USA > South Dakota > History of Dakota Territory, volume III > Part 106
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In the spring of 1904 a lady living in Flandreau undertook to imitate the militant proceedings of Carrie Nation, and succeeded in wrecking over $1,500 worth of saloon property before she was arrested on the charge of insanity. This year the Anti-Saloon League met at Mitchell when the Corn Palace Exposition was in session. Rev. H. R. Carson, of Scotland, presided. Many ladies interested in the advancement of women and in temperance were present and took active and prominent part in the proceedings. The Anti-Saloon League elected the following officers : President, H. R. Carson ; vice president, N. C. Nash ; secretary, Rev. J. E. Booth; treasurer, Rev. A. E. Carhart. In the spring of 1904, after eighteen years of prohibition, Canton voted in favor of license, and immediately thereafter five saloons were opened, determined, it was said by the newspapers, to make up for lost time.
Late in 1904 the decision of the Supreme Court in a case from Hetland settled an important point concerning the license question. The town board proposed to
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grant a saloon license and the measure was submitted at the municipal election in 1903. The question carried in the affirmative, whereupon the town board, con- cluding that it was continuous, did not repeat the election in 1904. The temper- ance people who opposed granting a license, asked Judge Whiting for a writ of mandamus to prevent the granting of such licenses and held that, under the law, a vote favorable to license must be secured each year to be lawful and effective. The writ asked for was granted, the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, but the lower court was sustained.
A revolution occurred in the saloons and license business of the Black Hills during the summer of 1905. It was due to the rigid requirements of the liquor law of 1905. The officials of Deadwood, Lead and other cities of Lawrence County visited every saloon, ordered all screens taken down from the front win- dows and directed that all pool tables, chairs, etc., should be removed from the room in conformity with the recent state liquor law. This was the first time in twenty-nine years that such a sweeping revolution had occurred against the saloon men in Deadwood. There was some protest from gamblers and saloon keepers, but no serious opposition was offered. They announced that they would see that the bar at the Business Men's Club should be required also to comply with the law. This step meant the closing of all the questionable saloons which could not bear the sunlight. This action by the authorities was caused by the complaint of the mining companies which declared that the Black Hills had obtained a bad name owing to its saloon dives and gambling resorts. It was really a reform movement that had been needed for many years. Now cvery gambling place was closed and the saloons were required to comply with the rigid restrictions of the law.
In 1906 the granting of licenses to saloons was the important question at almost every municipal election. There was a strong temperance movement sweeping and influencing the state at this time. Such reforms convulsed every city of the Black Hills, and many others in the eastern part of the state.
In 1907 the constitutional and statutory provisions for the operation of the initiative and referendum, after many years of disregard and neglect, were again invoked to create legislation which had been denied by the general assembly and to defeat objectionable laws which had been passed by that body. The active prohibitionists prepared a measure for county local option and invoked the initiative and referendum and were successful in placing a powerful petition before the Legislature, which body met the requirement and passed a bill providing for a submission of the question to the voters in November, 1908. An attempt was made at this time to invoke the referendum and make it applicable to defeat the obnoxious divorce law of the state.
During the fall of 1907 many of the ablest and most influential temperance speakers of the state visited almost every city and village in an endeavor to enlist the people generally in the fight being made for county option. Among those prominent in this movement was I. L. Marrow, secretary of the State Prohibi- tion Commission. He delivered many lectures which were often well attended and used very effort in his power to advance the movement. The law required that there should be no sale of liquor within one-third of a mile of any educational institution. This caused several important law suits in different parts of the state.
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In 1908 county option was voted on at the November election, but was de- feated by 1,875 votes. This measure was submitted to the voters by an act of the previous Legislature, that of 1907. It was really a prohibition movement; but evidently the people were satisfied with local option which was in vogue through- out the state and did not favor either prohibition or county option.
