Prohibition, the Great War and Political Advocacy

151 Pages·2011·0.77 MB·English

by  Peter Sasso

Prohibition, the Great War, and Political Advocacy:
The Wartime Campaign for Prohibition

by

Peter Sasso

A thesis
presented to the University of Waterloo
in fulfilment of the
thesis requirement for the degree of
Master of Arts
in
History

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2010

© Peter Sasso 2010
Author’s Declaration

I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis,
including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners.

I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public.

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Abstract

Once a fundamental aspect of American life, by 1920 the 18th Amendment to the
constitution prohibited the consumption of alcoholic beverages. Prohibition challenged
traditional dogmas and called into question what constituted social progress. Throughout
much of the debate over ratification of the 18th Amendment, themes of patriotism,
progress, science, and personal liberties, were invoked by both those in favor of
prohibition, (Drys), and those opposed to the Amendment (Wets). This paper will attempt
to explain how dry forces crafted a successful wartime campaign that ultimately led to the
ratification of the 18th Amendment.

iii
Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the invaluable support and guidance that Dr. John
Sbardellati provided to me in the focus and organization of my thesis.

I thank Dr. Andrew Hunt and Dr. Cynthia Comacchio for their assistance
throughout my graduate program.

I express appreciation to The Ohio Historical Society for the sharing of important
documents relating to the Anti Saloon League of America.

I extend my sincere gratitude to my family, especially my parents, John and
Maryellen Sasso, as well as my siblings, Frank, Sean and Kate for their continued support
in all that I do.

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Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1

Chapter I: Historiography............................................................................................. 4

Chapter II: The Early Prohibition Movement ............................................................ 32

Chapter III: An Early Feminist, a Strategist and a Publisher ..................................... 45

Chapter IV: The League Evolves ............................................................................... 50

Chapter V: The Liquor Lobby Fights Back ............................................................... 63

Chapter VI: A Window Opens as a Trench Widens .................................................. 67

Chapter VII: Congress listens .................................................................................... 82

Chapter VIII: The 18th Amendment, Organized Labor, the Working Class and Science .... 91

Chapter IX: Exploiting Wartime Anxieties ................................................................ 99

Chapter X: The League Makes America Laugh ....................................................... 105

Chapter XI: Anti German Hysteria and Americanization ........................................ 111

Chapter XII: The Debate over the 18th Amendment at the State Level ................... 117

Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 140

References ................................................................................................................ 143
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Introduction

For much of the early history of the United States, liquor was an essential part of
American life. Alcohol was an omnipresent force in early American society. Liquor was
once wrongly believed to be a stimulant, and it even was given to manual laborers to
increase their productivity. In fact, in New England towns the town bell rang at 11 A.M
and 4 P.M to signal a work break to drink an alcoholic beverage that was supplied by
employers.1 Liquor was also a part of early American medicine; it was even prescribed
by physicians as a treatment for heart failure, debility and other diseases. 2 Once a
fundamental aspect of American life, by 1920 the 18th Amendment to the constitution
prohibited consumption of alcoholic beverages. Prohibition challenged traditional
dogmas and called into question what constituted social progress. Throughout much of
the debate over ratification of the 18th Amendment, themes of patriotism, progress,
science and personal liberties were invoked by both those in favor of prohibition (Drys)
and those opposed to the amendment (Wets). This paper will attempt to explain how dry
forces crafted a successful wartime political campaign which ultimately led to the
ratification of the 18th Amendment.
A focus on the nation’s largest dry advocacy group, The Anti Saloon League of
America (the League) is essential.3 With the League acting as the primary focal point, the
history of elite actors will be examined, through League reports, speeches and strategy
memorandum. Newspapers published by the League as well as non-League publications

