Rep. Andrew Volstead, R-Minn., wrote the Volstead Act, which enforced the prohibition of alcohol. He made the cover of Time magazine in 1926.

Long before smoking bans gained steam across the land, a remarkable effort to rid the nation of alcohol took hold. “With Uncle Sam acting as undertaker,” the Morning Tribune reported on Jan. 17, 1920, “the death march of the late lamented John Barleycorn in Minneapolis and the United States ended at midnight last night.”

The dawn of Prohibition had arrived. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified one year earlier, banned the manufacture, transportation, import, export and sale of “intoxicating liquors.”

Tribune reporters found plenty of folks who were delighted with the ban, but, with the debate evidently settled, nobody – unless you count the headline writer! — could be found shedding a tear about the taps running dry.

Thud! Thud! Clods Fall With Dull,
Sickening Thuds on J. Barleycorn

‘Dry’ Leaders
Celebrate at
Victory Feast

Shortcomings of John Bar-
Leycorn Feature After-
Dinner Speeches

John Barleycorn’s death was celebrated with cheers, applause and laughter as his obituary was read at a “victory feast” of 800 jubilant members of the Ant-Saloon league of Minnesota in Dayton’s tea rooms last night.

“This is the happiest funeral I ever attended,” was the statement of the Rev. Melbourne P. Boynton, Chicago, chairman of the national board of the directors of the league, who delivered the principal address.

The long and hard struggle for prohibition – during times when the outlook was most discouraging until by degrees the victory was assured – was recited by 11 speakers who provoked laughter often and who caused moist eyes during more serious moments. Music of a quartet was interspersed among the speeches.

‘Dry World’ is slogan.

Adopting a slogan of “a dry world by 1930″ and pointing out that enforcement of law and education must continue to be objects of the league, speakers voiced the sentiment that the work of the anti-saloon organization has “just begun” and that there should be no thought of demobilization even though the eighteenth amendment has gone into effect.

Dr. S.M. Dick, president of the Anti-Saloon league, said that the nation going dry was the “greatest event in American history” and predicted that January 16, within a decade, would be a national holiday.

“Our trials of the past are almost forgotten as we rejoice over this tremendous victory,” Dr. Dick said.

Dr. George B. Safford, head of the state league, was given the chatauqua salute, as he was introduced as toastmaster, banquet guests standing and waving their handkerchiefs or napkins.

“Saloons are closed and the old signs gone,” Dr. Safford said exultantly. “This morning as I gazed at the place where one of our most notorious saloons had been, I had a few minutes of such ecstasy as I have seldom enjoyed.

“When we recall how a few years ago the liquor interests were in control, how everyone was afraid of them except a few women, I feel that this is one of the greatest days in human history.”

Past Difficulties Recalled.

Dr. Frank Nelson, president of Minnesota college, spoke on the subject, “It Was All Together.”

“Millions rejoice with us tonight for a dry nation,” Dr. Nelson told the banquet guests. “It has been a campaign of holy enthusiasm.

A St. Paul bootleg operation was shut down by authorities in about 1925. The location looks disturbingly similar to the basement of my old house on McLean Avenue. (Slightly torn St. Paul Daily News photo courtesy mnhs.org.)

“We have attacked and conquered the stronghold of organized vice. It was through the energy of the home, the state, the church and the school that the hard-fought campaign has been won. The saloon is dead. Our citizenship is enriched. When good people stand together for a good cause, anything is possible.”

Descriptions of struggles of the anti-saloon league in Minnesota until the 1915 Legislature enacted the county option measure, was given in humorous details by W.I. Norton, attorney for the league.

“Keep organized,” Mr. Norton urged. “During these days of unrest, men and women like you must think justice, practice justice and enact justice. Continue to be on the alert.”

Women’s part in the dry victory was recognized by the convention guest in the tribute of an ovation give to Mrs. David F. Simpson of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union before and after her talk on “Women Worried ‘Em.”

“No one can measure what women have suffered from the liquor traffic,” Mrs. Simpson said. “Women would not give up even when the feeling was prevalent that ‘Men must drink, women must weep.’

“The hatchet of Carrie Nation was symbolical of the feeling of the women in those days when everything looked so helpless. It took courage, equal to the courage of a soldier going over the top for those early women to go into the saloons and pray. But the prayers of the women were effective from the beginning.”

W.I. Nolan, speaker of the state House of Representatives, spoke of the numerous legislative difficulties encountered during the battle against liquor in Minnesota.

“It is hard to be with a movement which is unpopular,” Mr. Nolan pointed out. “But when it gets popular, everyone wants to get on the band wagon. It was public opinion which forced this through. Legislators, you will find, kept their ears to the ground and listened to the rumblings.”

“Well done,” Says Daniels.

“I have more faith in America now than ever before,” Senator H.F. Peterson of Moorhead declared. “This evil has been fought for many generations. It was left for us to abolish it.

“It was against the intellect and conscience of America. You will find also that the heart of the world is against it. That which is right will win.”

“Well done,” was the comment of the Rev. J.J. Daniels of Duluth. Mr. Daniels declared that partisan ship was one of the greatest menaces in America today and declared that the League policy of “scratching” the ticket has been one of the best of its features.

“This victory is the culmination of a century of struggles,” B.H. Schriber, St. Paul, said. “I rejoice in the fact that this is the first victory of a moral issue in the United States since Lincoln. Our worship of material things is one of the greatest menaces to the United States today.”

Moonshine versus Sunshine.

“As we bask in the sunshine of victory,” Dr. Boynton of Chicago, in his talk on “Moonshine versus Sunshine,” said, “let us not neglect to spread this sunshine to the world.

“The country to the North of us is still wet in spots. How wonderful have been our relations with that country. We have never had a soldier, or a warship or a fort to guard that imaginary line which separates us. Now that the lure of money has caused millions of dollars of liquor to be stored across the border, we must be vigilant and must be sure that we do not become embroiled in trouble with our neighbors.”

Mr. Boynton paid a tribute to “that man who represents us in England, patient, self-sacrificing, careful and a good sport – that man known as ‘Pussyfoot’ Johnson.”

The Rev. G.B. Safford, in the concluding talk of the evening festivities, answered the question, “Where Do We Go From Here?” by outlining the continued program of law enforcement and education in the United States and the continuation of the campaign for “a dry world in 1930.”

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