Early in 1909 the enforcement leagues of the state were active. The branch at Iroquois offered a reward of $500 for information which would lead to the conviction of any person who unlawfully sold intoxicating liquor within the limits of that city. It was announced that the reward would be paid on convic- tion in the Circuit Court of the person or persons charged with the offense. This step was taken by the temperance people with the design of putting a stop to the operations of "blind piggers" and others who were engaged in the illegal sale of liquor. Similar action was taken in many other towns, villages and cities.
In the spring of 1909 there were severe contests in nearly every city and town of the state between the "wets" and the "drys" to see whether license, local option or prohibition should rule. Throughout the state the election showed that honors were about equally divided. In several cities where it was hoped the saloons would be banished, they were successful, much to the regret of a large number of citizens. This was the condition at Mitchell. In that city both sides put up a spectacular fight with money, strategy and supreme effort. Both "drys" and "wets" held public mass meetings and the best orators were obtained to present the views of both sides.
In 1909 there was in operation at Deadwood an ordinance controlling the sale of liquor in original packages. It went into effect July Ist. Out of twenty- four saloons where liquor was sold, there were fourteen applications for licenses at $25 per month. Most of the other saloons continued to sell openly without licenses and regardless of the ordinance. Deadwood was really the first city in the state to pass a local option law controlling the sale of liquor in original packages. The temperance people in that county organized an enforcement or temperance league and fought the matter to a finish. In July, 1909, Lawrence County had a population of 17,000 people and had sixty-one saloons. Deadwood had a population of 4,000 and sixteen saloons. The liquor license at Hot Springs this year was $800.
In March, 1909, after suffering defeat at the previous November election, the Anti-Saloon League reorganized and again began the campaign of education for county option. Before the Legislature adjourned in March, great pressure was brought to bear by the friends of temperance to secure the passage of a bill providing the submission again of the question of county option to the voters at the November election, 1910. At this time W. M. Grafton was a strong and prominent worker in the temperance ranks. The Legislature refused to pass such a measure. The campaign grew in intensity as the year advanced, and by Janu- ary, 1910, the movement was in full progress throughout the state. As a measure of assistance in various ways Mrs. Carrie A. Nation was secured to come from Kansas and deliver a number of addresses and take such action as she thought best in South Dakota. She appeared at Watertown in January and made a vig- orous fight against the use of cigarettes and the custom of treating in saloons. She publicly announced that it was her intention to organize hatchet brigades in
WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL, SIOUX FALLS
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every city of the state when necessary and wherever the treating law was dis- regarded or violated.
As will be seen above a county option law was passed in 1907, but was de- feated at the polls in November, 1908. At the legislative session of 1909 a similar measure was again introduced and after a hot fight was passed. It was called the county option submission act and met the approval of the friends of temper- ance. At the election of November, 1910, it was defeated by the vote of 42,416 for to 55,372 against. At the legislative session of 1911 the forced saloon closing act was passed and became a law.
In the Black Hills during the spring of 1911 the temperance movement accom- plished great reforms. At Deadwood it controlled the city council as the result of the spring elections. Liquor men who had controlled the council for years, were defeated for re-election. The reformers secured five out of eight members of the council. This resulted in a reduction of the number of saloons in that city. In Spearfish where the reform element made a similar determined fight against license, the saloon advocates won in the council by a majority of forty-four, while the dry element succeeded in electing the mayor, James Pike. Thius honors were about equally divided there. The new council granted licenses to the saloons in view of the wet majority on the license question. At Whitewood the women openly campaigned against the license question, but were defeated, the vote standing in favor of license by forty-two to forty-five.
In January, 1913, Governor Byrne in an address before the State Conser- vation Congress in session at Pierre declared that it was the duty of the Legis- lature to abolish the ardent spirits factory at the state penitentiary which was conducted by private interests.
In 1914 the Anti-Saloon League Year Book stated that South Dakota had the lowest crime record of any state in the Union at that time.