1 Robert Smith Bader, Prohibition in Kansas: A History (Lawrence Kan: University of Kansas Press,
1986)p.7
2 James Timberlake, Prohibition and the Progressive Movement,1900-1920 (Cambridge Mass: Harvard
University Press,1963).40
3 K. Austin Kerr, Organized for Prohibition, A New History of the Anti-Saloon League (New Haven CT:
Yale University Press, 1985).
1
such as the Washington Post will also serve as sources. This work will be divided into
five main sections. There will be an examination of existing historiography on the
ratification of the 18th Amendment. A broad introduction into the foundations of the
prohibition movement in the Eighteenth Century will be included. The paper will then
transition into an inquiry of the League’s attempts to introduce a national amendment in
Congress from 1915 through 1917. How the amendment was ultimately ratified on the
state level will be examined next. This paper will study the ratification process in the
northeastern state of Massachusetts as well as the western states of Washington State,
California, North Dakota and Texas. A focus will be on western states because of the
region’s history and diversity. The American west was a region legendary for its
saloons.4It was also the region in which themes of nativism, racism and progressivism
galvanized the public. The American west was also a vast and diverse region that
combined larger states with densely populated cities such as California as well as
predominantly rural states such as North Dakota.5 By comparing several western states
to the eastern state of Massachusetts, this paper will demonstrate that while the
ratification effort in each state was a unique endeavor, the Great War enabled
prohibitionist to craft a national campaign that successfully contributed to the ratification
of the 18th Amendment. The diverse nature of the ratification campaign in these regions
will necessitate avoiding a focus on one individual state, instead broadly exploring
ratification in the states listed above. Thus a more holistic understanding of the
ratification of the 18th Amendment will be provided. The conclusion will contain an

4 Robert Smith Bader, Prohibition in Kansas: A History (Lawrence Kan: University of Kansas Press,
1986)
5 Peter H Odegard, Pressure Politics; the Story of the Anti-Saloon League(New York: Octagon
Books,1966)
2
analysis of the justifications for the 18th Amendment. The 18th Amendment was ratified
for a myriad of reasons, World War One and the League’s innovative advocacy were
instrumental in the ratification of the 18th amendment..

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Chapter I: Historiography
Prior to this paper’s analysis of the League’s campaign for national prohibition, it
is important to breakdown the existing historiography on the subject. The historiography
of the prohibition movement is rich and diverse. It can largely be divided into two
different schools of thought, the political and theoretical approach. Political historians
such as Blocker Jr., Kerr and Szymanski examine the topic through the lens of political
history, focusing on internal documents and newspapers to show how the League
cultivates the support necessary to ratify the 18th Amendment. Theoretical historians such
as Rumbarger, Timberlake and Sinclair concentrate on the larger themes influencing the
ratification of the 18th Amendment such as class conflict, nativism and progressivism.
While those themes will be explored in this paper, the main focus is on the political
intricacies of the ratification of the 18th amendment and how the League’s campaign of
political advocacy impacted ratification of the 18th Amendment. The home-front studies,
such as the one done by Professor Jennifer D. Keene, will be utilized to view how the
League launched a successful campaign to manipulate wartime anxieties to gain support
for the 18th amendment. This paper will briefly examine the historiography of the
progressive era, proceeding into an analysis of the existing historical literature on
prohibition and World War One.
The prohibition movement took place during a period of American history often
characterized as the progressive era. The Progressive era occurred from the late 19th
Century through the 1920s and was a precursor to many of Franklin Roosevelt’s New
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Deal Reforms.6 Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter [1955] has been
credited with writing on the seminal narratives on the American progressive era.
Hofstadter provides a thorough examination of the progressive era in The Age of Reform,
From Bryant to F.D.R. He contends that progressivism was “a rather widespread and
remarkably good-natured effort of the greater part of society to achieve some not very
clearly specified self-reformation.”7 The reforms of the progressive era attempted to
transform a political system besieged by corporate and political corruption. Reform
leaders intended to do more than just clean up the political institutions; they also wanted
to usher in a new era of moral righteousness.8 Prohibition was a natural result of the
progressive era. It allowed reformers to assault big liquor while advocating for a moral
cleansing that would strengthen the nation. Prohibition also encouraged early dry
advocates to condemn urban decay and crime caused by drunken debauchery.9
Hofstadter only briefly analyzes the origins of prohibition, however he
successfully situates the prohibition movement within the broader progressive movement.
Prohibition was part of the broader attempt to reform the social and economic concerns of
that era. However, Hofstadter persuasively argues that the prohibition movement of the
early Twentieth Century can not be simply characterized as either an exclusively
conservative or progressive movement. Hofstadter contends that the prohibition
movement combined conservative fundamentalism with progressive reform in a hybrid
movement of the two political crusades.10 Hofstadter also astutely contends that while

6 Nell Irvin Painter, Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-1919 (New York, NY: Norton
&Company, 1987),324
7 Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R (New York, NY: Knopf, 1955),5
8 Ibid
9 Robert Smith Bader, Prohibition in Kansas: A History (Lawrence Kan: University of Kansas Press,
1986)
10Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform: From Bryan to F.D.R (New York, NY: Knopf, 1955),287
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