Monday’s ad is another one for the Pennsylvania State Brewers Association, from 1915, No. 74 in series they did from 1915-17 called “Facts Versus Fallacies.” I have no idea how many were done but some of the them are numbered into low triple digits, suggesting there were a lot of them, all in an effort to stop Prohibition from happening and win over support for beer. This ad, marked “74,” is about a problem that, sadly, is till going on today, prohibitionists lying to advance their agenda. In many cases, according to the ad, it’s evangelists going from town to town and slinging mud at the people who make alcohol, much as is still done today, by modern prohibitionist groups. I’ve even had some flung my way. But in at least one such instance, the slandered people struck back, suing a winning a $2700 judgment against the lying prohibitionist. The judge, in his ruling, stated that “there is no special privilege attached to a clergyman, much less an evangelist.” And that would be even more true for prohibitionist propaganda today, if only someone would sue them. But I especially like the ad’s conclusion. “That men who preach Prohibition should be quite the reverse of temperate is in itself no new story — for Prohibition is not Temperance. Temperance means moderation — in all things. Which applies to speech as pertinently as it does to drink.”
