pledge signers were added by thousands and literature by the millions of pages was distributed through this agency in all sections of the country.) 95 Chapter IV. A Tidal Wave of Temperance Reform On the far reef the breakers Recoil in shattered foam, While still the sea behind them Urges its forces home ; Its song of triumph surges O'er all the thunedrous din, The wave may break in failure, But the tide is sure to win. The reef is strong and cruel Upon its jagged wall One wave, a score, a hundred Broken and beaten fall ; Yet in defeat they conquer, The sea comes flooding in. Wave upon wave is routed, But the tide is sure to win. O mighty sea ! thy message In clanging spray is cast. Within God's plan of progress It matters not at last How wide the shores of evil, How strong the reefs of sin, The waves may be defeated, But the tide is sure to win ! — The Outlook. A Tidal Wave of Temperance Reform WHEN victories of such large pro- portions began to be registered in favor of the temperance forces during the anti-liquor campaigns of ,1902, the liquor interests, through their various journals and periodicals, began to ex- plain to the public that these so-called anti- saloon advocates constituted but a temporary wave of temperance reform — a spasm of fanat- icism — which would speedily abate. The same cry went up again in 1906, and the public was repeatedly informed, through these same pro- liquor papers, that the "temperance wave" was receding. How well the brewers had gauged the movement and its results may be easily ascertained by a glance at the progress of the anti-liquor forces during the following years. The most important and far-reaching re- sults in the Anti-Saloon League warfare dur- ing this period were secured in the Southern states. While the Anti-Saloon League was born in the North, the temperance sentiment in the South generally was far in advance of 99 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE that in the North, and the appHcation of the Anti-Saloon League method of crystalHzing sentiment for tangible results, naturally op- erated more quickly and more effectively in the states of the Southland than elsewhere where sentiment was not so strong. Moreover, sev- eral Southern states had been pressing the fight against the liquor traffic along lines sim- ilar to those employed by the League, even before any State Anti-Saloon League organi- zations had been formed south of Mason and Dixon's Line. Bishop Galloway, of Mississippi, for in- stance, was one of the first vice presidents of the Anti-Saloon League of America, having been elected when the national organization was formed in 1895, and, although it was many years before the Anti-Saloon League of Mis- sissippi came into existence, the League meth- ods, under the leadership of Bishop Galloway, were responsible for the rapid progress which was made in the anti-liquor warfare in Missis- sippi by the temperance hosts before the State League was formally organized. The one man who is more largely respon- sible than any other for the organization of the Anti- Saloon Leagues throughout the Southern states was Rev. George W. Young, 100 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE D. D., of Kentucky. Doctor Young was the pioneer of the movement in the Blue Grass State. For many years he had been the ex- ecutive head and general director of the Ken- tucy Local Option League, v^hich, through his efforts, was finally merged into the Anti- Saloon League of Kentucky in 1904. Soon afterwards he was elected assistant superin- tendent of the Anti-Saloon League of America, and largely through his efforts during the following years, practically every Southern state fell into line with an active department of the League work. The co-operation and influence of Doctor James Cannon, Jr., D. D., of Virginia, was also especially helpful in getting the movement on its feet in the South. For many years Doctor Cannon has been one of the most influential members of the National Executive Commit- tee of the League, as well as the superintend- ent of the Virginia branch of the organization. In 1906 the Alabama Anti-Saloon League called to the superintendency of that state organization Rev. Brooks Lawrence, who for many years had had charge of the League work in the Toledo, Ohio, district. Mr. Law- rence at once began an active campaign for the passage of a County Option Law, and as a lOI HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE result of the League work carried on before the legislature was elected and during the session of that body in 1907, a splendid County Option Law was enacted, under which twenty-four counties voted dry during the first six months. On the 28th day of October of this same year, Jefferson county, Alabama, including the city of Birmingham, to the surprise of even many of the temperance people of the state, voted to abolish the saloons by a majority of over 1,800. This victory showed so strongly the trend of public sentiment that Governor Comer im- mediately called a special session of the legis- lature, and a State-Wide Prohibitory Law was promptly enacted, to go into effect January i, 1909. In Georgia, during the same year, a law providing for State-Wide Prohibition was passed in the legislature by a vote of thirty- four to seven in the Senate, and by a vote of one hundred thirty-nine to thirty-nine in the House. The temperance forces in Virginia also caught the spirit of the movement sweeping over the South, and as a result of the efforts put forth in that state during the year, eleven of the thirteen municipalities voting on the liquor question registered a majority against 102 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE license. The movement, moreover, swept the state of Kentucky, where, out of thirty-seven county option elections held in twelve months, thirty-five resulted in temperance victories; while in Arkansas the legislature took advanc- ed ground by abolishing all saloons outside of municipalities and by prohibiting the opera- tion of whisky drummers and the advertising of liquors by wholesalers throughout the state. In Colorado, under the leadership of Rev. E. E. McLaughlin, at that time the superin- tendent of the League in that state, a splendid local option law was enacted providing for a vote on the liquor question by municipalities, wards and precincts. The temperance people of Connecticut secured from the legislature of that state three additional anti-liquor laws. In Idaho a stringent Sunday Closing Law was written on the statute books, thus giving a new inspiration to the movement against the liquor trafific in that state. The fight for a Local Option Law in Illinois had been a long, hard battle, both during the administration of superintendent William H. Anderson and later during the administration of Rev. James K. Shields, who succeeded Mr. Anderson in 1905 as superintendent of the Illi- nois League. After a hot campaign in 1906, 103 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE however, for the election of a legislature, the Hlinois League, under the leadership of State Superintendent Shields, secured from the leg- islature in 1907 a Local Option Law providing for votes by townships, cities and villages. As a result of the first votes taken under this measure on November 5, 1907, 141 of the 161 precincts voting adopted no-license, thereby abolishing in a single day 199 saloons. Delaware, moreover, secured during the same year a law submitting the liquor question to a vote of the people of the state by counties, with the result that when the vote was taken, while Newcastle county and the capital city of Wilmington retained the saloons, the re- mainder of the state voted for Prohibition. In Massachusetts, the "Pony Express" Law was enacted, which measure aimed at the illicit sale of intoxicating liquors in dry terri- tory. The Anti-Wineroom Law was enacted in Montana. Eight new dry counties were se- cured in North Carolina. The anti-liquor forces of Ohio succeeded in destroying, under the newly-enacted Search and Seizure Meas- ure, over 300 speakeasies, while fifty additional villages and cities voted no-license under the Beal Municipal Local Option Law. In Ne- 104 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE braska, several new provisions were placed on the statute books of the state, among others being those prohibiting fictitious shipments of liquors into dry territory, preventing saloons locating within two and a half miles of United States Army posts, and forbidding saloon ownership by breweries. In spite of the result of the state election in Maine in the fall of 1906, which was a victory for the Prohibition forces, the Senate of the state, having a majority favorable to the liquor traffic, succeeded in securing the passage in that body, by a vote of sixteen to ten, of a reso- lution resubmitting the question of Prohibi- tion to a vote of the people. This measure, however, was promptly killed by a splendid majority in the House; and Governor Cobb, who had been elected strictly on a law enforce- ment, Prohibition platform, proceeded to in- augurate a campaign of law enforcement such as the state of Maine had not known for many years. In Missouri, Minnesota and Vermont, a large number of temperance victories was re- ported in the local option elections held in the various towns, villages and other subdivisions