In the spring of 1915 Judge Bouck at Aberdeen granted the petition which demanded a recount of the votes cast in the third and fourth wards of that city on the license question. The petition set forth that sixty votes cast in the affirma- tive had not been counted by the judges in these wards; that fifty ballots received by mail were not stamped by the judges and were later thrown out because of this defect ; that three ballots were not counted because there was no return card on the envelope; and that one was thrown out because it was acknowledged on Sunday. The petition further alleged that all spoiled and blank ballots were counted for the negative side of the question. The Board of City Commissioners were named as defendants and were charged in the complaint with refusing to recount votes at the time of making the official canvass, and with making up the official returns wholly from the tally sheets furnished by the judges. The elec- tion was extremely violent and was fought bitterly by the opposing elements. It resulted in a tie vote. The court granted the petition. In August the matter was settled by the Supreme Court which held that thirty-seven affirmative votes and forty-five negative votes were counted improperly. The result made the city "dry" by one vote. In the Circuit Court the city was held dry by nine majority.
In the spring of 1915 the prohibition wave swept the whole country. For almost the first time in history it made great inroads in the eastern cities. Even in the Far West where a social glass had prevailed since the first settlement, the
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significance of the wave was apparent. So-called personal liberty and self-indul- gence were swept away by the wave in every state and in almost every county. One object behind the wave was economy. Business and industry demanded a cessation in the self-indulgence of the liquor status. It sapped human force, lowered efficiency, wrecked lives and homes and was looked upon now more than ever as destructive to the uplift and prosperity of the human family. The in- stincts of higher intelligence, self respect and progressive industry demanded the limitation or total termination of the old drinking customs. This was true of South Dakota as well as of other parts, particularly in the West. Prohibition had been adopted by Colorado and Arizona. Montana and Idaho were about to accomplish the same result. In Utah it was only stopped by the governor's veto. All large business industrial enterprises were rigidly excluding drinkers and drinking from their operations. The Anaconda Copper Company not only ex- cluded drinking from its mines, but demanded that it be given up in the homes of its employes. Similar orders and innovations were set on foot in the Black Hills at this time. It was found that the accident records in the mining regions varied directly in per cent with the partial or complete closing of saloons in Butte during six months of observation in 1914. Thus the economic argument came with powerful force to assist the storm of prohibition that was sweeping the entire country.
In the spring of 1915, before the municipal election, the Anti-Saloon League of Mitchell sent to all the churches and temperance committees of South Dakota a letter announcing the names and dates of their corps of temperance speakers on the no-license campaign already inaugurated throughout the state. Among the speakers were Father Patrick J. Murphy, of Texas; John F. Cuneen, of Chicago, formerly president of the Total Abstinence Union of Illinois, who had been in South Dakota more or less for three years, working for the cause of temperance during the spring campaign; Pres. E. C. Perisho of the Agricultural College; Dr. J. S. Hoagland; Prof. H. I. Jones, of Mitchell; Supt. R. N. Hols- aple and Assistant Superintendent Macbeth of the State Anti-Saloon League; and Wilbur S. Glass, of Watertown. The latter was prominent in politics and possessed unusual powers as a popular campaigner. Up to this time he had been recognized as a license advocate, but now had changed and was prepared to help make the whole state dry.
