Prohibition and the Algers

In honor of our new Speakeasy event series, we wanted to delight you with an excerpt from a story we previously published about Mary Swift Alger and her involvement in Michigan’s prohibition time. Our next Speakeasy will be held November 3rd; tickets are available now!

By the early teens, the specter of Michigan succumbing to prohibition had accelerated greatly. Although there had been talk of prohibition in the U.S. since the 1800s it seemed inevitable by 1911 when a good many Michigan counties had already gone dry of their own accord. In 1916, Michigan voters decided to officially ban alcohol production, sales, and consumption throughout the state, with the law officially taking effect May of 1918. Michigan led the way in prohibition, and it quickly took hold throughout the U.S.

As repeal advocates, both Col. Fred and Mary Alger were very vocal anti-prohibition activists, and prominent public sparring partners of the Anti-Saloon League and Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals. The influential couple had many followers and supporters, and their message was simple: REPEAL – CONTROL – EDUCATE!

Fred was a prominent member of the Crusaders, a group of mostly younger men advocating temperance to eliminate bootleggers, violence, and death. Although formed in Cleveland, the Michigan group had the most clout. The men zeroed in on down ticket politics and seeded “wet” candidates in many open offices as their anti-prohibition strategy.

Mary was Michigan chairwoman and chief flamethrower of the powerful action group the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR). Besides her common sense yet rousing interviews and speeches to organizations in Michigan and beyond, efforts such as “Ring the Bells” sent her members house-to-house to inform and fire up citizens for repeal. This campaign was so successful the membership grew to some 50,000 women in Michigan alone once Mary became their state chairwoman.

The problem with forced prohibition was the same as with any civil right that was suddenly denied or outlawed that Americans once had: citizens found ways to regain access to it outright or subverted the law to replicate what was being withheld.

As Fred so wisely observed to the New York Times (1/31/1932), “In America, law is an agreement between us as to how we shall live. It is social rather than political and cannot be imposed from the top down. When a law is the expression of the opinion of a community, moral pressure and honest intention will force its observation.”

Outlawing liquor did not bring the elimination of crime and alcoholism that was promised. Instead, it brought blindness and death from “bathtub” liquor; a huge new crop of wealthy bootleggers and violent gangsters; much higher crime rates and public drunkenness arrests; and, as Mary so simply stated, “Thousands of unlicensed saloons to take the place of (one) old saloon before prohibition.”

The Alger’s push for repeal incorporated new laws, controls, and state oversight on liquor manufacturing, distribution, and purchase, and the licensing of all liquor-serving establishments. They also advocated for an educational component for consumers, whether they were alcohol drinkers or not. The high profile couple never turned down a chance to argue these topics publicly or impart their ideas for the basic, good sense handling of alcohol.

April 15-16 of 1931, a WONPR conference took place in Washington, DC where 530 representatives from 32 states organized support for anti-prohibition candidates called “Say It with Ballots.” Michigan was represented by the second largest attending membership. The women even met with President Herbert Hoover at the White House and presented resolutions for repeal to him (and to Congress) to affect changes. However, reports had Hoover remaining stoic as he was for prohibition. In response, a new directive issued at the conference was that political parties should not matter in the women’s fight against prohibition; they were to cross party lines when campaigning and voting if required.

Even more energized post-conference, Mary corralled three heavyweight repeal groups into action: the Crusaders, the WONPR, and the Michigan Moderation League. They joined forces with the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers and the American Hotel Organization to form the powerful United Repeal Council (URC). The URC lobbied heavily at both parties’ conventions, then turned repeal into a major topic of the presidential race. 86,000 signatures were needed in Michigan for a referendum, and the combined group blew past that number with 200,000 signatures collected demanding repeal. The initial signatures were submitted in early April of 1932, but Mary planned to solicit even more signatures until July 1. Michigan Governor Frank Fitzgerald finally promised the issue would be placed on the November ballot as Proposal #1.

Prior to the 1932 election, the Fred Alger’s, longtime very high-profile Republican supporters and campaigners, shocked everyone by endorsing Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrats down ballot instead of the incumbent, Republican President Herbert Hoover. They voted for the anti-prohibitionists for change, just as they had requested their followers also do, and Roosevelt eventually won the presidency 57.3% to Hoover’s 39.6%.

Mary had also attended both parties’ conventions stumping for repeal and had received a large amount of national press for her efforts. She was well known in many circles outside of Michigan and was a somewhat polarizing figure. Thousands of women looked up to her, appreciative that in addition to the enormous and messy undertaking of repeal politics, she was still simultaneously involved with an extraordinary amount of social and charitable projects and continued to sit on the boards, or was director of, numerous organizations.

On April 10, 1933, a triumphant Mary Alger was in Lansing atop the rostrum presiding at the ratification convention as the vote was taken in Michigan’s Representative Hall to repeal Prohibition, 99-1, the first state in the nation to do so.

Americans were finally able to rid themselves of the very unpopular 18th Amendment later that year in great part thanks to the masterful organization of these opposition groups and the diligent efforts of thousands of supercharged Michigan women, led by influential leaders like Mary Alger.

Mary at the Ratification Vote courtesy of The Lansing State Journal

On May 4, 1933, the American Legion, which Col. Fred Alger founded in Michigan, received the first Special License from the Liquor Commission to serve 3.2% beer at their event scheduled for May 10. Some 30,000 thirsty Detroiters showed up to partake of the first legal beer served since 1918 at that Legion event.

Early January 1935 brought the big announcement that Mary Swift Alger would be appointed the first female Michigan Liquor Control Commissioner, and an original member of the 17-member Michigan Liquor Control Commission established to regulate the sale and distribution of beer. “She will fight as hard against the abuses of liquor as she did against prohibition,” proclaimed Michigan Gov. Frank Fitzgerald. Little did he know how accurate his prediction was.

Mary made headlines in April following an interesting evening out with Harry Colburn, the chief investigator to the prosecutor’s office. The story carried in the Rock Hill, SC Evening Herald (4/9/1935) detailed a covert operation the two staged visiting Detroit saloons and clubs on a Saturday night to observe how the rollout and new rules were working. Reportedly they found all manner of flagrant violations of the liquor code and were aghast. They determined that she would meet with the Commission, pull the establishments’ records, and recommend fines/prosecution/license revocation of the offending parties. Mary specifically wanted to be a Liquor Board Commissioner to “correct abuses” in the system but apparently the investigation and her recommendations fell upon deaf ears. First, she had evidence that the rollout of alcohol protocols to the government stores and establishment licensing was being flouted. Then, on July 31, 1935, an incomprehensible plan was suddenly afoot to close 27 of the state liquor stores and turn over liquor enforcement to an enlarged Michigan State Police instead of the appointed liquor control commissioners - all Gov. Fitzgerald’s ideas. He also wanted 150 liquor control-related workers dismissed, 65 being commission enforcement officers, within 30 days.

Mary went ballistic privately as she’d lost all confidence in Gov. Fitzgerald. She resigned her two Liquor Board positions Aug. 6, 1935, publicly using the polite excuse of having to tend to her out-of-state sister’s illness which precluded her in good conscience from serving in Detroit or Lansing for the Board. Sensing disorder, Dr. D.I. McBride, the Michigan superintendent of the old Anti-Saloon League further angered her by alleging to the media that “she was disappointed with the results of the repeal.” Mary publicly countered via a letter sent to her former organization, the WONPR for distribution, reiterating that “education and self-discipline will achieve temperance, not prohibition.”

Mary Swift Alger, early feminist and defender of logic, feared no one.