of these states. The amendment providing for Prohibition in the new state of Oklahoma was 105 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE adopted by a vote of the people by a majority of over 18,000. The legislature of South Da- kota enacted a Search and Seizure Law and several other splendid restrictive temperance measures. In Tennessee, the old Adams Law, prohibiting saloons within four miles of a schoolhouse or institution of learning outside of cities of 5,000 or more, was amended with the result that the saloon was banished from all but four counties of the state. A Residence District Local Option Law was passed by the legislature of Wisconsin. Sixty-three townships and four counties were added to the no-license column in Indiana; while the legislature of the state of Washing- ton, through the enactment of a Direct Pri- mary Law, placed the liquor traffic in that state more directly on the defensive than it had ever been, either in territorial or statehood days. Remarkable, however, as were the results of the campaign of 1907, the record for 1908 was even more remarkable. Despite the oft- repeated predictions of reaction, the anti-sa- loon wave continued to sweep the country. On January i, the State-Wide Prohibition Law in Georgia went into effect, and from that day forward scarcely a day passed without 106 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE some significant victory for the temperance forces. At the spring elections in the state of Hli- nois, 1,053 townships voted dry, abolishing thereby 1,500 saloons. The temperance forces of Wisconsin added 100 new communities to the no-license column, thereby abolishing 400 saloons. The results of the spring elections in Minnesota showed a net gain for the anti- saloon forces of thirty-two dry municipalities. Thirty additional villages in Nebraska also voted no-license. Ten additional counties in Michigan were made dry, abolishing thereby 305 saloons. A large number of counties in South Carolina outlawed the liquor traffic un- der the newly-enacted county law, so that be- fore the close of the year twenty-two of the forty-two counties of that Southern state were dry. Mississippi, not to be outdone by her sister Southern states, passed a State-Wide Prohibi- tory Law during the year, thereby excluding the liquor traffic from the seven remaining wet counties of the state. A referendum vote on the liquor question in North Carolina resulted in the adoption of State-Wide Prohibition by the significant majority of 44,000 votes. Un- der the County Option Law of Oregon, 107 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE twenty-one of the thirty-three counties abol- ished the saloons on June i, 1908. In Colo- rado, forty-two municipalities voted dry, while the local option elections in Arkansas showed that of all the votes cast in the county option elections throughout the state, the votes cast against the liquor traffic exceeded those cast in favor of it by a majority of 22,934. During this year the great liquor strong- hold of Leavenworth, Kansas, where ''joints" had been operating for years in defiance of the State Prohibitory Law, was cleaned up under the direction of the state attorney general. Governor Hoch, of Kansas, moreover, who as chief executive of the state, had become a ter- ror to the liquor law violators, was succeeded by Governor W. R. Stubbs, who was likewise elected on a temperance platform, and who consistently continued the strong anti-liquor policy of his predecessor in office. South Dakota drove the saloons from Mitchell and several other important towns of the state during this year, and elected a Gov- ernor and United States Senator both of whom were actively favorable to the anti-saloon cause. A number of dry counties in Texas were added to the no-license column, making a total of 154 such counties in the Lone Star 108 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE State without a single saloon. The anti-saloon map in Louisiana was whitened by the addition of three new dry parishes In the Old Dominion over 400 drinking places of all sorts were closed during the year. Rhode Island abolished 429 saloons and passed a law limiting the number of licenses to one for every 500 of population and prohibiting saloons within 200 feet of a public or parochial school. In Tennessee, a legislature was elect- ed a majority of the members of which were pledged to State-Wide Prohibition, and the wanton murder of ex-Senator E. W. Carmack by one of the leaders of the political faction controlled b}^ the liquor interests stirred the state on the temperance question as never be- fore. In Maine and North Dakota, Governors pledged to the strict enforcement of the Pro- hibition Laws were elected. The number of dry counties in California was increased by two. In Washington, a Governor, Lieutenant Governor and a majority of the members of the legislature favorable to the enactment of a Local Option Law were elected. In the state of Idaho, the Republican party, with a local option plank in its platform, swept the state by a large majority in the general election. 109 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Baltimore, Maryland, lost 393 saloons dur- ing the year, and one additional county was made dry in that state. The towns and cities of Massachusetts voted 250 saloons out of business, and Worcester, with a population of more than 150,000, for the second time regis- tered a majority against the saloons. In Iowa, 461 saloons were outlawed. In Indiana, 720 saloons were remonstrated out of business, and a County Local Option Law was put into operation in the Hoosier State by action of a special session of the legislature called by Gov- ernor Hanly. The legislature in Ohio enacted a county option measure, known as the Rose Law, which went into effect September i, 1908. From that time to the end of the year fifty- seven of the sixty-six counties voting on the question in the Buckeye State went dry, there- by abolishing 1,910 saloons. Taking the United States as a whole, dur- ing the year of 1908, more than 11,000 saloons were abolished by a vote of the people. The records of 1907 and 1908 in the matter of saloon suppression served to make the leaders of the liquor forces of the nation des- perate. As a result, the political campaign in the fall of 1908 and the several campaigns dur- IIO HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE ing 1909 wherever the hquor question was in- volved were the most stubbornly contested of any of the campaigns which the Anti-Saloon League had been compelled to face. In the fall of 1908, the liquor interests of the nation concentrated their efforts in the at- tempt to defeat Governor Harris, of Ohio, and the Honorable James E. Watson, of Indiana, local option candidate for Governor on the Republican ticket. This special effort was made in the hope that by making such a dem- onstration of the saloon voting strength as to defeat these temperance candidates the county option laws of these two states, which had al- ready wrought such havoc with the liquor traffic, might, as a result, be repealed. Gov- ernor Harris and Mr. Watson both were de- feated; but when the liquor interests came to size up the legislators who were elected in both of these states, the hope of reaction or im- mediate repeal of the County Option Law in either state soon vanished. During the legis- lative session of 1909 in the state of Ohio, not only was every effort to repeal any temperance statute defeated, but a number of additional temperance laws were enacted. On the first day of January, 1909, the doors of all licensed saloons in the states of Alabama, III HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Mississippi and North Carolina were closed, the State-Wide Prohibition Laws going into effect on that day in each of these three states. Soon after this, the legislature of Tennessee extended the Four-Mile Law to include all sections of the state, thus adopting State- Wide Prohibition by indirect action. During the same session of the legislature, however, another bill, prohibiting the manufacture of intoxicating liquors in the state, was enacted. South Carolina adopted county Prohibition with a referendum for every county in the state. Both houses of the legislature of Ar- kansas enacted State-Wide Prohibition meas- ures, but by reason of the failure of the Sen- ate and the House to agree on any particular law, the matter was allowed to go by default. The legislature of the state of Iowa enacted five anti-liquor provisions during the legisla- tive session of that year, limiting the evils of the liquor traffic in various ways. The laws of Maine and New Hampshire were strengthened by a number of restrictive provisions. In Washington, a municipal and rural County Unit Local Option Law was enacted, and a county option measure was adopted by the legislature of Idaho. In Delaware, the question of license or Pro- 112 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE hibition was submitted to the only wet county in the state, with the result, however, that the county retained the saloons. A County Option Law was enacted in Arizona. The anti-liquor laws of Montana were strengthened. Wyom- ing abolished all saloons outside of incorporat- ed towns. The Kansas legislature passed a stringent measure prohibiting the sale of in- toxicating liquors for all