American Council on Alcohol Problems

Formerly the Anti-Saloon League of America.

From the description of American Council on Alcohol Problems records, 1916-1969. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 82578172

The Anti-Saloon League of America (A.S.L.A.), established in 1893, was a non-partisan political pressure organization which sought to mobilize church forces against the liquor traffic. One of the most important and most powerful components within the A.S.L.A. was the Office of General Counsel and Legislative Superintendent. The combined offices were charged with lobbying for favorable prohibition measures in Congress and arguing the legal cases which involved the A.S.L.A. Beyond these functionary activities, the Office of General Counsel and Legislative Superintendent, for nearly a decade, served as the leading force in shaping the philosophy and policy of the national A.S.L.A.

The importance of the Office of General Counsel and Legislative Superintendent (hereafter: Legal and Legislative office) resulted from the vigor and tenacity of one man, Wayne Bidwell Wheeler. Known to many as the "Dry Boss," Wheeler used the office to build a strong locus of power from which he impressed his personal philosophy upon the League and influenced national legislation. The dedication which Wheeler manifested from 1916 to 1927 was the culmination of a lifetime of hard work and opposition to the use of alcohol. Born in Brookfield, Ohio in November, 1869, Wheeler worked on his father's farm and attended Brookfield elementary schools. During his youth, he had been frightened by the effect of alcohol on one of his relatives and decided to dedicate his life to prohibition. After graduating from high school in Sharon, Pennsylvania in 1885, he planned to return to his father's farm and continue the family tradition. Wheeler was more interested in academics than agriculture, however, and soon left the farm to pursue advanced education. To save enough money for entrance fees, Wheeler taught in the Brookfield area for two years. He then entered Oberlin College in 1889. Throughout his student days, Wheeler worked at numerous odd jobs to pay tuition. As a center for the growing prohibition sentiment, Oberlin cemented Wheeler's skepticism about liquor. During his sophomore year, he came into contact with Howard Hyde Russell, the founder of the Anti-Saloon League. Impressed by Wheeler's intelligence, capacity for hard work and dedication to prohibition, Russell recruited him for the League. Despite his taxing college schedule, Wheeler began to tour Ohio for the League and also played a substantial role in promoting the first local option law in Ohio. After graduating from Oberlin with a Bachelor's degree in 1893 and a Master's degree in 1894, he accepted the post of superintendent of the League's Cleveland district and used the opportunity to attend the law school at Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Upon graduation from law school in 1898, he became attorney for the Ohio Anti-Saloon League. Three years later he married Ella B. Candy.

In 1903 Wheeler was elected Superintendent of the Ohio League. As Superintendent he continued the League's policy of supporting the dry candidates of the two major political parties and opposed pressure on the League to support the National Prohibition Party. In the 1905 Ohio gubernatorial election, the Ohio League helped to elect a dry Democrat over a wet Republican in the traditionally Republican state. Wheeler was successful in his local leadership role and emerged on the national scene when the A.S.L.A. intensified its campaign for national prohibition in 1913. He lobbied for the A.S.L.A. in the United States Congress, building strong relationships with senators and representatives which he later used to successfully promote wartime prohibition. Wheeler was appointed General Counsel of the A.S.L.A. in 1916 because of his successful career in Ohio and his growing reputation in Washington. From this position he was instrumental in securing the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment. In 1919 Wheeler also took the post of Legislative Superintendent. Combined, the two offices provided him a strong base of power within the A.S.L.A. His strength was enhanced by the fact that he not only enjoyed a good relationship with some members of Congress, but also had a close friendship with his fellow Ohioan, Warren G. Harding. Thus he exerted considerable pressure in the appointment of federal judges and other federal officials.

