Excerpt from Ten Years of Prohibition in Oklahoma
On November 16, 1917, Oklahoma as a state completed the first ten years of its state-wide Prohibition policy. It was, likewise, the tenth anniversary of its birth into the Union. It is a good point, therefore, at which to take an accounting of stock, to note what the dry state-wide policy may have accomplished or tailed to have accomplished. On September 17, 1907, the people of the then Indian Territory and Territory of Oklahoma, in adopting a constitution for the new combined state, also adopted a provision for state-wide Prohibition, which provision had been submitted by the constitutional convention as a separate section. The vote on the constitution was 180,333 for and 73,059 against, a majority for of 107,274. There was very little opposition to the constitution itself. The separate section, providing for statewide Prohibition, was bitterly fought, but was carried by a vote of 130,361 for and 112,258 against, a majority for of 18,103. Statewide Prohibition was thereby written into the constitution of the new state. The first Legislature responded by promptly enacting a stringent enforcement law under the guiding hand of the first Governor, Charles N. Haskell, and the writer assisted the Oklahoma Anti-Saloon League in drafting the measure. The Legislature seemed anxious to enact anything that was desired by the organized dry forces of the state. The liquor interests introduced a resubmission proposal in both branches of this Legislature but both were promptly disposed of.
On November 8, 1910, the people were again called upon to vote on the question of state-wide Prohibition, the liquor interests having initiated a wet amendment to the constitution. The people promptly defeated the liquor proposal by a majority of 21,177 out of a total vote of 231,159.
In 1914, the liquor men initiated another wet constitutional amendment which failed by a still larger majority. This measure was initiated under the fake name of "The United Civic Association." Beyond initiating the proposed amendment, the liquor men did not conduct a serious campaign for the reason that the outside brewers failed to provide the necessary campaign funds.
On March 19, 1915, three members of the Legislature introduced into the House a resubmission proposal. The measure was promptly voted down by a vote of 66 nays and only four yeas, just one besides the original three who introduced the item.
In these ten years that have passed, not a measure has passed the Legislature relating to the liquor traffic except in the direction of making the existing laws more stringent.
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