purposes except for sacramental use. Nebraska limited open sa- loons to the hours between 7 a. m. and 8 p. m. The legislature of Utah enacted a County Option Law, which was vetoed by the Gov- ernor after the legislature adjourned. This action upon the part of the Governor so aroused the temperance forces that organiza- tions were effected in the several counties and municipalities of the state, and, as a result, more than half the counties of the state promptly abolished the saloons by local decree. A number of additional counties in Colo- rado were made dry during the year. The number of no-license counties in Illinois was increased by four, and in the fall election in that state twenty-eight of the thirty-six places voting adopted no-license. Twelve counties were gained by the temperance forces in Texas, three in Kentucky, two in Pennsylvania and 113 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE eight in West Virginia. The lower house of the West Virginia legislature passed a Pro- hibition Bill, which, however, finally failed in the Senate. A net gain for the anti-saloon forces of eighty-eight towns was the result of the elections in New York state. Sixty counties in Indiana voted dry during the year. Several temperance measures were enacted by the legislatures of Connecticut and South Dakota. A Local Option Bill in the Pennsylvania legislature was brought to a vote in the House, but was defeated. A resolution submitting the Prohibition Amendment to a vote of the people was passed by the legisla- ture of Florida. The Prohibitory Amendment submitted to a vote of the people in Alabama was rejected. Strong law enforcement meas- ures were passed by both the legislature of Alabama and Georgia. And Congress enacted what is known as the C. O. D. Liquor Ship- ment Measure, preventing express companies and their public carriers from participating in the jug trade imder the guise of interstate agencies. The record of progress for the temperance forces during 1910 was, in many respects, the most important and significant of any during the life of the Anti-Saloon League up to that 114 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE time. The legislature of Texas passed a law making the sale of liquor in dry territory a felony. The effort on the part of the liquor forces to repeal the Prohibitory Law of Okla- homa resulted in a defeat for the liquor amend- ment by a majority of over 22,000 votes. Sev- eral additional counties and a number of small cities in Missouri adopted no-license. After a campaign in Michigan, during which more than 1,000 public demonstrations were held throughout the state, twenty of the thirty-six counties voting on the local option question abolished the saloons, thus making a net increase of ten dry counties in the state and voting out of business 319 saloons and six breweries. The largest number of no-license elections ever held in the state took place in Wisconsin, resulting in a net gain of about twenty-five no- license communities. In South Dakota, sixty- four saloons were voted out of twenty-one towns and cities at the regular elections. Lin- coln, the capital city of Nebraska, in a local option election, voted to remain dry by an in- creased majority. The proposition to submit a Constitutional Prohibitory Amendment to a vote of the peo- ple carried in the Texas primary elections by 115 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE 30,000 majority. The pro-liquor nominations for Governor by the Republicans and Demo- crats in Pennsylvania resulted in the organiza- tion of the Keystone party, carrying- a local option plank in its platform and local option candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Gov- ernor, with the result that these candidates on the Keystone party ticket came w^ithin 30,000 votes of being elected. Honorable B. W. Hooper, standing for the maintenance of the Prohibitory Laws in Tennessee, was elected Governor by a fusion of the temperance Demo- crats and Republicans in that state. The state elections in the several counties of Arkansas resulted in an aggregate majority against license in that state of 23,102 votes, and, as a result of these elections, only twelve wet counties were left in the state out of a total of seventy-five. As a result of the work of Chief Special Officer W. E. Johnson, of the United States Indian Service, the saloons in six counties of Minnesota, as well as those in large sections of two other counties, were closed. Of the forty-nine cities and towns of Washington voting under the new Local Option Law of that state, twenty-eight voted dry during the year. This number included the city of Bellingham, with 35,000 population, 116 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE and the city of Everett, with 30,000 popula- tion. As a result of the campaign in New Hampshire, eight cities and twenty-three towns voted for license in the local option elections, and three cities and 201 towns voted against license. The Republican candidate for Governor in Nebraska, who was supported by the anti- liquor forces of both parties, was elected. The people of Pennsylvania elected a larger num- ber of legislators favorable to local option than during any previous year in the history of the League in that state. The number of saloons in Baltimore City was reduced during the year by 248. A num- ber of counties were added to the no-license lists in Indiana, Idaho, California and Ken- tucky, while decisive victories for the temper- ance forces in local option contests were re- corded in Arizona, Virginia and Ohio. This year, however, witnessed a number of defeats for the temperance forces in the sev- eral states. Under the initiative amendment to the Constitution of Missouri, the question of State-Wide Prohibition was submitted to the voters of that state, with the result that the amendment was rejected by a majority of more 117 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE than 200,000. The local option elections in Illinois resulted, for the most part, in victories for the temperance forces; but Rockford, De- catur and a few smaller cities changed from no-licensc to license. The election on the Prohibitory Amend- ment to the Constitution held in Florida in November resulted in a pro-liquor victory by a majority of 4,600, the four counties of the state having the largest negro vote recording a majority against the amendments of over 4,900. In Oregon, the Prohibitory Amend- ment submitted to a vote of the people v^as defeated by 20,000 majority, and the liquor amendment giving home rule to cities was carried by 3,000 majority. A number of coun- ties, moreover, in the state of Oregon changed from no-license to license, while fifteen coun- ties continued dry. Carl Etherington, a special enforcement officer, who, with other officers, armed with search and seizure warrants, raided a number of blind tigers in Newark, Ohio, and who was finally compelled in self-defense to shoot a speakeasy keeper who murderously assaulted him, was taken from the county jail by a drunken mob and lynched on the public square of Newark. The mayor of Newark and the 118 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE sheriff of Licking county, who failed to protect Special Officer Etherington, were compelled to resign their offices to avoid being removed by the governor; and the county grand jury promptly returned fifty-eight indictments against the Etherington murderers. A monster petition containing 74,805 names was filed in the city of Chicago, calling for a vote on the no-license question in that metropolis, but the board of elections refused to honor the petition and order the election. 119 Chapter V. Reaction and Revival However the battle is ended, Though proudly the victor comes, With fluttering flags and prancing nagc And echoing roll of drums. Still truth proclaims this motto. In letters of living light: No question is ever settled Until it is settled right. Though the heel of the strong oppressor May grind the weak in the dust, And the voices of fame with one acclaim May call him great and just. Let those who applaud take warning, And keep this motto in sight : No question is ever settled Until it is settled right. Let those who have failed take courage ; Though the enemy seemed to have won. Though his ranks are strong, if in the wrong The battle is not yet done. For, sure as the morning follows The darkest hour of the night, No question is ever settled Until it is settled right. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Reaction and Revival D URING 191 1 the anti-saloon forces which had succeeded in making such tremendous strides during the first decade of the Twentieth Cen- tury, experienced a decided reaction in a num- ber of states, both in the matter of legislation and in the number of pro-liquor victories in local option contests. The legislature of Alabama repealed the State Prohibitory Law. The County Option Law submitted to the legislature of Nebraska was defeated by a small majority. At one session of the legislature of New York state, sixty-eight pro-liquor bills were introduced, and five pro-liquor measures were finally en- acted into law. The Prohibition Amendment to the Constitution in Texas was defeated by about 7,000 out of a total of 466,000 votes. There were strong indications, however, that the amendment really carried by a large ma- jority, but that the temperance forces were counted out through corrupt methods. The legislature of Indiana, upon the rec- 123 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE ommendation of the Democrat party bosses and with the approval of Governor Marshall, repealed the County Option Law passed in 1908, enacting in its place a city and township local option measure, as a result of which forty-six counties of the state dry under the county law opened their doors for the return of saloons. In the county option elections held in Ohio during the year, fourteen of the twenty-one counties voting on the question changed from no-license to license, while a goodly number of small victories were record- ed in favor of the liquor forces in several other states. These reverses, together with the discour- agement which had come to the anti-saloon forces by reason of the defeat in Oregon the year before and the failure to adopt Prohibi- tion in Florida, presented a dark picture to the temperance forces in the other states. In spite of this fact, however, a number of important vic- tories were recorded in certain sections of the country. i A splendid Local Option Law was passed I by the legislature of California, as a result of I which a large number of villages and super- l visorial districts were made dry during the year. The legislature of Connecticut passed a 124 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE number of wholesome anti-liquor laws, among them being one prohibiting the sale of liquor by druggists except on prescription during the hours of days when saloons are closed, and another prohibiting the employment of women in places where liquors are sold. In the District of Columbia, seventy-five efforts to establish new liquor places were de- feated by the activity of the Anti-Saloon League; so that by the end of the year there were fewer saloons in the District of Columbia than at any time since the birth of the League in 1893. The effort to repeal the Prohibition Law of Georgia by an amendment permitting the sale of fermented liquors was defeated. A strong Search and Seizure Law and a number of other temperance measures were passed by the legislature of Idaho, only, however, to be vetoed by the Governor of that state. The dry territory in Kentucky was in- creased during the year by about 150 square miles. The effort to repeal the Prohibition Law in Maine was successfully combatted by the anti-saloon forces. The effort on the part of the liquor forces to repeal the County Op- tion Law of Michigan also met with defeat. For the first time in the history of the state of Minnesota, more than half of all the villages 125 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE and cities voting on the liquor question during the year voted dry. The Bar and Bottle Law passed by the Massachusetts legislature of 1910 showed a marked improvement in the curtailment of liquor selling during the year. In the ten county option elections held in Missouri in 191 1, the net dry majority was 6,256, against a net dry majority of 2,478 for the same counties in 1907. The legislature of North Carolina, by an almost unanimous vote in both houses, passed a law prohibiting the sale of near beer and put a stop to the so-called "clubs," prohibiting such corporations or as- sociations from directly or indirectly keeping a clubroom where intoxicating liquors are used. At the election held in Rhode Island on November 7, 191 1, eight towns, with a population of 15,906, voted dry, and thirty towns and cities, with a population of 526,704, voted wet. This, however, showed a gain of one town for the temperance forces, all of the towns previously dry voting to remain under Prohibition, and one town changing from li- cense to no-license. As a result of the elections in Utah during the year, loi saloons were swept out of ex- istence, leaving only 235 such establishments 126 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE doing business in the state, 141 of which num- ber were located in Salt Lake City. While 191 1 may be termed a year of re- action in the temperance warfare because of the many decided reverses which the anti- saloon forces suffered, the year 1912 and the early part of the year 1913 may well be termed the period of revival; for, during that period, not only did the temperance forces succeed in checking the advance of the liquor army, but the tide of battle was turned in such a way as to show that the seeming recession of the tem- perance wave of 191 1 was only temporary, and that the normal temperance sentiment of the nation was still moving in the right direction. During this year, moreover, the very largely increased output of temperance litera- ture, which came as a result of the establish- ing of the League's publishing house at Wes- terville, began to tell in an effective way. The publishing house of the Anti-Saloon League incorporated under the name. The American Issue Publishing Company, was established in 1909. For a number of years the national officers of the League had been convinced that the Anti-Saloon League should have a publishing house of its own and that the various official organs published by the State 127 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Leagues should either be merged into one periodical for general circulation, or at least into state editions of a national organ. Up to 1907, however, no specific move had been made in that direction. Late in 1907, The American Issue, which at that time was being published as the state organ of the Anti-Saloon League of Ohio, was made the official national organ, and the place of publication was changed from Columbus, Ohio, to Chicago, Illinois. Doctor J. C. Jackson was made editor-in-chief, and the movement was started to secure the co-opera- tion of the State League in the publication of state editions of The American Issue. The first edition of the paper to be published under this new plan was the Ohio edition, published under date of November 9, 1907. None of the other state papers, however, was merged into the American Issue until early in 1908. Soon after the publication of The Issue was transferred from Columbus to Chicago, Doctor Jackson, the editor of the paper, who had been one of the pioneers of the anti-saloon movement and whose pen, perhaps, had done more effective service in the fight against the liquor traffic in the United States than any other, began to show signs of failing health, and in January, 1908, was compelled to under- 128 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE go a serious operation at Wesley Hospital, from which he never fully recovered. In Feb- ruary, 1908, Ernest H. Cherrington, then su- perintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of Washington, was called to Chicago by the General Superintendent and National Head- quarters Coniiiiittee as the associate editor of The American Issue and general manager of the National League's publishing interests. During this year, eight state Leagues joined The American Issue family, making nine state editions of the paper. Early in 1909 the num- ber of state editions had reached fifteen, and the promise of early co-operation on the part of other State Leagues, not yet represented in The American Issue family, encouraged the national officers of the League to launch a movement for the erection of a publishing plant which would be entirely under the con- trol of the national organization and which would print nothing but temperance literature. The people of Westerville, Ohio, located twelve miles from the center of the city of Co- lumbus, on the C. A. & C. Railroad, and also in direct connection with Columbus by street car service, offered to donate to the Anti-Sa- loon League a tract of ground costing ap- proximately $10,000, to be used for the erection 129 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE of a publishing plant. After due consideration, the National League accepted the offer, and the erection of the building was begun in the spring of 1909. The building was completed in October of the same year, and during that month the publication interests of the League were transferred from Chicago to Westerville. While the plant was being erected at Wes- terville, in June, 1909, Doctor Jackson, the editor-in-chief, died. His death, though not unexpected, since he had never fully recovered from his illness in Chicago early in 1908, nevertheless came as a great shock to the Anti- Saloon League forces and left The American Issue without an editorial head at a most critical time, for Doctor Jackson, although confined to his home for a good part of the last year of his life, continued to furnish a very large part of the editorial matter for the sev- eral editions of The American Issue up to the very last week of his life. Later, the National Headquarters Committee elected the associate editor, Mr. Ernest H. Cherrington, to succeed Doctor Jackson as editor-in-chief of the League's publications. When the Anti-Saloon Leage of America began the work of erecting the publishing house at Westerville, it did not have a single dollar to invest in such an enter- 130 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE prise, and with the exception of the property donated by the citizens of Westerville, the League had nothing in the way of tangible as- sets for such an undertaking. The men at the