Life — July 18, 1918 — page 9: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Regulation and Conservation of Prohibitionists" This page satirizes the explosive growth of Prohibition supporters in the United States. The article notes that by 1910, prohibitionists numbered only about 400,000; now "it is almost impossible to go anywhere without meeting one or more." The satire proposes treating prohibitionists like an overpopulation problem: excess prohibitionists should be "deported to Maine, where they can be fed on salt codfish until overcome by thirst"—a darkly humorous suggestion that the movement has become unmanageably widespread. The cartoon illustrations (labeled "Historic Boys"—showing caricatured figures as "Black Jack" and "Sandie Bell") and the bottom cartoon about "Mr. Booze" and "a hatchet-faced lady" reference Carrie Nation, the famous temperance activist known for violent saloon raids.