At the April election in 1915 the results on the liquor question were more favorable generally to the temperance people than they had expected or had reason to hope. Out of sixty-three cities and towns which voted on the question thirty-five either went for temperance or remained in the temperance column. The liquor element were successful in twenty-seven towns where they had been in power during the previous year and gained one additional town. The tem- perance people generally hailed the result as a surprising and unexpected victory. Mitchell became the largest non-saloon city in the state at this election. It be- came the headquarters of the Anti-Saloon League forces and succeeded in exclud- ing the saloons by a majority of 101 votes. At Aberdeen the vote on the liquor question was very close, out of a total of 2,748 votes cast. Among other towns won by the prohibitionists after a severe campaign were Madison, Rapid City, Custer, Platte, Farmer and Milbank. Madison went for temperance by a major- ity of 160 votes. Milbank after a hot campaign joined the temperance standard
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by a majority of about thirty. Others were Wilmot, Gettysburg, Spearfish, Highmore, Philip, Hurley, Viborg, Centerville, Elkton, Kimball, Armour, Web- ster, Rockhaven, Leola, Sisseton, Faulkton, Howard, Murdo, Plankinton, Flan- dreau, Canastota, White Lake, Bristol, Britton, Woonsocket and Garrison. The saloon element carried Sioux Falls, Huron, Dallas, Sturgis, Lead, Deadwood, Watertown, Elk Point, Geddes, Pierre, Fort Pierre, Davis, Marion, Dalton, Chancellor, Bridgewater, Yankton, Tyndall, Chamberlain, Selby, Castlewood, Lemmon, Bowdle, Mobridge, Waybay and Roscoe. This election was perhaps the greatest victory, at least one of the greatest victories ever gained by the temperance cause in South Dakota. The vote was heralded as a sure indication that in 1916 the result of state-wide prohibition campaign would be satisfac- tory. R. N. Holsaple of the State Anti-Saloon League said "Today's vote is an indication of the wave of sentiment for state-wide prohibition. Our reports thus far show that thirteen cities and towns have swung from the wet into the dry column, and only one is known to have deserted the dry standard. There are several towns voting wet today where we will go into court and contest the legality of the petitions on which the opposition is based. The election is simply the beginning of the saloon men's end in South Dakota."
The saloon carried Sioux Falls by about five hundred majority. Here the temperance people were disappointed, but the result generally throughout the state received their warm approbation. The license forces succeeded in changing Salem from a prohibition to a saloon town. This was the only town of the state, thus to change. At Deadwood the saloon vote was cut down very much, their majority being only about eighty-nine votes. The prohibition movement made substantial gains in the Black Hills towns, gaining forty-seven votes in Rapid City and twenty-two votes in Custer. Spearfish increased its temperance majority to fifty. Sturgis defeated the municipal saloon plan and went for license by a majority of forty-eight. Lead gave its usual majority for the saloons. At Yankton there was considerable gain by the temperance people, the votes stand- ing 588 for saloons and 378 against them. Elk Point retained the saloon by a majority of about seventy-nine. At Brookings the license question was not an issue. Elkton went for temperance. This placed the whole of Brookings County in the temperance ranks. At Pierre the vote was in favor of saloons by nine majority. Fort Pierre voted in favor of license with twenty-one majority. High- more carried temperance by thirty-three majority, and Philip the same by twenty- five majority. The saloon element carried Huron by a majority of 128. The re- sult at Bridgewater was 129 for license and 177 against it. Parker did not vote on the question at this election. Marion voted to retain the saloons in pref- erence to a municipal dispensary by a majority of twenty-five. Dalton, Chan- cellor and Davis voted in favor of license. Hurley, Viborg and Centerville were carried in favor of temperance. At Davis the contest was so close that the result was fought over again. Watertown voted 924 for license and 594 against it. The big fight here was over the municipal saloon question which was voted down. Dallas gave ninety-eight votes for license and thirty-nine against it. The majority at Tyndall in favor of license was forty-four. Armour voted against license by a majority of twenty-two. Chamberlain gave a small majority for license. At Sturgis the license people won by a majority of forty-nine. No license carried in Rapid City by a majority of forty-nine. Gettysburg went against the saloon by fifteen majority.
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On June 30, 1915, the curfew sounded the death knell to the saloons of five large cities and many smaller towns of South Dakota among them being Aberdeen, Mitchell, Rapid City, Madison, Milbank, Sisseton, Webster, Platte, Plankinton, Murdo, Leola, Kimball, Garretson, Farmer, Custer and Bristol. The liquor ele- ment to the last moment, hoped to secure a reversal of Judge Bouck's dry order at Aberdeen by the Supreme Court, but all reduced their stock with the expecta- tion that they might not succeed in securing a reversal. All prepared to close out their stock and their leases in thirty days. In the end they did so.