head of the movement, however, had the faith to beheve that the temperance pubhc would not allow such an undertaking to fail; they also had the courage to begin the erection of the building at the same time that the move- ment for securing the necessary funds was in- augurated. Among those who came to the rescue of the League at this critical time, giving of their time, money, experience and influence in a special way, were Mr. William M. Miller, who directed the building of the plant and purchas- ed a very large part of its equipment ; Mr. Foster Copeland, Mr. Ernest R. Root and Mr. Samuel Dunlap, whose financial backing of the project was absolutely essential to success, and Mr. George W. Gray, whose long experience in the publishing business and whose intimate knowledge of cost-finding systems made his assistance, which was wnllingly and gladly given, of inestimable value. By the close of the year 1912 this publish- ing plant represented an actual investment of almost $125,000. The American issue Pub- 131 HISTORY OF THE ANTI -SALOON LEAGUE lishing Company by that time was issuing tliirly-one different state editions of The American Issue, with an aggregate circulation of more than 500,000 per month. The eight presses installed in the plant were printing, all told, more than forty tons of temperance litera- ture each month, which output was an equiva- lent of 250,000,000 ordinary book pages of literature per year, or an average of almost 700,000 book pages per day. At that time, moreover, the regular employees of the com- pany numbered seventy-two; which number did not include the state editors or any of the persons connected with the paper employed by State Anti-Saloon Leagues. It included only those who were on the payroll of The American Issue Publishing Company proper. In addition to the several editions of The American Issue and The American Patriot, which at that time the company was publish- ing, The New Republic, edited by Mr, W. E. Johnson, late Chief Special Officer of the United States Indian Service, was also being published by the company, as well as folders, leaflets, tracts, books and pamphlets by the million. The American Issue Publishing Company was incorporated under the laws of the state 132 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE of Ohio. In order to comply with these laws there are just five stockholders, or directors, of the corporation. Each of these stock- holders, however, holds his stock as a trustee of the Anti-Saloon League of America, and the National Board of Trustees of the Anti- Saloon League of America elects these five trustees for a term of two years each. Every one of these stockholders and directors serves as such without salary or compensation of any kind, and every cent of profits from the opera- tion of the publishing plant goes directly to the Anti-Saloon League of America. The directors of the American Issue Pub- lishing Company in 1912 were Mr. Filmore Condit, of New York, chairman; Doctor James Cannon, Jr., D. D., of Richmond, Virginia, vice chairman; Mr. George L. Stoughton, of Westerville, Ohio, secretary; Mr. W. B. Wheeler, of Columbus, Ohio, and Rev. P. A. Baker, D. D., of Westerville, Ohio. The gen- eral manager of The American Issue Publish- ing Company, as well as the general manager of all the National League publishing interests, was Ernest H. Cherrington, of Westerville, Ohio. One important feature in connection with this publishing plant is that its machines have 133 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE been used entirely for the purpose of publish- ing temperance literature. No commercial work of any kind has ever been done by the publishing house. Its entire activities have been directed toward publishing periodicals, books, pamphlets and tracts that would do execution in the fight against the liquor traffic. In 1912, and in the early part of 1913, ad- vanced temperance legislation was enacted in the states of Arkansas, California, Connecti- cut, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Michi- gan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. On September 9, 1912, the referendum on State-Wide Prohibition submitted to the voters of Arkansas resulted in a victory for license by a majority of 15,968. The legisla- ture of 1913, however, passed a provision putting the entire state under Prohibition, al- lowing the Prohibition provision to be sus- pended only where a majority make petition for saloons under certain conditions. Through the operation of the newly-enacted Local Op- tion Law in California, the number of dry towns in that state was increased from about 200 in 1910 to 682 in 191 2 The operation of the Bar and Bottle Law in Massachusetts dur- 134 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE ing 1912 resulted in a remarkable decrease in arrests for drunkenness in license cities of that state and in better conditions, from the stand- point of the temperance reform, in every way. The passage of the county option law in Missouri in 1913, giving the right to vote on the liquor question in counties as units with- out exempting cities from the operation of the law, marked an epoch in the history of the tem- perance reform in that state. It is conserva- tively estimated that under the operation of this law in all probability the number of dry counties in Missouri will quickly be increased from sixty-four to at least 100. Local option elections in New Hampshire in 1912 resulted in 203 towns voting against license, while only twenty-one in the entire state voted for license. In Ohio, while the license provision of the new Constitution was adopted in 1912 by vir- tue of the fact that between 600,000 and 800,- 000 voters in the state did not vote on the question at all, and while the legislature of 1913 passed a License Law, the temperance forces succeeded in safeguarding all the anti- liquor laws on the statute books and, in addi- tion, forcing into the new license statute be- tween thirty and forty stringent restrictions 135 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE against the liquor traffic in license cities and villages. The Supreme Court of the United States, on June lo, 1912, handed down a decision hold- ing that the Federal Prohibition Law for the Indian Territory and other Indian reservations in Oklahoma was still in existence, and that it would continue so for at least twenty-one years, in accordance with the provisions of the Enabling Act. The Oklahoma legislature of 1913, moreover, strengthened the State-Wide Prohibition Law by making joint-keeping a felony. On November 5, 1912, West Virginia, by a majority of 92,342 out of a total of 235,843 votes, adopted State-Wide Prohibition, all the counties of the state with the exception of three returning majorities in favor of Prohi- bition. In addition to the victories mentioned above, the Oregon legislature passed a bill prohibiting the shipment of liquor from wet territory to dry territory within the state. A number of other minor bills were also enacted by the legislature. A very sweeping Search and Seizure Law was enacted by the legisla- ture in North Carolina. The Minnesota legis- lature enacted a measure giving local option to cities of less than 10,000 population. In South 136 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Dakota, a law was enacted limiting the num- ber of saloons to one for every 600 of the popu- lation. A County Option Law was enacted in New Mexico, with a provision that munici- palities with 300 population or more may vote separately on the question. The legislature of Indiana passed a bill prohibiting liquor drink- ing on trains except in buffet or dining cars. The Kansas legislature enacted a law requir- ing railroads and express companies to keep a record of liquor receipts ; while in Utah a meas- ure was enacted providing for injunction and abatement similar to the Iowa law, except that it applies to liquor nuisances as well as to other places where liquors are sold. By action of Congress the District of Co- lumbia was benefited by the passage of the so- called Jones-Works Bill, prohibiting saloons in residence districts or near churches and schools, and so limiting the number of saloons as to cut the number in operation down by about three hundred. The crowning victory of the period and, in fact, of the twenty years of the Anti-Saloon League's existence, was the passage by Con- gress of the so-called Webb-Kenyon Bill dur- ing the closing days of the Sixty-second Con- gress, prohibiting thereby the shipment in in- 137 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE terstate commerce of intoxicating liquors in- tended to be used for the violation of the laws of any state to which the shipment is con- signed. The victory was all the more em- phatic by virtue of the fact that the measure was passed in both houses over the veto of President Taft. This action by Congress marked an epoch in the history of the temper- ance movement, not only because of the direct results bound to follow the passage of the Webb-Kenyon Law, but also in showing the general trend of public sentiment against the liquor traffic throughout the country, voiced as it was by more than two-thirds of the repre- sentatives of the people in the National House of Representatives and the United States Senate. 