Jason S. Lantzer
Chapter 2: From Local Concern to National Priority
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Despite their victory in 1908, the drys of Indiana and Hamilton County would find their local option triumph was not the end of the battle, or even of the war. During the course of the mid-1900s and throughout the 1910s, there was a decided shift in how moral problems, especially when it came to alcohol, were perceived. Reformers talked less and less of local answers and increasingly of national solutions.1 In order to achieve a final victory over the "rum power," an event greater than a special session of the Indiana General Assembly was going to be needed.
After Hamilton County voted to go dry in January, there were still battles to be fought. Liquor men obtaining their licenses after 26 September were given ninety days to operate before they had to close. Three saloons in Noblesville refused to shut down after their licenses expired under the law. While Ed Harrison and Ed Sopher were allowed to stay open until October, George McPherson was arrested outright in April.2 Obviously, saloonkeepers found themselves in a difficult position. They contended that their business was good for the economy, and yet they became the focus for boycotts of whole communities. The Tipton County Sunday School Association, for example, announced that it was not going to make any trips to lake front Michigan City because that town remained wet.3 Sheridan in 1910 was just as much at war with the saloons as was Noblesville. Temperance remained a source of sermons throughout the county, though there were no outright political endorsements for either candidates or parties. The WCTU remained strong, but so were the liquor interests. In April, a Cicero drugstore was fined for selling alcohol. A few months later, a police raid netted nineteen barrels of beer and three arrests, over the course of a week.4 But there was much more to be happy for than worried about. According to figures in the Sheridan News, local option did "not disappoint," as the number of arrests for intoxication dropped from 102 in the period January-August 1909 to a mere eleven in the same months of 1910. Former Gov. Hanly came to town and urged the formation of a WCTU backed Good Citizens League, which would help law enforcement by keeping public pressure on politicians and police.5 Hanly's visit came just a few weeks ahead of Gov. Marshall's trip to Sheridan. The governor was there to push for the repeal of local option. As almost a rebuke to the idea, within two weeks of his visit, the Sheridan News reported on the conviction of three men for selling liquor in town. A few weeks after that, the paper reported that William Hiatt was fined for selling alcohol to high school boys. And though Marshall's Democratic Party won in the November elections statewide, they were defeated in Hamilton County by a mixture of Republican pride and Prohibition sentiment. By the end of the year, the Sheridan WCTU was preparing a petition in support of local option.6 However, the Democratic victory did bring about a change in local option. The Proctor Law allowed for reverse local option, in which a locality within a township could vote itself wet, even if the township itself was dry. After its passage, supporters attempted to make Sheridan and other portions of Hamilton County wet. This caused a mobilization of drys across the county, the formation of a "union of good citizens" to help the IASL fight the liquor interest, and a series of temperance sermons to issue forth from area pulpits. Jackson and Noblesville Townships voted first, and both stayed dry. Noblesville's first and second wards kept the town dry by 142 votes. Washington and Adams Townships also remained dry, with Sheridan businessmen throwing their support behind the dry cause. The summer of 1911 saw nearby Lebanon stay dry as well, by 194 votes.7 If 1911 was a good year overall for the temperance cause, 1912 was a bad one. Not only did Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats dominate the political landscape, but the local judiciary also turned against the drys. When two men were arrested for possession of intoxicating liquor, the state lost the cases because the juries believed the men did not actually intend to sell the alcohol. Additionally, two local druggists were acquitted of selling liquor at their stores.8 The following year, 1913, began with a religious revival sweeping over Noblesville. Many believed religion to be a cure-all for societal woes. It was logical that the Church could and should address issues facing the community. The year began with a month long planned revival at First Methodist, but within a few days the Friends had joined in the services. The revival condemned card playing, cigarettes, plays, and was endorsed by the Noblesville Ministerial Association in its