The opposite number of the Anti-Saloon League (established 1893) was The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment (1918 - 1933). As the name implied, it was organized for the purpose of repealing Prohibition in the United States and sought to achieve this end by printing pamphlets and articles and engaging lecturers. This short notice announced that the Association was setting up the Face the Facts conference in the Nation's Capital - to be convened immediately after the League had closed their own conference. Many elected officials would be in attendance.
- from Amazon:
The Anti-prohibition Manual: A Summary of Facts and Figures Dealing With Prohibition
When the architects of Prohibition were planning their dry fairyland they always knew that the weak spot in their scheme was going to be the vast borderlands that separate the United States from Canada and Mexico.
The attached article from 1923 outlines the concerns President Coolidge's administration had regarding Prohibition law enforcement along the Canadian frontier. This is an informative read that was written during the closing months of "the Noble Experiment" by one of New York's most admired crime reporters, Joseph Driscoll. The article is composed of numerous profiles of mob bosses both famous and forgotten from numerous cities throughout the nation.
"[These] personality sketches constitute a roll-call, a memorial service for the men of direct action, the gentleman of the rackets, who prospered under prohibition and who (we hope) may not be with us much longer, certainly not in the same old style and the same old stand... "
An Al Capone article can be read here...
One decade into Prohibition, the editors of THE LITERARY DIGEST polled numerous states in an effort to understand the law's standing within the nation. A reminiscence by screen writer, artist and all-around literary misfit Rob Wagner (1872 - 1942) as he recalled the bad old days of 1918, when he was hoodwinked into believing that the widespread prohibition of alcohol would help achieve an Allied victory in World War I. When the war ended and time passed, he noticed how the Noble Experiment was evolving into something quite different, and how it was altering not only his friends and neighbors, but American culture as a whole. "Before Prohibition, the average business or professional man, never dreamed of drinking spirits during the working day...Now, however, a full grown man with the sparkle in his eye of a naughty sophomore, will meet you on Spring Street at eleven in the morning, slap you on the back, and ask you to duck up to his office where he will uncork his forbidden treasure..." Written some eighteen years after the event, here is a reminiscence of the worst day in Prohibition history: the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. |