Ohio Council on Alcohol Problems.

From its beginning in 1893, the Anti-Saloon League worked effectively within Ohio for passage of prohibition legislation and for the election of "dry" candidates to the state legislature. The influence of the Ohio League was felt beyond the state level, with many of its leaders going on to hold offices in the national organization. Among the more prominent of these men were Howard Hyde Russell, Wayne B. Wheeler and Purley A. Baker.

In 1893, the executive committee of the Oberlin Temperance Alliance accepted Russell's ideas for organizing an Ohio Anti-Saloon League (A.S.L.) and agreed to provide early financing. State headquarters were opened in Columbus with Russell serving as the League's first superintendent.

The Ohio Anti-Saloon League was considered an effective temperance organization, and Russell received many requests for information. The Ohio League became the model for other state anti-saloon leagues, and workers from those states went to Ohio for training. In 1895, the Ohio League and the District of Columbia League joined together to organize the state Leagues into the National Anti-Saloon League--later renamed the Anti-Saloon League of America. Even with this overlap in ideas and leadership and with the location of national headquarters in nearby Westerville, Ohio, the Ohio and national Leagues eventually developed a relationship little different from that of any other state and the national group. The Anti-Saloon League of America focused on federal prohibition legislation while the state Leagues were more concerned with state legislation and elections.

During the 1920's, the League concentrated on enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment through educating citizens as well as prosecuting and jailing liquor law offenders. Frequent law enforcement conventions were held to maintain enthusiasm for prohibition and to improve enforcement practices. The Ohio League canvassed voters and candidates for their sentiment on the temperance question and worked hard to keep a majority of dry legislators in the state assembly.

During early 1933 the state set up the mechanism whereby repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment would take place. Following the resolution of the United States Congress proposing the Amendment to repeal Prohibition, the Ohio Legislature, in March, 1933, enacted the Mosier-Lawrence Act which provided for a convention of 52 delegates, elected at large by the people of Ohio, to ratify the amendment.

The League did what little it could to elect dry delegates, but, in November, 1933, the Ohio convention adopted the 21st Amendment for repeal of prohibition. Though the Ohio Anti-Saloon League was never able to regain the support it had earlier been capable of organizing, it did continue its temperance and prohibition work by presenting temperance plays and continuing with its "Quiz Book Contest" programs.

The organization later changed its name to the Ohio Council on Alcohol Problems.

From the guide to the Ohio Council on Alcohol Problems records, 1901-1957, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)