In the summer of 1915 the Sturgis Municipal Company took out two liquor licenses, the total number that could be obtained in that city. They installed in one place a double set of bar fixtures and opened for business. Previously three saloons were conducted in Sturgis for a number of years, but now they, quit the business and closed up. About the same time Edward Estes, a quarter-breed Indian, was sentenced to the federal jail at Deadwood for introducing liquor illegally into Mellette County. The case was affirmed. Under the federal law opening Mellette County for settlement it was provided it should maintain prohibi- tion for a period of twenty-five years.
In July, 1915, Attorney General Caldwell ruled that when a petition for liquor license showed on its face that it was not in compliance with the statute in any way, the election and subsequent proceedings, including the issuance of the license, were void, and that criminal action for the sale of intoxicating liquors without a license could be successfully maintained. However, if the petition appeared to be sufficient, the more difficult question of whether the license was subject to collateral attack in a criminal prosecution for selling without a license, was raised. The attorney general held that the issuance of the license under such circumstances was no protection to the person selling the liquor.
In July, 1915, Governor Byrne, when speaking to an outdoor gathering of the churches of Pierre, emphatically espoused the temperance cause, favored pro- hibition for the state and announced he was doing all he could to advance the temperance movement for the next election. He gave much interesting data concerning the sale and the effects of liquor.
When the per capita liquor law went into effect in 1915, the City of Lemmon was allowed two saloons which fact caused intense rivalry for the two necessary licenses. First a proposition for the city to go into the saloon business was voted upon but failed to carry. Then the Lemmon Civic Association was formed soon after the city, in the spring of 1915, had adopted the commission form of govern- ment. The new association upon request was given a saloon license. The man- ager was one of the most prominent prohibition workers in the city, but he was allowed no salary. The press stated that the two bar keepers of the association received such liberal salaries that graft of all kinds was practically and totally eliminated. The profit of this one saloon was shown to be about one thousand dollars per month. It was called the municipal saloon. Much of the license money was devoted to the public schools and to municipal improvement.
In June, 1915, the question arose at Pierre, whether a sheriff in selling liquors which had been seized under due process of law, did not need a license for so doing. It was maintained by several prominent officials that he was simply performing an official act under the law and could use his own judgment as to the disposal of the liquor, but he was advised to refuse to sell to prohibited
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persons. The question, it was admitted, was an intricate one, and the attorney general after consideration said that it was a question upon which Congress and several states were not in harmony. The right to levy upon intoxicating liquors for the debts of the owner had been denied by one line of authorities on the ground that, as a sale thereof is prohibited except by persons having license, the officer of the law therefore cannot make his seizure effectual by judicial sale, because such sale was prohibited by the law and therefore the seizure was like- wise prohibited. The attorney general further said, "I think it is clear that it is the engaging in business which is licensed in this state, and since the sheriff who levies upon the stock of intoxicating liquors and offers the same for sale is not engaged in the business of selling liquors but is merely doing his duty as an officer of the court, I am convinced that our courts would hold that the sheriff is not forbidden to levy upon and sell such liquors under such circumstances. I would advise a sheriff to refuse to recognize a bid submitted by any of the pro- hibited persons mentioned in the statute."
In the summer of 1915 a statewide campaign in the cause of temperance was inaugurated for the fall, the opening meeting to be held at Aberdeen on Septem- ber 5 under the auspices of the South Dakota Anti-Saloon League. It was planned to hold six meetings in as many different churches on that day in Aber- deen and a union mass meeting in the evening, the principal speaker to be Major Dan Morgan of Chicago, who was formerly representative of the liquor interests, but had come over to the anti-saloon league about a year before. It was planned that Major Smith should be the principal speaker throughout the campaign in South Dakota for the adoption of the prohibition amendment to the constitution which was to be voted on in November, 1916. More than a dozen other promi- nent speakers of the state were slated to assist him on the rostrum. It was planned to hold meetings in every city, town, village and precinct in South Dakota between September 5, 1915. and November 6, 1916.
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