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Anti-Saloon League
The Anti-Saloon League, now known as the American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems, is an organization of the temperance movement in the United States.
Founded in 1893 in Oberlin, Ohio, it was a key component of the Progressive Era, and was strongest in the South and rural North, drawing support from Protestant ministers and their congregations, especially Methodists, Baptists, Disciples and Congregationalists. It concentrated on legislation, and cared about how legislators had voted, not whether they drank or not. Established initially as an Ohio state society, its influence spread rapidly. In 1895, it became a national organization and quickly rose to become the most powerful prohibition lobby in America, overshadowing the older Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Prohibition Party. Its triumph was nationwide prohibition locked into the Constitution with passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919. It was decisively defeated when Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
However, the organization continued – albeit with multiple name changes – and as of 2016, is known as the American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems. It remains active in lobbying to restrict alcohol advertising and promoting temperance. Its periodical is titled The American Issue. Member organizations of the American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems include "state temperance organizations, national Christian denominations and other fraternal organizations that support ACAAP's philosophy of abstinence".
The League was the first modern pressure group in the United States organized around one issue. Unlike earlier popular movements, it utilized bureaucratic methods learned from business to build a strong organization. The League's founder and first leader, Howard Hyde Russell (1855–1946), believed that the best leadership was selected, not elected. Russell built from the bottom up, shaping local leagues and raising the most promising young men to leadership at the local and state levels. This organizational strategy reinvigorated the temperance movement. Publicity for the League was handled by Edward Young Clarke and Mary Elizabeth Tyler of the Southern Publicity Association.
In 1909, the League moved its national headquarters from Washington to Westerville, Ohio, which had a reputation for supporting temperance. The American Issue Publishing House, the publishing arm of the League, was also in Westerville. Ernest Cherrington headed the company. It printed so many leaflets – over 40 tons of mail per month – that Westerville was the smallest town to have a first class post office.
From 1948 until 1950 the group was named the Temperance League, from 1950 to 1964 the National Temperance League, and from 1964 to 2015 the American Council on Alcohol Problems (ACAP); in 2016 the group rebranded as the American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems (ACAAP). As of 2020[update] the organization continues its "neo-prohibitionist agenda", with the addition of "other drugs" such as opioids. ACAAP is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.
A museum about the Anti-Saloon League is at the Westerville Public Library.
The League's most prominent leader was Wayne Wheeler, although both Ernest Cherrington and William E. "Pussyfoot" Johnson were also highly influential and powerful. The League used pressure politics in legislative politics, which it is credited with developing.
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Anti-Saloon League
The Anti-Saloon League, now known as the American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems, is an organization of the temperance movement in the United States.
Founded in 1893 in Oberlin, Ohio, it was a key component of the Progressive Era, and was strongest in the South and rural North, drawing support from Protestant ministers and their congregations, especially Methodists, Baptists, Disciples and Congregationalists. It concentrated on legislation, and cared about how legislators had voted, not whether they drank or not. Established initially as an Ohio state society, its influence spread rapidly. In 1895, it became a national organization and quickly rose to become the most powerful prohibition lobby in America, overshadowing the older Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Prohibition Party. Its triumph was nationwide prohibition locked into the Constitution with passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919. It was decisively defeated when Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
However, the organization continued – albeit with multiple name changes – and as of 2016, is known as the American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems. It remains active in lobbying to restrict alcohol advertising and promoting temperance. Its periodical is titled The American Issue. Member organizations of the American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems include "state temperance organizations, national Christian denominations and other fraternal organizations that support ACAAP's philosophy of abstinence".
The League was the first modern pressure group in the United States organized around one issue. Unlike earlier popular movements, it utilized bureaucratic methods learned from business to build a strong organization. The League's founder and first leader, Howard Hyde Russell (1855–1946), believed that the best leadership was selected, not elected. Russell built from the bottom up, shaping local leagues and raising the most promising young men to leadership at the local and state levels. This organizational strategy reinvigorated the temperance movement. Publicity for the League was handled by Edward Young Clarke and Mary Elizabeth Tyler of the Southern Publicity Association.
In 1909, the League moved its national headquarters from Washington to Westerville, Ohio, which had a reputation for supporting temperance. The American Issue Publishing House, the publishing arm of the League, was also in Westerville. Ernest Cherrington headed the company. It printed so many leaflets – over 40 tons of mail per month – that Westerville was the smallest town to have a first class post office.
From 1948 until 1950 the group was named the Temperance League, from 1950 to 1964 the National Temperance League, and from 1964 to 2015 the American Council on Alcohol Problems (ACAP); in 2016 the group rebranded as the American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems (ACAAP). As of 2020[update] the organization continues its "neo-prohibitionist agenda", with the addition of "other drugs" such as opioids. ACAAP is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama.
A museum about the Anti-Saloon League is at the Westerville Public Library.
The League's most prominent leader was Wayne Wheeler, although both Ernest Cherrington and William E. "Pussyfoot" Johnson were also highly influential and powerful. The League used pressure politics in legislative politics, which it is credited with developing.