138 Chapter VL The Evolution of a Nation- wide Crusade For Humanity sweeps onward : where today the martyr stands, On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands; Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn, While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn. New occasions teach new duties ; Thine makes ancient good uncouth ; They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast of Truth ; Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires ! we ourselves must Pilgrims be, Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate winter sea. Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past's blood-rusted key. — James Russell Lowell. The Evolution of a Nation- Wide Crusade THE passage by Congress of the In- terstate Liquor Shipment Bill re- ferred to in the last chapter, was the result of twelve long years of persistent effort upon the part of the Anti- Saloon League and the temperance forces throughout the nation to secure remedial Fed- eral legislation. The Constitution of the United States grants to Congress alone the right to regulate interstate commerce. Because of this condi- tion, the most stringent Prohibitory Law passed by any state, or put into operation in any section of a state, was absolutely power- less to seize, or to in any way interfere with a consignment of intoxicating liquors shipped from the wet territory of one state into the dry territory of another, because such shipments were protected by the laws of the United States against the officers and government of any state, in the name of interstate commerce. Because of this Constitutional provision, the Federal government had come to be a pro- 141 illSTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE tector of the liquor interests, which interests persistently insisted upon violating the pro- hibitory and regulatory laws of the several states. It was for the purpose of correcting this difficulty, therefore, that measures pro- viding a remedy were from time to time be- tween 1902 and 1913 presented to Congress. In 1902 certain citizens of Iowa represent- ed by Mr. Silas Wilson, of Atlantic, Iowa, pre- sented a draft of a bill the intention of which was to prohibit the interstate shipment of in- toxicating liquors in certain cases. This bill was drawn with the idea of supplementing the old Wilson Law which was passed in 1890 and which the courts declared did not go to the point of giving the states control of interstate shipments of intoxicating liquors within their own borders. This measure was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representa- tive Hepburn, of Iowa, and was known as the Hepburn Bill. It was favorably reported by the Judiciary Committee of the House with a unanimous vote, and finally passed. In the Senate the bill was referred to the Committee on Interstate Commerce, the chairman of which was Senator Stephen B. Elkins, of West Vir- ginia. When the matter came up for considera- tion in the committee and it seemed apparent 142 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE that a majority of, the members present were Hkely to vote for a favorable report to the Senate, the chairman, Senator Elkins, without warning and without excuse, rose from his chair and declared the committee adjourned, thus blocking the way for any report to the Senate and leaving the bill (H. R. 1531) to die in the Senate Committee of the Fifty-seventh Congress. After the defeat of the Hepburn Bill in the Fifty-seventh Congress, Representative Charles E. Littlefield, of Maine, and Judge Walter Smith drew another bill more far- reaching than the old Hepburn Bill and not subject to some of the objections which had been urged against the former measure. This bill was introduced in the House of Repre- sentatives by Representative Hepburn, of Iowa, and in the Senate by Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver, of the same state. This bill was known as the Hepburn-Dolliver Bill, being, in the House, H. R. 4072. After extensive hear- ings by the Judiciary Committee of the House, the bill was favorably reported to the Fifty- eighth Congress on April 8, 1904. It was placed on the calendar. While the report on the bill was an unanimous one, Representative Richard W. Parker, of New Jersey, presented 143 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE minority views favoring such an amendment as would provide tliat the dehveries of inter- state shipments should be subject to the po- lice laws of the state. Although the bill was on the calendar, it was, however, impossible to get it up for consideration in the regular order and an attempt was finally made to secure a rule making it a special order. A motion to this effect which was presented to the House of Representatives was referred to the Rules Committee, the Republican members of which committee were Mr. Cannon, of Hli- nois ; Mr. Grosvenor, of Ohio, and Mr. Dalzell, of Pennsylvania. This was just before the election of 1904, and many Republicans were fearful lest the consideration of this bill at that time would have its effect on the presidential election. Congressman Grosvenor, of the Rules Com- mittee, with whom the friends of the bill had repeatedly conferred, finally proposed to Mr. Dinwiddle, the legislative superintendent of the League, that if the matter were allowed to go over until after the election the majority of the Rules Committee would see that a rul- ing was secured for the consideration of the bill. Mr. Grosvenor, in making this promise, indicated that Mr. Cannon and Mr. Dalzell 144 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE were both agreeable to the plan and would see that the agreement was carried out. After the election of 1904, however, just at the time when it was necessary to get a ruling for the consideration of the bill if anything were to be done before Congress adjourned, Mr. Gros- venor was called back to Ohio to take charge of a case in court, and Representatives Cannon and Dalzell insisted they knew nothing of the agreement and for themselves had not prom- ised that a rule would be given. Later Mr. Grosvenor made a statement to the effect that neither Mr. Cannon nor Mr. Dalzell were parties to the agreement, thereby practically confessing that his statement to Mr. Dinwid- dle of the agreement which had been reached was entirely false insofar as it concerned any- one but himself, and that the supposed agree- ment was simply patched up to get an excuse for delaying the consideration of the Hepburn- Dolliver Bill. The Senate bill was never re- ported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Consequently the Fifty-eighth Congress closed with the Senate bill in committee and the House bill on the calendar. In the Fifty-ninth Congress the bill which was presented for the purpose of securing remedial legislation in the matter of interstate 145 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE shipments of intoxicating liquors was known as the Littlefield-Carmack Bill. In the House it was introduced by Representative Charles E. Littlefield, of Maine, and in the Senate by Senator Edward W. Carmack, of Tennessee. After extensive hearings in the House Com- mittee on the Judiciary this bill, which was known as H. R. 13655, was reported by the committee on January 24, 1907, with a recom- mendation for its passage. A minority re- port was filed, signed by Mr. Jenkins, of Wis- consin; Mr. Parker, of New Jersey; Mr Nevin, of Ohio, and Mr. Bannon, of Ohio. Another bill covering in part the same ground was pre- sented in the House, as H. R. 16479, ^^^^ was also reported by the Judiciary Committee on February i, 1907. Both House bills were therefore on the calendar. The matter did not come up for further consideration, however, and the Fifty-ninth Congress closed with two Interstate Liquor Shipment Bills on the calen- dar of the House and the Carmack Bill in the Judiciary Committee of the Senate. In the Sixtieth Congress, the Littlefield Bill was again introduced in the House by Mr. Littlefield, and an Interstate Liquor Shipment Bill similar to the old Littlefield-Carmack Bill was presented in the House by Representative 146 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Miller, of Kansas, and in the Senate by Sen- ator Curtis, of Kansas ; it being known as the Miller-Curtis Bill. Neither the bills in the House nor the bill in the Senate secured a favorable report by the Judiciary Committees. A C. O.D. shipment measure drawn by Senator Knox was finally recommended by the Sen- ate Committee as a substitute for all such leg- islation then pending, and later, upon the in- itial motion of Representative Humphreys, was attached as an amendment to the Penal Code, and thus was passed by both houses of Congress. This measure contained three sepa- rate provisions, as follows : (S. 2982.) An Act to codify, revise and amend the Penal Laws of the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives of the United States of America in Con- gress Assembled, Tliat the Penal Laws of the United States be, and they hereby are, codified, revisedj and amended, with title, chapters, headnotes, and sections, entitled, numbered, and to read as follows: Sec. 238. Any officer, agent, or employee of any railroad company, express company, or other common carrier, who shall knowingly deliver or cause to be delivered to any person other than the person to whom it has been consigned, unless upon