- Potpourri - Janesville Sesquicentennial
-
- City didn't bow easily to call for prohibition
- Like every other city in the country, Janesville was in the
midst of the fight over Prohibition.
- While many cities in Wisconsin went "dry" in the
early 1900s, Janesville did not give in until
- National Prohibition was established in 1920.
- The pressure was on Janesville to go dry from temperance
leagues from the late 1800s until 1920.
- In the 1890s, newspapers were starting to spread the word
of alcohol's "evils." The Janesville
- Gazette in 1861 quoted a Dr. Jewett as saying an alcoholic's
brain hardens and "begins an indurating process before death
- begins it while the brain remains the consecrated temple of
the soul - leaving only the brain of lead and a heart of stone."
- Alcohol was regarded as a cause of crime, vice, disease,
poverty and death. Businessmen realized
- that sobriety would lead to better work efficiency.
- A major leader in the temperance movement was Janesville's
Frances WILLARD. She founded
- the Women's Christian Temperance Union in 1874, which became
the most widely recognized temperance organization in the nation.
- WILLARD made the WCTU a large and prestigious organization.
WCTU "proved to be one of
- the greatest moral forces of social reform that the world
has ever seen," according to Ernest Cherrington in The Evolution
of Prohibition in the United States of America.
- A member of the WCTU would "solemnly promise, God helping
me, to abstain from all distilled,
- fermented and malt liquors, including wine, beer and cider."
- As the national WCTU grew stronger, local branches of the
Union were formed. The Janesville
- WCTU was organized in January 1880 by Frances WILLARD
herself.
- According to the city directory, Janesville had already had
nine temperance groups: Sons and
- Daughters of Temperance; Select Templars; Crystal Temple
of Honor, which the Gazette claimed, had "statewide done
more effective work for temperance, reclaimed more drinking men
which no other influence could touch, than all other agencies
combined in a dozen years"; Ladies Temperance Union; People's
Lodge; St. Patrick's Total Abstinence and Benevolent Society;
Roman Catholic Temperance Union; Independent Order of Good Templars;
and the Templars of Honor and Temperance.
- Commenting on the newly formed Janesville WCTU, the Gazette
said, "these organizations in other
- cities have done much good and met with great success and
as this branch starts off with a membership of over 75, there
seems no reason why it should not be a permanent and useful organization
and a living branch."
- Initially, Janesville WCTU worked hard toward Prohibition.
They pressed the mayor to prohibit
- Sunday liquor sales. They opened a "Temperance School"
to educate children. "Success of the temper- ance cause
is largely dependent on the generation that shall follow us and
that moral sentiment can best be created and established early
in life," wrote the Gazette.
- The local Union helped poor women who were victims of drunkenness.
The group also distributed
- temperance literature at factories.
- Janesville's WCTU lost its ambition around 1880. In a 1908
questionnaire, the Janesville WCTU
- reported that they had not circulated any petitions or attended
any conventions, and had about 21 active members. By the 1920s
Janesville's WCTU was doing nothing for Prohibition.
- The force that became the biggest factor in establishing
Prohibition was the Anti-Saloon League
- formed in 1895. The league directed itself toward suppressing
local-level liquor traffic before trying to convert state and
national legislature. The League reached Wisconsin in 1898.
- Wisconsin was making its own strides toward Prohibition before
the Anti-Saloon league arrived.
- A State Temperance Convention was held in 1875 at the courthouse
in Janesville. The convention
- put the ticket of H. C. Tilton for Governor and D. W. Gilfillion
for Lieutenant Governor up for election.
- "Of course the convention did not expect to succeed,
but as one earnest delegate said, they were
- determined to raise their banner, and die with the colors
floating in the air," the Gazette reported.
- The Wisconsin Legislature passed the Local Option law in
1889, letting city voters decide whether
- to allow alcohol in their town.
- Many cities passed the Local Option law and by 1919, 44 percent
of Wisconsin was dry.
- Janesville held out. The city voted in 1910, 1914 and 1917
on the Option Law, and each time it
- was voted down.
- The saloon and brewing interests in the city led a strong
fight to keep Janesville "wet" until it had no
- other choice.
- "Our vendors of liquor could do no more patriotic act
that to pour out their accursed poisons and
- let the earth drink them, for she alone can consume them
with infinite injury," the Gazette wrote.
- The Retail Liquor Dealers Association in Janesville was decidedly
against any sort of prohibition.
- They said liquor traffic would end up in secret places "handled
by irresponsible, lawless men, who
- sell to boys and adults without distinction." These
men would sell "the vilest instead of the best brands of
liquor. Janesville seeks new factories and desires to increase
its population. Why start by throwing over 250 men, now working,
out of employment and driving them away from Janesville to find
work elsewhere?"
- In the end, national prohibition was established in 1920
and Janesville went "dry" with the rest of
- the country. After the decision, the Gazette wrote, "One
of the greatest events has been recorded. It is hard to realize
the fight of the centuries between good and evil has been practically
ended. It is as if the prayers of countless humans had been answered
and the yoke of despair had been lifted off many a home."
- The "greatest event" was to last only three [actually,
13] years. Prohibition was repealed in 1933
- by the government.
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