The Wellington Saloon in Globe prior to Prohibition.

The Arizona General Election of 1914 contained 19 ballot propositions. This was a record number of items for the voters of the young state. The propositions covered a wide range of subjects including the location of county seats, the placement of electric poles, the abolishment of the death penalty, granting of old age and mother’s pensions and competing propositions regarding the prohibition of alcohol.
One prohibition proposition was simple and clear and stated: “ardent spirits, ale, beer, wine, or intoxicating liquor or liquors of whatever kind shall not be manufactured in, or introduced into the State of Arizona under any pretense.”
The opposing initiative was sponsored by a group called the Royal Arch. This group was described as “an organization of saloon keepers.”
One section of this proposition included 261 words that were described as “the lawyer who wrote it deserves every cent he got for it…he succeeded in employing the English language to a purpose that is more or less strange to it, — that of concealing meaning instead of revealing it.”
Certainly, the language of the proposition was convoluted even by today’s standards of legalese. This section of the proposition seemed to create prohibition only where citizens clearly voted for it. However, this section of the proposition also states where people vote against prohibition, it “…shall be deemed to have voted against prohibition, and from and after the canvass of the votes cast at such election in any such city, town or precinct, the sale of intoxicating liquor shall be permitted in any such city, town or precinct.”
This proposal would also ban any additional votes on prohibition for eight years. The idea of prohibition had been building in Temperance groups and religious communities throughout the United States since the 1850s. Ultimately, it would result in the constitutional amendment which banned alcohol in the United States in 1920. Arizona was clearly tackling an emerging national issue sooner than most states.
Certainly, alcohol had a bad reputation even in the early 1900s. Local newspapers had frequent accounts of people dying from drink. H. S. Titball, described as “a stranger of about 50 years of age,” was found dying near 20th Street and Washington when “persons passing the street corner were attracted by groans, and…they came upon the dying man by the roadside.” After Titball died, the coroner ruled his death came from overheating caused by several days of deep intoxication.
Prior to the election, the local papers ran “open forums for debating statewide prohibition.” In an odd contrast to today’s media, the newspapers said they would not accept paid advertisements on the issue.
Not surprisingly, the great majority of the articles on prohibition were from ministers and representatives of the Temperance Federation of Arizona. Most articles asked such questions as “what has (liquor) ever done to uplift the human race? What great principle of morals has it ever served? Who has been cured of disease by its use? Who sings its praises from the pulpit?”
The liquor-industry sponsored proposition was defeated by a statewide vote of 16,059 for and 26,437 against. Prohibition was passed by a vote of 25,887 yes and 22,743 against on Nov. 3, 1914.
Prohibition went into effect in Arizona on Jan. 1, 1915. More than 444 saloons and wholesale houses handling liquor were closed.
After the first six months of prohibition, Thomas Marshall of Tucson wrote a study of the effects of prohibition. Some of the items he found included “Pinal County had 17 murders and attempts to kill during the first six months of 1914 and none for the same period of 1915. Cochise County’s notorious murder record has fallen by 50 percent… Billy Bayless, city marshal of Flagstaff, declared that he would never again serve as a peace officer in a wet town.”
Reports indicated that the mining industry, hotel industry, and even schools reported better attendance and more production from their employees and students. Even Arizona’s iconic cattle industry reported “…that the cowboys do not care any more for carousals in town.”
Reports notwithstanding, time moved on, and the great experiment of prohibition soon faded into history in both Arizona and the United States. Prohibition ended in 1933.
— Mike Miller. Photo courtesy of Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, Archives Division, Phoenix, #96-4496