the written order in each instance of the bona fide consignee, or to 147 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE any fictitious person, or to any person under a ficti- tious name, any spirituous, vinous, malted, fermented, or other intoxicating liquor of any kind which has been shipped from one state, territory, or district of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but sub- ject to the jurisdiction thereof, into any other state, territory, or district of the United States, or place non- contiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, or from any foreign country into any state, territory, or district of the United Stages, or place noncontigu- ous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or im- prisoned not more than two years, or both. Sec. 239. Any railroad company, express company, or other common carrier, or any other person who, in connection with the transportation of any spirituous, vinous, malted, fermented, or other intoxicating liquor of any kind from one state, territory, or district of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, into any other state, territory, or district of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, or from any foreign country into any state, territory, or district of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but sub- ject to the jurisdiction thereof, shall collect the pur- chase price or an}^ part thereof before, on, or after delivery from the consignee, or from any other per- son, or shall in any manner act as the agent of the buyer or seller of any such liquor, for the purpose of buying or selling or completing the sale thereof, sav- ing only the actual transportation and delivery of the same, shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars. 148 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Sec. 240. Whoever shall knowingly ship or cause to be shipped from one state, territory, or district of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, into any other state, territory, or district of the United States, or place non- contiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, or from any foreign country into any state, territory, or district of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, any package of or package containing any spirituous, vinous, malt- ed, fermented, or other intoxicating liquor of any kind, unless such package be so labeled on the outside cover as to plainly show the name of the consignee, the nature of its contents, and the quantity contained therein, shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars ; and such liquor shall be forfeited to the United States, and may be seized and condemned by like proceedings as those provided by law for the seizure and forfeiture of property imported into the United States contrary to law. [Approved March 4, 1909.] While this measure helped greatly in the matter of all C. O. D. shipments, it did not otherwise touch the proposition of interstate shipment of liquors under the Interstate Com- merce Law. In the Sixty-first Congress the Miller- Curtis Bill was again introduced in practically the same form as it had been presented in the Sixtieth Congress, but was not reported out by either the Judiciary Committee of the 149 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE House or the Judiciary Committee of the Senate. Early in the Sixty-second Congress, a bill similar to the old Littlefield-Carmack Bill, which was known in the Sixtieth and Sixty- first Congresses as the Miller-Curtis Bill, was again presented as the Sheppard-Curtis Bill, being introduced in the House by Mr. Morris Sheppard, of Texas, and in the Senate by Sen- ator Curtis, of Kansas. This bill provided: That all fermented, distilled or other intoxicating liquors or liquids transported into any state or terri- tory, or remaining therein for use, consumption, sale, or storage therein, shall, upon arrival within the boun- daries of such state or territory and before delivery to the consignee, be subject to the operation and effect of the laws of such state or territory enacted in the exercise of its reserved police powers to the same ex- tent and in the same manner as though such liquids or liquors had been produced in such state or territory, and shall not be exempt therefrom by reason of being introduced therein in original packages or otherwise. Some time after this bill had been intro- duced in the Sixty-second Congress, another bill drawn by Mr. Fred S. Caldwell, of Okla- homa, with a view to avoiding the Constitu- tional objections which had been repeatedly ofifered against the old Littlefield Bill, v/as pre- sented in the House of Representatives by Mr. Webb, of North Carolina, and in the Senate by 150 HISTORY OF. THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Senator McCumber, of North Dakota; being known as the Webb-McCumber Bill. For a number of months these measures were in committee, with but slight prospect of either being reported. In December, 191 1, however, in response to a call made by the Anti-Saloon League of America, a Congress was held in Washington, D. C, to take up the whole gen- eral subject of legislation along the line of interstate shipments of intoxicating liquors. While the call for this conference was made by the Anti-Saloon League of America, the action of the National League in this matter was largely at the suggestion of Hon. S. E. Nicholson, the secretary of the national or- ganization and at that time national legisla- tive superintendent of the League. The suc- cess of the conference and the results which followed the getting together of the temper- ance forces on this important question of na- tional legislation were very largely due to Mr. Nicholson's efforts. Mr. Nicholson had been closely connected with the Anti-Saloon League from its birth. As a member of the legislature in Indiana, he was the author of the Nicholson Remonstrance Law, and was later the president of the Indi- ana Good Citizens' League, which organiza- 151 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE tion was finally merged into the Anti-Saloon League. Mr. Nicholson was afterward super- intendent of the League work in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and for two years thereafter he was the national legislative superintendent at Washington. For many years he was one of the most active members of the National Headquarters Committee, and has been the secretary of the National League since 1899. Mr. Nicholson's long and wide experience in dealing with legislative bodies, both as a member and as the representative of the League, had convinced him of the necessity for united action upon the part of the reform organizations in order to secure results; and the calling of this conference, which was par- ticipated in by representatives of most of the temperance organizations of the nation, and the comparatively quick results which came from this united action, fully demonstrated the wisdom of Mr. Nicholson's judgment in inducing the League to inaugurate such a movement. This conference was held on December 14 and 15, 191 1. It was composed of Governors, congressmen, judges and numerous other rep- resentative delegates appointed by the Govern- ors of states and by different temperance or- 152 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE ganizations, for the purpose of getting to an agreement between all the friends of such leg- islation on some measure that would be accept- able to all. After considerable discussion the conference appointed a committee to draft an effective bill. The committee was composed of Rev. A. J. Barton, of Texas, chairman; Hon. Fred S. Caldwell, of Oklahoma; Dr. James Cannon, Jr., of Virginia; ex-Governor J. Frank Hanly, of Indiana; Hon. S. E. Nicholson, of Washington, D. C. ; Senator Charles Curtis, of Kansas; Senator P. J. McCumber, of North Dakota ; Hon. E. Y. Webb, of North Carolina ; Hon. Morris Sheppard, of Texas ; Hon. Fred S. Jackson, of Kansas; Mrs. Margaret Dye Ellis and Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts, of Washing- ton, D. C, and Mr. Edwin C. Dinwiddle. As a result of the committee's deliberations the following bill was agreed to, and was in- troduced in both houses of Congress as the Sheppard-Kenyon Bill, known as House Reso- lution 16214, and Senate Bill 4043. This bill was as follows: That the shipment or transportation in any man- ner or by any means whatsoever of any spirituous, vinous, malted, fermented, or other intoxicating' liquor of any kind, including- beer, ale, or wine, from one state, territory, or district of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction 153 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE thereof, into any other state, territory, or district of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but sub- ject to the jurisdiction thereof, or from any foreign country into any state, territor}', or district of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, which said spirituous, vinous, malted, fermented, or other intoxicating liquor is intended, by any person interested therein, directly or indirectly, or in any manner connected with the transaction, to be received, possessed, or kept, or in any manner used, either in the original package or otherwise, in violation of any law of such state, terri- tory, or district of the