condemnation of Sunday shows.9 Prohibition, of whatever stripe, was still an important moral and political issue. Congress announced it was considering making it illegal to ship liquor from wet areas into dry territory. Closer to home, joint Hamilton/Tipton County state senator, Dr. Wood said he was against a proposed bill that would allow saloons to be open on holidays.10 It was not long before the wet/dry fight returned to Noblesville. The city became ground zero in the conflict because the wets believed the dry's 1911 majority was beatable. But the recently revived moral reformers were not about to lose Noblesville without a fight. The WCTU held a convention at First Methodist in March, while later that month, Rev. Miller of the Presbyterian Church contended during a sermon that the average drinker spent enough money in saloons to pay for the needs of his family every year. The drys organized a series of meetings in April, which included bringing Rev. Edward S. Shumaker, the superintendent of the IASL to the city. The drys even rallied on the courthouse square in preparation of the vote. Shumaker, who was introduced by Rev. L.C. Howe of the Christian Church, called on the crowd that heard him to action. He advocated not only a vote for local option but also demanded strict enforcement of the laws.11 During this fight, the drys could once again count on the support of the Noblesville Daily Ledger. Ever since the 1890s, when the paper came under the control of William H. Craig, son of a former pastor at First Presbyterian in Noblesville, it had been staunchly on the side of temperance. Craig had supported the shift towards local option prohibition as well, a trend that continued under the leadership of the Neal family when they took over the paper in the early 1900s. The newspaper ran a series of editorial cartoons showing why the drys should be victorious in their struggle. In "The Poor Man's Club and the Way it Works," the saloon was depicted as a giant's club that was destroying a home and forcing a woman and her children to flee for their lives.12 In "One Effect of the Well Regulated Saloon," a man is depicted hunched over a desk with a notice to vacate his home poking out of his pocket and divorce papers spread out before him.13 The message was clear as far as the paper was concerned, the saloon and the liquor it sold destroyed families. Such exhortations and depictions proved to be enough. The drys were victorious by a mere ten votes in the contest, making it their third victory in four years. 1,132 people voted in the election, with the drys carrying the first and second wards again, and the wets taking the third ward. The victory proved to dry supporters that the state would continue to be dry under local option.14 But electoral victories did not mean the fight was over. A day after the election results appeared in the Ledger, the paper also ran a story about police busting up a blind tiger. A few days after that, bootleggers were said to be dominating "dry" Fortville. Cries were coming from Westfield for more law enforcement, and a blind tiger was even found near a school in the first ward of Noblesville. Over the course of July, police would seize 180 pints of alcohol and arrest three men, and dump an additional 300 bottles of beer into Stony Creek.15 1914 began much the same way as the previous year had. Once again there were revival meetings at the Noblesville Friends, Christian, and First Methodist churches, and eventually at the AME Church as well. The services pulled in many people, who heard calls for the Church to lead the charge on social issues and for a return to "purity." Visitors to the revivals were also warned about the evils of "red light" districts and of card playing.6 One of the leaders of this revival was the Rev. Gertrude Reiner, pastor of the Friends Church in Noblesville. She is interesting not only because she was a woman, but also because she apparently was considered an equal within the Noblesville Ministerial Association. It was Reiner who took the lead in addressing many of the social concerns during these years, to both men and women. In addition to being a temperance advocate, Rev. Reiner was also a visionary, who believed that churches needed to understand the business world, and adapt some of its practices, especially in regards to advertising, as their own.17 But politically, 1914 was a very different world. What was left of Indiana's Progressive/Bull Moose Party, under the leadership of Albert Beveridge, announced their opposition to the ASL's plan for national prohibition. Problems continued to plague the Prohibition Party, as it failed to get their ticket certified in Washington Township.18 The need for law enforcement was still very much a part of the lives of the people of Hamilton County. In two separate raids in late February and early March, 320 bottles of beer were