III.

The Anti-Saloon League

In reaction to this, the extraordinary “Women's War” broke out across the United States in 1873. Thousands of women marched from church meetings to saloons, where with prayer and song they demanded—with transitory results—that saloonkeepers give up their businesses. By 1900, millions of men and women were beginning to share this hostility towards the saloon and to regard it as the most dangerous social institution then threatening the family. The Anti-Saloon League of America (ASL), organized in Ohio, effectively marshalled such people into political action. State chapters of the ASL endorsed candidates for public office and demanded of their state governments that the people be allowed to vote yes or no on the question of continuing to license the saloons.

By 1916, no less than 23 of the 48 states had adopted antisaloon laws, which in those states closed the saloons and prohibited the manufacture of any alcoholic beverages. Even more significant, the national elections of that year returned a US Congress in which the ASL-supported dry members (those who supported Prohibition) outnumbered the wet members (those who were against Prohibition) by more than two to one. On December 22, 1917, with majorities well in excess of the two-thirds requirement, Congress submitted to the states the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transport of intoxicating liquors”. By January 1919 ratification was complete, with 80 per cent of the members of 46 state legislatures recorded in approval. By this time, Canada was also dry in all provinces, and the predominantly Protestant nations of Northern Europe, including Great Britain, Finland, and Sweden, severely restricted the consumption of alcohol.