PROHIBITION PARTY. The failure of the advo cates of temperance to force a prohibition plank upon either of the great national parties led the Pennsylvania State Temperance Convention in February. 1867. to suggest the organization of a separate party. In 1868 a Prohibition Party was organized in Illinois and Michigan in re sponse to a reeommendation made on May 28th of that year by the Grand Lodge of the Good Templars in session at Richmond, Ind. In May, 1869. the Grand Lodge recommended the calling of a national convention, and in September such a convention was held at Chicago and the Na tional Prohibition Party was there organized. In the :State elections of the next three years candi dates were nominated by the party, hut received relatively few votes. On February 22, 1S72. the first National Convention met at Columbus, Ohio, nominated -Tames Black of Pennsylvania and John Russell of Michigan as their candidates for President and Vice-President respectively, and adopted a platform which besides advocating pro hibition declared for woman suffrage, a direct popular vote for President and Vice-President, a sound currency, the encouragement of im migration, and a reduction in transportation rates. In the ensuing election only 5,607 votes were cast for the party's candidates. In 1576 Green Clay Smith of Kentucky was nominated for President and G. T. Stewart of Ohio for Vice President, but the ticket received only 9,787 votes. In 1880 the candidates for President and Vice-President. Neal Dow of Maine and If. A. Thompson of Ohio. received 9.678 votes. In 1884 Governor Saint John of Kansas was nominated on a platform which, ignoring other issues, declared only for temperance, Ile made an active cam paign and received 150.626 votes. In 1888 the Prohibition candidates, Clinton B. Fisk of New Jersey and John A. Brooks of Missouri, received 249.934 votes. the platform in this year declar ing for woman suffrage. uniform marriage and divoree laws, restriction of immigration, a tariff for revenue only, and eivil-service reform. In 1892 the platform of the party, besides declaring for prohibition, advocated, among other things. woman sntIrage, civil-service reform, anti monopoly laws. currency reform, and restriction of immigration. In this year the party's candi dates. John Bidwell of California and J. B. Crantil of Texas. received 270,710 votes, the largest number so far recorded. A split in the party occurred in 1896. The party in the South was opposed to a woman's suffrage plank and the delegates were divided on the money ques tion. Those who wished to confine the party to a
single issue were in the majority. and their opponents left to form a Liberal Party, whose candidate, Bently. received only about 14,000 votes. The regular candidate (Levering) re ceived 131.757 votes. Dr. S. C. Swallow, who represented the broad-gauge party in 1900. was defeated by John G.- Woolley, the nominee of those advocating the single issue, who in the Presidential election received 207.368 votes. The party never had a purely national issue until 1900. when the question of the army canteen and liquor in the Philippines attracted atten tion. The party organ is The Yoke (New York City). started September 25, 1884.
In a treaty of 1889 between the United States, Great Britain. and Germany prohibition for the Samoan Islands was established. Canada took a pleffiseite on prohibition, September 29. 1898, on which occasion 278.487 votes were yeas and 264, 671 nays. Since the majority vote was only 23 per cent. of the electorate. the Government has not felt called upon to initiate legislation. In Eng land the United Kingdom Alliance to procure total and immediate legislation for the suppres sion of traffic in intoxicating liquots and bev erages has worked actively for prohibition. The question of compensation forms a financial bar rier to the enactment of a law. In the United States the Supreme Court (December 5, 1887) decided that the Kansas law making no provision for compensation does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. Prohibition has had no complete trial in the United States, been use of the inter state commerce laws. The 'original package' case (Bowman cs. Chicago and. Northwestern R. IL. 123 U. S. 465) stated that no prohibi tion States could prevent interstate railroads and express companies from carrying liquors to any point within the State. The conclusions in dorsed by the Committee of Fifty, a voluntarily constituted group of distinguished men, who have long been engaged upon a thorough investigation, are: (1) That prohibition has abolished or pre vented the manufacture of liquor on a large scale within certain areas; (2) that the suppres sion of retail trade is dependent upon local senti ment, and is more successful in the country than in the city; (3) that efforts to enforce the law lead to hypocrisy, bribery, corruption, and law breaking.
Consult: Wheeler, Prohibition.: the Principles a-nd the Party (New York, 18S9); Cyclopcedia of Temperance and Prohibition (ib., 1891). See TEMPERANCE.