confiscated from blind tigers operating within the city. Later that spring, a man was arrested with sixteen bottles of liquor under his overcoat, and an eight-gallon keg was confiscated in Atlanta.19 After these developments, it is little wonder that the churches felt compelled to once again become actively involved. Rev. F.A. Hall, the pastor of First Methodist, gave a sermon in late March, in which he commented on the progress the temperance movement was making. He predicted the "doom of the saloon" would come very soon. A few weeks later, 1,200 gallons of alcohol was dumped into Stony Creek. And not long after that, Gov. Hanly's Flying Squadron, a group of temperance and Prohibition speakers, was on hand at the Christian Church to urge for national prohibition.20 Out of this fever came calls for more police action. First, Indianapolis's mayor, Joseph Bell, came to Noblesville and spoke at the Christian Church. His topic was the need for law enforcement to be local government's top priority. Within a few weeks, the Noblesville city council was calling for more effective policing. From out of these calls, came raids in June that netted fifteen bottles of beer at one blind tiger, and the arrest of Alonzo Taylor near Cicero, who promptly turned on his supplier, Claude Parsley.21 In July, the Noblesville Ministerial Association held union Sunday services. This compensated for a natural decrease in church attendance during the summer, as well as allowed for a bit of fun, with outdoor services that acted as a community get-together. Those attending heard calls for women to get the vote (because it would eliminate the liquor traffic according the United Brethren minister), as well as a sermon by Rev. Hall of First Methodist in which he reiterated his vision of different segments of society moving together to crush the liquor power. As before, public agitation soon brought arrests. In August, police raided several blind tigers in the area.22 In November 1914, just before Election Day, an anti-saloon Sunday was held in Noblesville. IASL representatives were in the pulpits at First Methodist, First Christian, First Presbyterian, and Friends churches. At the Christian Church, Rev. Shumaker said that it was time for statewide prohibition by either a new constitution or by a constitutional amendment. The election that followed the meeting showed Republican gains across the board on the Democratic majorities. It also saw the Prohibition Party net a mere 260 votes in the county, with its main areas of support being concentrated in Baker's Corner and West Westfield.23 The city council apparently had listened to the message of the anti saloon Sunday with rapt attention. It told the mayor: The lid is going to be clamped down tight on the city of Noblesville. Bootleggers are going to be put out of business, bawdy houses closed, and gambling rooms, if there are any, must lock their doors and the proprietors seek other vocations for livelihoods.24 Not long thereafter, police caught up with a mobile saloon, and cigar stores were ordered to stop allowing dice games on their premises.25 As had the past two years, 1915 started with a citywide revival, featuring famed Southern evangelist Bob Jones. Planning had begun the previous fall, and it quickly paid off with large attendance at the services. A special 2,000-seat tabernacle was built for the revival, which at one point had members of twelve different congregations attending at once. Numbers ranging from 2,500 to 3,000 were commonly found as attendance figures in the Noblesville Daily Ledger. While he talked of the usual subjects of salvation and hell, and because of the time of war and peace, Jones also focused his message on Christian unity and the fact that Christ died for everyone. He condemned a great many things that were occurring in the Noblesville community as well. Jones pointed out that saloons were the enemy of the Christian home, and that card clubs, dancing, profanity, drunkenness, and going to blind tigers in addition to church were all too common in Noblesville. He also lambasted the city for its lax position on its red light district, warning that the sins of a community would be visited upon it. In a months' work, Jones was able to "save" 1,450 people.26 During his time in Noblesville, Jones put a special emphasis on the role women should play in the community. Over and over again he told his audience, but specifically the women in attendance, that there could be no compromise with sin. And he meant not just the big sins, such as drinking, but small sins, such as card playing as well. Jones said no woman could call herself Christian and continue to play cards. He went so far as to say that the work of the revival was being held up by some women who refused to give up cards, despite local leaders joining him in a call to ban card parties.27 In the weeks following the Jones revival, church attendance in the city swelled. Follow up meetings were held with the newly converted. Even before the revival was over, 184 new members were enrolled in local churches: sixty-five joined the Christian Church, thirty-eight First Methodist, twenty-eight the Friends, nineteen the Presbyterian, eighteen the United Brethren, and sixteen Calvary Baptist. In all, 238 people joined the two Methodist churches and another 220 joined the Christian Church alone because of the Jones revival.28 This newly energized moral reformist base was soon to be put to the test. Once again the wets decided to test the strength of the dry local option. Shortly after Mayor Loehr announced that he had employed detectives to look for blind tigers in Noblesville and a raid of Samuel Poer's storeroom netted 740 bottles of beer and two jugs of whisky. Meanwhile, wets in Atlanta, Cicero, and Arcadia produced 300 signatures to challenge the drys in Jackson Township. When some of the names proved to be illegible, the wets tried another petition, this time with 400 names.29 The Poer case and the Jackson Township battle became a two-front temperance war. Poer appealed his conviction, saying that people wanted to drink and he wanted to serve them. The apparent wet strength in Jackson Township, worried people in Tipton County and sparked dry organization all over Hamilton County. Meetings were held at First Methodist in Noblesville, where the audience heard from a speaker who advocated prohibition because the liquor interest would never regulate itself, or allow itself to be regulated from outside. At the Christian Church, people were told that if Jackson Township reverted to being wet, the process would domino into the rest of the county and into the surrounding counties as well.30 The drys held a series of meetings, which included large rallies, throughout Jackson Township. They demanded that wets help them drive out blind tigers, while the wets countered that Christ was one of them because he had drunk, and even miraculously created, wine. As the township headed towards the election, the drys felt confident of victory. The Cicero Methodist church held a prayer meeting all day election day. After a heavy vote, the drys won by a majority of 341.31 All during this political fight the arrests for alcohol possession and consumption continued. In one raid, police nabbed four men and 1,000 bottles of beer and whisky. Police busted up a blind tiger near Arcadia and arrested Bob Poeniz for having 100 bottles of alcohol. They also arrested a man for selling tablets he claimed when dissolved in water produced whisky. The county sheriff found forty-eight bottles of beer at Stony Creek cemetery. It was suspected that there were blind tigers in the Eagletown area as well.32 Though police could look back on 173 arrested for liquor violations during the past two years, the political battle was about to come to Noblesville. In July, a wet local option petition was filed. There were problems with the petition, however. As required by law, the names of petitioners were printed in the Noblesville Daily Ledger. Many men who had signed faced angry wives after the list was published, and so withdrew their names in order to keep a happy home. This caused the drys to challenge the entire petition. In all, forty-two names were removed from the petition, causing it to be declared invalid. Undaunted, the wets mounted another campaign. Two hundred seventy names were put on the new petition, with most of the signers living on "working class" Eighth Street.33 The drys in Noblesville had expected a fight. During the Jackson Township struggle, the Attica, Indiana newspaper sent an open appeal to Noblesville to stay dry, citing that while other towns that had gone dry in 1909 were prospering, Attica was stagnant, in large part, the paper contended, because the town had reverted to being wet. It was only in 1915 that the town had managed to reclaim some of its vitality, because it had gone dry again.34 The drys wasted little time. Rev. F.A. Hall of First Methodist called on all Noblesville Methodists to fight the wets. Rev. Rabitay, Rev. L.C. Howe, and Rev. Stone, of the AME, Christian, and Ninth Street Methodist churches respectively, joined him in this declaration of war. When attacked by some critics for their activism, the churches replied that they were simply doing what was best for the community. Wets were told that they should withdraw their memberships in churches if they did not believe in supporting their pastor's work on behalf of temperance.35 Bolstered by church support, the drys vowed to crush both big and small wet strongholds. Early on, Carl Minton of the IASL came and spoke at First Methodist and the Flying Squadron Foundation sent a speaker to the Christian Church. Additional meetings were held in the weeks after these speakers at both churches who were joined in the work by the congregations of the Presbyterian and Friends churches. Just prior to the election, dry speakers, including Rev. E. S. Shumaker of the IASL, came back to First Methodist and the Christian Church. The basic message argued by the drys at all of these events was that even with blind tigers, there was less alcohol related crime than there had been with open saloons.36 Once again, the Noblesville Daily Ledger got involved on the side of the temperance forces. As it had in 1913, the paper ran a series of editorial cartoons showing the saloon's assault on the family. In one entitled "The Saloon is Reaching for the Child," a beastly hand was seen coming down from above, ready to grasp an innocent little girl carrying a doll.37 In another called "The Spender," a well-dressed man is first shown buying a round of drinks at a saloon. In the second panel of the cartoon, however, the same man is shown to have no money to give his daughter when she needs it.38 But this time, the paper's help went beyond cartoons. The drys and their newspaper allies were running a very sophisticated political campaign. The Ledger ran an ad listing names of male church members in October 1915, showing that there were enough people in the Presbyterian, Methodist, United Brethren, Christian, AME, Church of the Brethren, Baptist, Gospel Workers, and Seventh Day Adventist churches of the city to insure that Noblesville stayed dry. Additionally, the paper ran other ads listing the names of prominent county men who were for Noblesville remaining dry, and of women in Noblesville who thought the same. The paper also ran an ad showing "how to vote dry" on a sample ballot.39 A large vote was expected on Election Day, and in the end, it was a dry victory by 237 votes. Once again, Noblesville's first and second wards had gone dry, and the third wet. But unlike in 1913, the margins were wider in the dry wards and closer in the wet one. The editorial page of the Noblesville Daily Ledger proclaimed the city dry "for all time," and doubted if there would ever be another local option contest. It trumpeted the victory as one that insured the community's moral and economic health.40 Once again, victory brought with it demands for enforcement of the laws. Drys knew that they had to guard against feelings of complacency. Having shown their strength at the polls, drys expressed some concern that during the campaign beer had been found in Sheridan.41 So, 1916 started in much the same way as the previous years had, with revivals in the city's churches. Centering on the Friends, United Brethren, and First Methodist congregations, revival goers heard calls for an end to gambling, drinking, and love of money.42 The revivals were now part of a larger landscape of speeches and debates in an election year, however, of which temperance and prohibition were an increasingly important part. J. Frank Hanly led his Flying Squadron into union meetings at Atlanta's Christian Church and Arcadia's Methodist Church. The Noblesville Daily Ledger proclaimed that all candidates seeking the Ninth Congressional district seat would have to answer the liquor question. The county arm of the Prohibition Party held its convention focusing on the war in Europe and women's suffrage, while local WCTU chapters attempted to put pressure on both Noblesville and state officials to clean up suspected blind tigers. The speeches on politics and temperance continued throughout the year. William Jennings Bryan was the headliner for the Noblesville Chautauqua that summer. State Senator Arthur Robinson spoke to a union meeting of nearly all of Noblesville's churches.43 The connection between the temperance movement in Indiana and the nation became even more strengthened when the Prohibition Party nominated Hanly as its presidential candidate. Though he did not fully agree with their platform, Hanly did agree to run. While the announcement gave something of a boost to the party in the state, it had to compete with a tidal wave of Republican anti-Wilson sentiment. Once again Hoosier Charles Fairbanks, former senator and vice president, was on the Republican ticket. And once again, the party's faithful were energized. Hamilton County had an automobile rally for the Republican ticket in September. And though the national ticket was defeated, the state swung back into the Republican column at nearly every level.44 The Hanly nomination was, in many ways, the last hurrah of the Prohibition Party. Hanly would garner 221,329 votes in November, 16,368 in Indiana (or 2.28% of the vote), where he was beaten by the Socialists by over 5,000 votes. And while the numbers were better nationally than in 1912, he had lost nearly 3,000 votes within Indiana. 