Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-25
MAINE FIRST DRY
STATE OF UNION
Booze, Made a National Issue
by Civil War Revenue
Acts

last Few years, is old and has been
OF slow growth. 1t has a longer his
tory than the movement for the
aoo!ition of American slavery had
at the time of the Emancipation
PROCLAMATION of 1863.
some of the votes which elected
thls years dry legislatures in vari-
gus states may we'll have been cast
py great-grandsons of men who
voted Maine dry in 1916.
The prohibition movement has, in
some ways, repeated the history of
the, anti-slavery movement. Both
were instituted by persons for the
most part obscure, We're carried on
largely without the incentive of per-
sonal reward, and were received
generally with indifference, ridicule
and hostility. Both were built
gradually to strength where they
| compelled the attention of political
leaders. and both came to their cul-
mination in a period of war.
The early prohibition sentiment
was, i'm part, the outgrowth of the
| temperance and total abstinence
movements which had flourished
and declined periodically since Rev.
| olutionary days. Maine was the
! hrst state in which the manufactu
and sale of liquor were forbidden by
law. The statute of 1916 was re-
placed in 1851 by a more stringent
| law, providing for the seizure and
destruction of liquors found in the
state. This was the Maine Law"
the work of Neal Dow.
| Liquor in Lead After Civil War
Vermont in 1852, Connecticut in
! 1884 and New Hampshire in 1855
placed the Maine Law on their
statute books. New York enacted
similar in 1855, but it was de-
| clared unconstitutional because it
exposed to contiscation liquors owned
before the law was passed. Illinois
had a shortlived prohibition law in
the early SOS, and Indiana enacted
law in 1855. which was repealed
in 1858. after being declared uncon-
stitutional Ohio and Michigan, by
their constitutions, forbade the pas
sage of a license law.
Before the Civil War anti-liquor
campaigns were local and state mat
ters. There was no general organ
ization of the dry forces, and the
/ opposition was locally managed and
financed. But the internal revenue
| acts of the war period placed the
| liquor business on new and firmer
| basis, making it, in a sense, a part
/ ner of the government. The liquor
power became reality in national
politics. and it soon appeared that
[ this new power was determined to
| sweep away all existing laws against
| the liquor business. 1t was this con-
dition which caused the establish
ment in 1869 of the National Pro-
hibition party.
In the forty years following the
Civil War the liquor interest was
able to infiict losses which practi-
cally balanced the gains made by
| the prohibition forces, so far as
| statewide extension was concerned.
Kansas adopted prohibition in 1880
and Iowa in 1884, but Michigan fell
back into the wet column in 1876,
the New England States, except
Maine, repealed their laws against
license, and Ohio legalized the traffic
under a tax statute. North and
South Dakota had prohibition in
| their constitutions when they were
| admitted to the Union in 1890, but
South Dakota repealed its law in
1896. Iowa in 1894 nullified is prev
ious action by adopting the "mulct
law" to all intents and purposes a
license law. The lack of prohibition
sentiment in Washington was shown
when Congress in 1899 voted a
license law for Alaska, which Presi-
uGllI NlONCldilu III 100 Ildu plaCGQ
under prohibition by an executive
order.
The Prohibition party, from its in
ception, demanded national prohi-
bition by federal enactment. 1t was
closely allied with the Women's
Christian Temperance Union, which
was organized on a national basis
at about the same time as the party.
OF the two organizations the w. c.
L. U. perhaps did the greater work
toward the ultimate object.
Under the leadership of Frances
E. Willard it worked chiefly with the
rising generation. 1t brought about
the passage of laws requiring pub
lie school instruction in the effects
of alcohol on the human body. 1t
formed Bands of Hope, and marched
little hosts through the streets
carrying the motto, "Tremble, King
Alcohol, We Shall Grow Up" This
brave little phrase was much de-
rided, but its warning was timely,
for the children did grow up, and
a good many of them grew into dry
voters.
When it became apparent that
separate national political party was
not going to bring about the desired
result, the mos astute of the dry
workers turned to other methods,
and the Anti-Saloon League wos or
ganized. Its purpose was to build
up local centers of prohibition by
voting towns and counties dry under
local option laws and gradually to
work for state prohibition laws, with
national prohibition as a final OBJ
jective. 1t formed a close alliance
with the churches. Its workers
were taken from the clergy and the
churches were a source of financial
support to the league.
League Worked in the South
The league saw the opening which
then existed for it's efforts in the
Southern states, where, because of
the large negro population, the sale
of liquor was considered by many
white persons as an intolerable
menace. Local option campaigns
were fostered throughout the South,
with the strong cooperation of the
churches, and in s107 Georgia was
placed under statewide prohibition
by statute. In the same year, Okla
homa was admitted to the Union
as n dray state. At that time the
only other prohibition states were
Maine, Kansas and North Dakota.
Mississippi, North Carolina, Ten
nessee and West Virginia were add
ed to the dry columns in the next
eight years. and the process of re-
version of states from prohibition to
license stopped. After this. cities
and countries som etimes reverted to
the control of the vets, but when
state went dry it stayed dry.
Al.