Between 1880 and the beginning of the First World War, a wave of temperance swept the nation. Writes author K. Austin Kerr, "One-half of the American population lived under some form of prohibition law. The state and local prohibition strategy was successful and now would be abetted by the new interstate shipment law. There was a solid core of dry support in Congress as more and more constituencies expressed their approval of prohibition." After Congress passed the Webb-Kenyon Act in 1913 (which forbade the shipping of liquor into dry states), the Anti-Saloon League set their sights on national prohibition. They lobbied members of Congress to accept a "dry," or anti-alcohol, platform and worked their printing presses nonstop, grinding out dry literature to distribute in every congressional district.

The liquor interests responded with their own propaganda, mainly focusing on the economic loss Prohibition would...