No Saloon

Black text on an off white background surrounded by a decorative gold outline and red-orange outer edge

This button was produced as part of the Prohibition movement of the early 20^th century and organizations like the Anti-Saloon League of America used them to promote their cause. The Anti-Saloon League was the first modern pressure group organized around one issue. Unlike earlier popular movements, it utilized bureaucratic methods learned from business to build a strong organization, which helped to reinvigorate the country’s temperance movement. The activists used a multitier approach in its attempt to secure a dry (Prohibition) nation through national legislation and congressional hearings. They saw themselves as preachers fulfilling their religious duty of eliminating liquor in America. Prohibition in the United States remained in place as law from 1920 to 1933.