United States, or place noncon- tiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction thereof, en- acted in the exercise of the police powers of such state, territory, or district of the United States, or place noncontiguous to but subject to the jurisdiction there- of, is hereby prohibited; and any and all contracts pertaining to such transactions are hereby declared to be null and void, and no suit or action shall be maintained in any court of the United States upon any such contract or contracts, or for the enforcement or protection of any alleged right based upon or grow- ing out of such contract or contracts, or for the pro- tection in any manner whatsoever of such prohibited transactions. Sec. 2. That there shall be no property right in or to any such liquor while in the possession of any railway company, express company, or other common carrier in connection with any shipment or transpor- tation thereof in violation of this act. After extensive hearing-s in the Senate the Sheppard-Kenyon Bill was amended by the 154 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE addition of a second section which added to the new bill the old Littlefield measure compelling all shipments of intoxicating liquors under the Interstate Commerce Act to become subject to the laws of any state as soon as such shipments cross the state line. In its amended form the bill was reported by the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, and, by unanimous consent agreement, was fixed as a special order for Monday, February lo, 1913. In the meantime the Judiciary Committee of the House took up the old Webb Bill, after which the Sheppard-Kenyon bill was pattern- ed, and after repeated and extensive hearings reported the Webb Bill with a favorable rec- ommendation to the House. The Committee on Rules was appealed to for a special rule, which was given, and the bill came up for dis- cussion and final passage on Saturday, Febru- ary 8, 1913. After all amendments except the Judiciary Committee amendments had been voted down by large majorities, and after a three-hours' discussion on the merits of the measure, this bill, known as the Webb Bill, was passed by a vote of 239 to sixty-five. On Monday, February 10, when the Ken- yon Bill came up under the unanimous con- sent agreement for consideration in the Senate, 15s HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE the Kenyon Bill was amended by striking out all after the enacting clause and substituting therefor the language of the Webb Bill as it had passed the House of Representatives. This was finally agreed to, and the bill was passed. This presented a peculiar parliamentary question. While the language of the Webb Bill, which had passed the House, was identical with the amended Kenyon Bill, which had passed the Senate, yet the number and enact- ing clause of the bill passed by the Senate made that instrument, under the parliamentary rules, a Senate bill. It became necessary, there- fore, to have the bill which had passed the Senate messaged to the House for action by that body. The final vote in the House on the amended Senate bill was taken on February II, and the measure was then sent to President William H. Taft. President Taft held the bill for the Constitutional limit of ten days, at the end of which time he returned it to the Senate with his veto message. ■ The veto message, with the bill, came up for action in the Senate on the afternoon of February 28, and the bill was passed over the president's veto by a vote of 63 to 21. On March i the House passed the bill over the President's veto by a vote of 244 156 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE to 95. Thus the Webb-Kenyon Bill became a law. The passage of this measure, after more than a decade of aggressive work by the League at Washington and in the Congres- sional districts of the several states, was se- cured only by the earnest co-operation of all the anti-liquor forces of the nation. In a pe- culiar way, however, the special credit for this victory is due the legislative superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League, Rev. Edwin C. Din- widdle. Mr. Dinwiddle was one of the pioneers of the League movement, having been the second man called into service by Dr. Howard H. Russell after the birth of the Ohio League at Oberlin. He began his work as a League man in December, 1893. In the Ohio legislative session of 1894, he assisted Superintendent Russell in the legislative work in behalf of the Haskell Local Option Bill, after which he was made legislative superintendent of the Ohio League. After the Pennsylvania branch of the League was organized, he became the superin- tendent of the League in that state; and when national legislative offices were opened in Washington, D. C, in 1899, he was elected national legislative superintendent to look 157 HISTORY OF THE ANTI- SALOON LEAGUE after the League's interest at the national Capital. When the fight for Prohibition in the state of Oklahoma came on, Mr. Dinwiddie, after making a successful fight to secure a state- hood bill in Congress favorable to the eflforts on the part of the people for Prohibition in Oklahoma, went to Oklahoma at the direction of the National League and personally took charge of the campaign for the Prohibitory- Amendment to the state Constitution. How well he managed that campaign is best evi- denced by the vote on the proposed amend- ment, which resulted in the adoption of Pro- hibition by a majority of over 18,000. His most important and distinguished services, however, have been along the lines of national legislation. The Anti-Canteen Law, with the later provisions and appropria- tions for army post canteen substitutes; the measure creating a special enforcement de- partment and providing for appropriations by Congress from time to time to compel obedi- ence to laws against the sale of liquor to In- dians and in Indian countries; the abolition of the liquor canteens in state and national Soldiers' Homes ; advanced temperance leg- islation for the District of Columbia; and many 158 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE other measures, as well as the Webb-Kenyon Interstate Liquor Shipment Law, were secur- ed largely under his direction as the national legislative officer of the League. So that to no other man is greater credit due for the re- markable progress of the temperance reform movement in the way of Federal legislation than to Mr. Dinwiddie. The passage of the Webb-Kenyon Law, which in itself promised so much in the way of permitting the state laws against the liquor traffic to be enforced by the state authorities, which so completely stripped the traffic of the protecting cloak of Interstate Commerce, by means of which it had so persistently violated state laws against its transportation and sale, was electric in its effect throughout the coun- try. The liquor forces were stunned by the action of Congress, while the temperance forces were jubilantly encouraged. The fact that Congress, even over the veto of the presi- dent of the United States, had passed such a measure, thus dealing such a terrific blow to the liquor traffic in the nation, was most sig- nificant. Aside from the importance of the law as an enforcement measure, this action by Congress was prophetic of what the future would bring in the way of further restrictive ^59 HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE and prohibitory legislation. The signs of dis- tress on the part of the liquor interests were apparent in the articles and editorials of prac- tically every pro-liquor journal and paper throughout the nation. The Anti-Saloon League lost no time in making the most of the situation and in clear- ing the decks for future action in the interest of more drastic measures in the states and in a program for greater activity in the national movement. No sooner, in fact, had the Webb- Kenyon Bill been put into operation than the Anti-Saloon League of America began to make preparations for the next step in national leg- islation. The American Issue, the official organ of the League, came out editorially in favor of a movement for an amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing for the Prohibition of the manufacture and sale of beverage intoxicants. The Headquarters Committee of the Anti-Saloon League of America, upon the recommendation of the General Superintendent, favorably passed up- on the proposition for National Prohibition as the next and final step. This action of the Headquarters Committee was submitted to the trustees of the National organization, who, i6o HISTORY OF THE ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE by an overwhelming" majority, endorsed the plan. The twenty years of League activity, therefore, from the time of the birth of the organization in 1893, closed with the Anti- Saloon League putting into operation the machinery for launching the campaign in be- half of a Constitutional Amendment providing for National Prohibition. This campaign was formally launched at the Twenty-Year Jubilee Convention of the Anti-Saloon League of America, which was held at Columbus, Ohio, November 10-13, 1913- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date sumped below. DATE SEN DATE RECEIVED JRl 1984 7 }7 ^ 315 i- UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 837 456 3 3 1158 00797 9130 C^^^