1916 was the last time the Prohibition Party would post more than 200,000 votes.45 The dynamic of the temperance movement, though it seemed to stay very similar during these years with revivals and political pressure being commonplace, was changed after 1914 with the start of the First World War. News of the hostilities was commonplace on the front page of the Noblesville Daily Ledger, as were calls for peace and prayer. When the war started, Rev. Miller of the Presbyterian Church told his congregation that America would only fight if freedom became at stake.46 Freedom did become an issue, and as the war began to affect every aspect of peoples' lives, it changed the way temperance workers looked at prohibition. By 1917, there were calls for statewide prohibition, headed by the IASL. The Rev. C.E. Line of First Methodist in Noblesville was chairman of the county petition drive. He expected 5,000 people in Hamilton County alone to sign it. Such efforts got the state legislature to take up a Prohibition bill, which was hotly contested in the state senate, but ultimately passed. The bill, which had originated in the House, passed that chamber 70 to 28. Governor James P. Goodrich signed the Wright Prohibition bill into law in February.47 While the war provided a broader context for the prohibition debate to be considered in, it did not seem to actually influence the course of debate, at least in so far as the coverage was concerned. January and February 1917 were the same months in which U.S. and German relations finally deteriorated to the point of war. And while the Noblesville Daily Ledger faithfully kept track of seemingly every twist and turn on the road to war, it did not link the war to Prohibition in Indiana in its articles.48 While the war did not play a significant role in the state becoming dry, it did have a much larger role nationally. With a fear of starvation, of needing to divert resources to the war effort, of mobilization in general, the U.S. entry into World War I did give drys in Congress an opportunity to call for wartime, nationwide, Prohibition. Wet congressmen, of course, fought such a proposition at every turn. It was only after the debates began in Washington that Noblesville connected the war to Prohibition. Rev. L.C. Howe of the Christian Church told his congregation that when they bought Liberty Bonds, they were striking a blow against the saloon.49 Additionally, the war had a tremendous affect on the brewers themselves. Many of the owners of the breweries were Germans or of German descent. Their desire to protect their culture, which included their language and their beer, while attacked by some reformers before the war, had been largely respected. But with American entry into the war against Germany, their patriotism, and everything associated with them suddenly became suspect to the entire nation.50 The law enforcement angle of Prohibition at the local level continued throughout the debates on national "dryness" and war. Complaints of blind tigers were common, though arrests in 1917 seemed to be few. Still, police dumped 4,000 bottles of beer and whisky into Stony Creek in May. The following year, police focused more on gambling in poolrooms than they did liquor violations. The major difference, according to local officials, was the state prohibition law finally made Indianapolis go dry.51 As 1917 came to a close, brewers decided to fight statewide Prohibition in court. F.W. Cook Brewing Company and Evansville Brewing Association filed an injunction against the enforcement of the Wright Act. The Noblesville Daily Ledger denounced the action in its editorial page. The paper said that what the brewers were actually doing was challenging the right of legislatures to protect the citizens of the state. Despite the brewer's protests Indiana went dry in April 1918, and in June of that year, the State Supreme Court upheld Indiana's liquor law as constitutional.52 The Prohibition Party remained a part of the state's political landscape, despite consistent poor showings at the polls. The party vowed to stay together in order to keep pressure on politicians whenever dry legislation came up. The also planned to support dry candidates outside of their party.53 The events of 1919 unfolded in the aftermath of the state and nation being both dry and at war. The Noblesville Daily Ledger admitted that "the war's influence was enormous" in shaping the community during the past year. Not surprisingly the city started the New Year off with a Prayer Week, which culminated in the city's churches vowing to improve attendance during the year and to continue their moral crusade.54 A massive "Go-To-Church Campaign" was launched at the end of February as a result of the Prayer Week meetings. A canvass was performed first, to see who belonged to what church and who belonged to no church. The campaign said its goal was merely to encourage people to attend more regularly than they had in the past. Though they met with some people who refused to