Collections : [University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library]

The Reports and Minutes contain substantive documents on important aspects of the Legal and Legislative Office. These papers clearly demonstrate the issues which the League deemed the most important, such as the best method for electing dry delegates to the state conventions and the conclusions from experiments on the effects of 2.75% beer.

There are seven folder of undated Reports and Minutes. Within the first undated folder are memorandum of a legal brief concerning the constitutional validity of the 18th Amendment; information concerning the Webb-Kenyon Bill; efforts to increase government control of medicinal liquors; statements favorable to prohibition by presidents from James Madison to Andrew Johnson; and a "Summary of the Provisions of the Proposed Prohibition Enforcement Act" for the District of Columbia. The second undated folder includes a report on the 18th Amendment and its relation to the Constitution, which provides a synopsis of arguments for prohibition, disputes certain "fictions" about alcohol, and discusses future prospects for prohibition; a sermon written by William Jennings Bryan; information on the Supplemental Prohibition Enforcement Act, including how Congressmen voted on the bill; and requests to the government for clarification or rulings on such issues as unlawful possession of liquor and alcohol as the object of larceny.

The third undated folder contains information on A.S.L.A. legislative policy; a list of Wayne Wheeler's important legal cases, particularly those involving prohibition; discussion of A.S.L.A. support for the 16th Amendment, adopted in 1913, which provided for a Federal income tax; an article debating the constitutionality of the Jenks Bill, concerning local versus federal authority over prohibition; Wheeler's evaluation of enforcement of the 18th Amendment, particularly the prohibition codes; a report on manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquor containing 2.75% or less alcohol, under regulation of the Wartime Prohibition Act; and information on Congressional and legal case attempts to define the word "intoxicating."

The fourth undated folder contains information about supplemental prohibition bills, Lincoln's prohibition views, state enforcement of the 18th Amendment, state efforts to modify or evade prohibition regulations, concurrent power and the supremacy of Federal law, applicability of the 18th Amendment to Puerto Rico, and whether brewers should be compensated for confiscated liquor. The fifth undated folder contains an A.S.L.A. convention manual; an American Bar Association statement; information concerning a bill to create an Alcoholic Liquor Damage and Indemnity Fund; and literature concerning attempts to pass previous Constitutional amendments.

The last two undated folders include information concerning: legality of constitutional amendment conventions; definitions of "intoxicating liquors" in state statutes adopted prior to the 18th Amendment; the constitutionality of Section 29 of the Prohibition Amendment, dealing with fruit juices and cider; various state tests for drunken driving; the record of Supreme Court Justice Brandeis, whom the A.S.L.A. severely criticized; and a list of dry Congressmen in the 69th Congress (1925-1927).

Reports and Minutes for 1912-1919 include the Post Office Department's "Liquor Bulletin No. 2" concerning regulations against liquor advertising, an article on "The Statewide Initiative and Referendum" statutes, a copy of The Ohio Law Reporter, and information concerning: A.S.L.A. Legislative Committee chairman James Cannon's protests against appointment of Louis Brandeis and William Howard Taft to the Supreme Court, due to their pro-liquor stances; the Reed Amendment to outlaw liquor advertising in the mail; and League involvement in a contested election in Pennsylvania.

Reports and Minutes for 1920-1922 include information concerning: concurrent powers, whether a state legislature can nullify Congressional laws, liquor prosecutions in Federal courts, demands for more efficient enforcement and prosecution of prohibition violators, whether beer should be used as a medicine; and applicability of the 18th Amendment to vessels on the high seas. Material from 1923 deals with such topics as: the Supreme Court's Constitutional role; the President's law enforcement responsibilities; collecting funds for the A.S.L.A. at Sunday church services; requests for New York Governor Al Smith to enforce the 18th Amendment; arguments against repeal of New York's Mulligan-Gage inspection law; and income tax provisions for contributions to the A.S.L.A. This folder also contains a copy of the A.S.L.A. constitution.

Reports and Minutes for 1924 includes information concerning: whether a state can license the sale of 2.5% beer; definitions of the term "intoxicating liquor"; the President's power to pardon those convicted of violating the Volstead Act; a proposed treaty with Britain to stop liquor smuggling; and the Cramton Bill to establish a Bureau of Prohibition under the Treasury Department. Material on the Cramton Bill includes a legal brief, a booklet on hearings before the House Judiciary Committee, and proposed amendments to the bill.

Reports and Minutes for 1925-1927 contains information concerning: various legal problems; industrial alcohol and 2.75% beer; the Couzens Bill; a reorganization bill to create a prohibition department within the executive branch of government; prohibition enforcement authority; applicability of income tax laws to the illegal liquor traffic, and "wet" plans to repeal the 18th Amendment through another constitutional amendment.

Material for 1928-1929 includes: an A.S.L.A. Legal Office report on the 1928 Presidential election; judicial decisions on Congressional authority to endow U.S. Commissioners with power to hear and decide misdemeanor cases; a Legal Office report to the A.S.L.A. Executive Committee concerning regulations and by-laws of the Educational Foundation which relate to its incorporation; proposals to increase penalties under the National Prohibition Act; prohibition resolutions introduced in Congress; copies of state scientific temperance laws; a report on the California grape industry; and a summary of state laws relating to traffic in intoxicating liquors.

Reports and Minutes for 1930 include literature on national constitutional conventions; a response to a New Jersey judge's charge that the 18th Amendment was invalid; clippings and a legal brief on upholding the 18th Amendment; arguments for government control of medicinal spirits and editorials on the Sheppard Bill for prohibition enforcement in Washington, D.C. There are also prohibition surveys of Virginia, Florida, Kentucky and Georgia--including information on legislation, the judiciary, enforcement personnel, public officials' attitudes toward prohibition, and death rates from alcoholism and cirrhosis of the liver.

Material for 1931 includes information concerning: the legality of constitutional conventions; A.S.L.A. constitutional arguments against resubmission of the 18th Amendment; prohibition legislation facts compiled by the A.S.L.A.; a history of prohibition legislation prior to the 18th Amendment; the legality of fermented fruit juices and cider; the Havell Bill for prohibition in the District of Columbia (a copy of the bill is included); and other reports of the Legal and Legislative Office.

Reports and Minutes for 1932 contain information concerning: state laws dealing with 2.75% beer; A.S.L.A. policy when neither major political party supported prohibition; the 1932 A.S.L.A. convention; the repeal movement and state constitutional conventions; state decisions on initiative and referendum; beer as an intoxicating beverage; the status of state prohibition legislation in case the 18th Amendment was repealed; incorporation of the Nebraska Anti-Saloon League; and the "Resist Repeal" convention, December 9-12, 1932 in Washington, D.C.

Reports and Minutes for 1933 deal primarily with legal aspects of state constitutional conventions and the repeal movement, including an outline of the argument against repeal; a statement on methods of electing dry delegates to state conventions; information about state liquor laws and constitutional conventions; and copies of Congressional repeal bills. There are also reports on the most effective state enforcement laws, including the Arizona Control Act and the Colorado Beer Act, and the 1933 report of the A.S.L.A. Legal and Legislative Office.