"The saloon must go."
--Motto of the Anti-Saloon League
Anti Saloon League
The Anti-Saloon League was an important organization during the pre-Prohibition era. It focused solely on the issue of passing Prohibition, and soon became close to a political party.
The Anti-Saloon League was founded in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1893 by Reverend Howard Hyde Russell. Soon afterwards on December 18, 1895, the Anti-Saloon League was officially founded in Washington D.C. Reverend Howard Hyde Russell became the national leader of this organization.
"It has not come...simply to build a little local sentiment or to secure the passage of a few laws, or yet to vote the saloons from a few hundred towns. These are mere incidents in its progress. It has come to solve the liquor problem." |
“Without Wayne B. Wheeler’s generalship it is more than likely we should never have had the Eighteenth Amendment.” The Anti-Saloon League spread propaganda with few political objections and gained lots of power.
"By first winning over local politicians and working up from there, the Anti-Saloon League gradually began to build a political base." |
Later, a man named Wayne Wheeler was chosen to lead the Anti-Saloon League.
"The ASL, under the shrewd and ruthless leadership of Wayne Wheeler, became the most successful single issue lobbying organization in American history" Under Wheeler's leadership, the Anti-Saloon League quickly became a leading power in the race to pass Prohibition. He was willing to team up with anyone who supported his views, whether it be Democrats, Republicans, or the Ku Klux Klan.
"As the campaign grew, up to 50,000 blanketed the country, preaching the anti-alcohol message in what Wheeler called 'a vocal army storming the enemy trenches.'" (Blumenthal, 48) |