either sign a pledge card or to talk, 1,000 people promised that they would go to church more often in 1919 than they had in 1918.55 Events in the political arena, however, were outpacing those taking place in the religious one. By now many were publicly linking the war with Prohibition because of German brewers and crisis-induced needs. It was taken for granted that Indiana would pass a proposed federal constitutional amendment to ban alcohol from the entire country, which it did in mid-January. What was open for debate was how stringent the state's own liquor laws would end up being. While the state legislature debated just how dry Indiana would be, the people of Noblesville kept an eye on the Ledger, as the paper counted off the number of states that had joined Indiana in passing the Eighteenth Amendment. After word reached the city that Nebraska made the thirty-sixth state to ratify the amendment, Noblesville's church bells rang out in a thunderous peal of triumph.56 All of these things were occurring alongside increased law enforcement activities, which again were concentrating on alcohol. Though many within Noblesville believed alcohol was too scarce and too expensive under Prohibition to be much of a threat to public morals anymore, this did not stop the police from making several high profile arrests during 1919, for both liquor and gambling violations.57 While justice was swift, it was also fair. When Roy "Frosty" Roberts was convicted of having bay rum in his possession, Judge Cloe took into consideration that Roberts was the sole support of his mother. Cloe gave him a suspended fine and sentence, except for the court costs.58 But even this fairness had its limits. In July, police confiscated 200 quarts of whisky in two automobiles on their way to Indianapolis, arresting six men in the process. It took several days for these men, who were all from Marion, Indiana, to give their real names. This caused police to suspect that either another car had escaped their dragnet or that they were missing some important detail in the case. A quick search of the area of where the cars had been stopped reveled an additional ninety quarts of whisky hidden in a blackberry field. Though all six of the men claimed to have no idea that the whisky was in the car, four were found guilty outright and sent to the state farm. One man pled not guilty, and the other, though convicted, was held over because he had a family. But the judge, who at first was inclined to leniency, grew suspicious when the man's fine was paid in full before his sentence could even be read. The judge duly fined him and sent him to the state farm, family or not.59 These arrests and trials came during a time of increased calls for law enforcement at the national and local levels, because many drys believed wartime Prohibition had been laxly enforced. Congress passed a liquor enforcement bill, known as the Volstead Act, which gave the Federal Government the power to deal with all liquor cases in the country. Drys in Congress also worked to prevent President Wilson from ending wartime Prohibition prior to the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment. In Noblesville, the Christian Church sponsored a WCTU meeting that called for the enforcement of all dry laws.60 The courts upheld the various statutes allowing for the enforcement of Prohibition, yet still the wets fought on. The Supreme Court seemingly ended the debate in 1920 when it ruled that the Volstead Act was Constitutional, and that near beer was illegal under the provisions of wartime Prohibition. These legal victories sparked a call for celebration among temperance and prohibition advocates around the country, for now the "nation [would] be dry for all time to come."61 A mass meeting in Noblesville's First Methodist Church, over which Rev. Shumaker presided, was planned to celebrate the advent of national Prohibition. The Noblesville Daily Ledger said of Prohibition, that it was a "sturdy doctrine based on the right of a people to protect mankind against mankind's own vice." Speakers, who included the mayor, businessmen, professionals, and even a homemaker, gave their reasons for why they rejoiced "in the national prohibition of the liquor traffic." Many made allusions to how slavery was ended with a constitutional amendment and now so too the liquor traffic. The long promised "dream" of a dry nation had been realized.62 On 16 January 1920, the Ledger reported that the "constitutional prohibition lid clapped down tight on Indiana today."63 But if the people who had worked so long to see such a statement become a reality believed their fight was finally over, they were sadly mistaken. |
Chapter 1: From Temperance to Prohibition
Chapter 2: From Local Concern to National Priority Chapter 3: From the Cross of Christ to the Fiery Cross Chapter 4: From Civic Need to Miscellaneous Issue |