| Ohio was
a very closely contested state in the national campaign to eradicate the
liquor traffic by declaring illegal the businesses of manufacturing, distributing,
and selling alcoholic beverages. Ohio was the birthplace of both the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union (1874) and the Anti-Saloon League (1893). The
WCTU brought a special zeal to the prohibition effort in the 1880s, failing
to achieve state-wide dry legislation but disturbing Ohio political life
nevertheless. The Anti-Saloon League later (and with the help of the WCTU)
promoted the issue in a non-partisan manner, pressuring politicians to
enact dry legislation. The League and its allies were successful in achieving
various local option measures (laws that allowed voters of a ward or a
township to declare themselves free of the liquor traffic) and, in 1908,
in achieving a law that granted counties the authority to outlaw the liquor
traffic. |
| Although prohibition was a popular reform in the state,
the issue deeply divided Ohioans. In 1909, witnessing the success
of the League in achieving county option legislation, and fearing
that it might achieve state-wide prohibition, the brewers organized
a counter-attack. Beer had become the largest single source of beverage
alcohol in the United States during the 1880s, and the brewing industry
was the most profitable of the liquor trades. Persons of German ancestry
dominated the American brewing industry, and they worked closely with
the German-American Alliance, an organization popular in German-American
communities. The brewers had always supplied lobbyists and campaign
funds to thwart the prohibitionists. In 1909 the Ohio brewers decided
to try to reform their industry, to reduce the number of saloons in
the state dramatically, and to have legislation enacted that would
ensure that saloon keepers were citizens of "good character."
Led by Percy Andreae, the Ohio brewers used their ample financial
resources and political skills to conduct a propaganda campaign to
countervail that of the drys, and to mobilize wets in support of measures
that would weaken the dry hold in the state's politic |
| The result was that after 1910 the Anti-Saloon League
encountered stiff opposition in the state's legislature. The drys
could, however, try to achieve state-wide prohibition through the
referendum. The Ohio Constitution permitted citizens to petition to
have amendments placed on the ballot for decision directly by the
voters. In campaigning for state-wide prohibition through the referendum,
League leaders knew they could count on only about 400,000 voters
(of a total well over 1,000,000) to support prohibition. Nevertheless,
the League leaders believed they had little choice but to push referendum
campaigns if they were going to achieve state-wide prohibition in
Ohio. Although the brewers and their wet allies could outspend the
drys, the drys hoped to make up the deficit through the righteousness
of their cause and the resulting reform zeal. After about 1910 public
opinion across the nation seemed to be turning in favor of prohibition.
The League believed that conducting referendum campaigns in Ohio would
educate the public futher to the virtues of prohibition. |
 |
The League engineered referendums in 1915 and 1917, which it lost. The
League was finally victorious in 1918, narrowly winning a state-wide
victory. In 1917 and 1918, James A. White, the Superintendent of the
Ohio Anti-Saloon League, organized an "Ohio Dry Federation"
to mobilize all of the state's temperance and prohibition groups,
including the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. In 1917 the Federation
budgeted $450,000 for the campaign, and in 1918, $500,000, enormous
sums for the day. The advertisements that you will see were part of
that expenditure.
The
broadsides we are providing were for publication in the state's newspapers.
Many of them contain patriotic references to the mobilization for the
First World War. Although nationally political sentiment had clearly developed
in support of a prohibition amendment to the federal constitution before
the United States declared war in 1917, the Ohio Dry Federation propagandists
were looking for every advantage to win over a majority of the state's
voters. |
| Persons interested in
more details of this story may wish to consult Organized for Prohibition:
A New History of the Anti-Saloon League (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1985) by K. Austin Kerr. |
