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By Tom Stafford, Staff Writer Updated 9:21 AM Monday, March 8, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — Everyone in Springfield knew the name was a complete ruse.

What else could one conclude about a group of former saloon owners trying to pass themselves off as “The Complete Reform League”?

Well, perhaps that they were angry. And in July of 1909, the Reform League’s members had reason to be.

Following a raucous month-long campaign that March, 91 more people voted for the local option to prohibit the sale of liquor in Clark County than voted against it. That put 95 saloon owners and a handful of brewers out of business.

After the election, the Springfield Daily News shared with its readers the plight of a German immigrant and brewer who had “saved his meagre earnings and little by little got enough together to buy a comfortable home.”

“Now I will have to sell it and move out west some place,” he told the paper. “I am too old to learn a new trade and I have to go where I can get work. We like Springfield and the children want to stay here. But we will have to sell and move away.”

For many saloon keepers, that didn’t seem an option. To them, the defeat at the polls was what a stiff shot of whiskey would have been to a prohibitionist: nearly impossible to swallow.

The blue laws

In the post-election wrangling, Springfield’s mayor, police chief and other officials tried to wrap their hands around the thorny issues involved in enforcing the prohibition the voters had decreed.

Saloon operators who had announced the end of liquor sales began selling liquor illegally from “soda shops,” and in May, John Powell was named the county’s “dry detective” to pursue those violating the “Rose Law.”

On July 14, many of the owners who had been charged with violations consented to sign an agreement they would close their shops by Sept. 20. In return, Probate Court Judge Frank Geiger continued their cases with the implication that if they kept their promises, charges would be dropped.

Four days later, the Daily News tacked an addendum to the story.

“The report that the former saloon keepers are going to insist upon the enforcement of the ‘blue’ laws on Sundays (laws prohibiting anyone from doing business of any kind on the sabbath) ... is received with a huge smile, and they say that joke has grown threadbare.”

As it turned out, at least some of the saloon owners weren’t laughing.

A more complete reform

To those they saw as holier-than-thou people who had brought the “reform” of prohibition to the community, The Complete Reform League promised to usher in a fuller measure of the same.

The evening paper of July 26 reported attorney John M. Cole, who was defending saloon owners in court, was also representing the Complete Reform League.

In that capacity, he announced a campaign to put pressure on those who were illegally operating their businesses on Sundays by filing affidavits against them in court.

The so-called blue laws he sought to enforce were almost universally ignored. But they remained on the books.

“One report,” the Daily News said, “is that affidavits will be filed only against the management of Spring Grove Park and the proprietors of the Greek candy kitchens. It is stated that the cigar dealers and druggists who sell cigars (on Sundays) will be given another chance to comply with the notices before they will be brought into court.”

Instead of showing appreciation for the Complete Reform League’s “courtesy” of delaying the affidavits, the cigar owners got angry, got organized and lawyered-up.

The “cigar men,” as the papers called them, promised to challenge every affidavit through attorney Horace Stafford.

“Some are of the opinion that it will be impossible to get a jury to convict any of them,” the paper said.

The next day’s news cast doubt on whether a jury would ever get a chance to see them.

A warning from the bench

Because Police Court Judge J.J. Miller was what the newspaper called “the liberal candidate in the mayoralty race on the Democratic ticket,” the judge also was the saloon owners’ best hope.

He also was a smart man.

Behind the scenes, Miller “has quietly informed the saloon men that he does not approve of the campaign being waged by the Complete Reform League,” the Daily News reported.

On the record, he was equally clear: “If they want to file affidavits in my court, there is nothing to prevent them, but I can give the defendants the same privileges as I did the saloon men (charged with violating the Rose Law) by continuing their cases to Sept. 20.

“I do not approve of such tactics and I would be especially opposed to any attempt being made to close Spring Grove Park on Sunday,” he added. “That is the only place where the working men who labor all week in the factories can take their families and enjoy a bit of recreation.”

“There is such a thing,“ he concluded, “as carrying this matter too far.”

The Daily News reported the saloonists were “seriously considering” Miller’s advice to “lay down like men” and accept the voters’ decision on prohibition.

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The candy kitchens ? The greek godfathers reason for sending kids to be lawyers. Another example of gangsters acting legitimate, and gangsters have been running this town every since. They are exploiting the working poor now like their mother exploited the drunks in her day.

Michael
6:00 AM, 3/8/2010

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