From 1920 to 1927, Wheeler exercised a powerful influence within the League and in both houses of Congress. One example of Wheeler's power within the A.S.L.A. came in 1924 when he personally secured the election of F. Scott McBride to the office of General Superintendent. In the early part of the 1920's the League split on the question of following an enforcement or educational policy. On one side, General Superintendent Purley A. Baker and his supporters called for a strong educational program to supplement legal prohibition. Baker's followers believed that only a favorable public atmosphere, created by educational programs, would ensure compliance to prohibition laws. On the other side, Wheeler and his followers stressed that strict law enforcement of prohibition and the Volstead Act would end the need for educational activity. Until his death in 1927, the Wheeler modus operandi dominated the A.S.L.A. Following the enforcement philosophy, Wheeler used his offices to launch a program of lobbying for stronger law enforcement measures in Congress to halt the illegal liquor traffic. He called for government agencies to be invested with greater power (such as more lenient search and seizure laws) in order to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Act. He also successfully lobbied against attempts to make 2.75% beer legal and supported legislation to stop the production of fruit juices in American homes. In addition, Wheeler tried to curtail the use of liquor in the foreign embassies of Washington. In one of his most controversial stands, he committed the A.S.L.A. to supporting legislation that would limit the number of immigrants, believing that most immigrants tended to ignore the prohibition laws. Concerning the A.S.L.A. itself, Wheeler attempted to incorporate the League to relieve its tax burden.

Determined to control the League and to make his influence felt in national affairs, Wheeler drove himself almost fanatically throughout the period 1910 to 1927. Gradually, the hard driving pace began to take its toll. With his health deteriorating rapidly, Wheeler's problems increased when his wife was burned to death in a freak accident. Despite these adversities, poor health did not force him to limit his activities until the early summer of 1927. Wheeler died on September 5, 1927, at the age of 58.

With Wheeler's death, A.S.L.A. Superintendent McBride used the opportunity to shift power from Wheeler's office back to the Superintendent's office. To facilitate the return of power, McBride appointed the less dynamic Edward Bradstreet Dunford to fill the office of General Counsel and Legislative Superintendent. Dunford was born December, 1890 in Manchester, Virginia, and was raised by parents who favored prohibition. He attended Richmond College where he received a degree in law in 1915. Through his job as attorney for the Commissioner of Prohibition in Virginia, he received the financial security that enabled him to marry Laura Bear in 1917. As a competent attorney and a dedicated prohibitionist, Dunford caught Wheeler's eye. In 1920 Wheeler recruited him to serve as the assistant attorney in the Legal and Legislative Office. With seven years of training by the time of Wheeler's death, Dunford seemed a logical replacement as General Counsel and Legislative Superintendent. But unlike his predecessor, Dunford was a more cautious leader and never commanded the national prestige and power which Wheeler had enjoyed.

Throughout the 1920's the prohibition organizations were forced on the defensive. Following the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment, many strong advocates of prohibition were convinced that the battle was over. For most prohibitionists, repeal was inconceivable. As a result, financial contributions to the A.S.L.A. and other prohibition organizations declined precipitously. At the same time the A.S.L.A. was no longer able to attract the same caliber of outstanding leadership that had once marked the movement. For these reasons, after 1927, the League exerted less influence in the Congress, and by 1930 was forced to deal with a growing and powerful movement for repeal.

Unable to stem the widening public pressure for repeal, the League turned from the strong law enforcement tendencies of Wheeler to more restrained educational programs. Beginning in 1932, Dunford and other A.S.L.A. leaders fought their last major battle of the prohibition era. In an effort to stop the movement to repeal the 18th Amendment, they urged the government not to submit the issue to state constitutional conventions. Instead, A.S.L.A. leaders advocated the traditional procedure of having the proposed amendment voted on by state legislatures, where the League retained much greater influence. They lost this fight and the subsequent effort to stop repeal. Nevertheless, the A.S.L.A. continued in later years to work for effective prohibition laws.

The name of the organization was changed in 1950 to the National Temperance League, then in 1964 to the American Council on Alcohol Problems.

From the guide to the American Council on Alcohol Problems Records, 1883-1969, 1920s-1930s, (Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan)