prohibition's Last Outpost Sy (3r£g Marquis CLJ J uring the 1920s, North Scott Act, a type of quasi-prohibi- of enforcement. According to City L ^ America's wets and drys tion subject to local option votes Marshall Charles Cameron, in 1892 watched Canada with interest, as by county or municipality, per cap- Charlottetown had roughly 75 liquor one by one, starting with Quebec ita consumption on Prince Edward outlets. Stipendiary Magistrate R. and ending with Nova Scotia, the Island dropped from 0.278 gallons to Rowan Fitzgerald admitted that provinces abandoned prohibition 0.122 between 1880 and 1893. The under the Scott Act, various par- and brought in regimes of govern- Scott Act outlawed the keeping or ties made handsome profits selling ment control and sale of alcohol. The sale of intoxicating liquor except for illegally, despite the threat of fines one exception was Prince Edward sacramental, medicinal or industrial and prison. The assessment of the Island - one of the last "Outposts purposes. It also permitted wholesal- Scott Act in other jurisdictions is of Prohibition" according to the ers to export quantities of at least ten that its primary purpose was not to Association Against the Prohibition gallons outside of Scott Act jurisdic- prohibit^ but to regulate and 'tax7 the Amendment, an American repeal tions. In Queens County drys won liquor trade through fines, making it group. From the 1920s until its the 1880 plebiscite by 1,317 to 99. less visible to middle-class citizens. repeal in 1948, prohibition on Prince In Kings, the 1879 v o t e w a s 1?°7^ Outside of the capital, Islanders Edward Island was of international to 59, and in Prince County, 1878 were enthusiastic over prohibition. interest. This was particularly true and 1884 votes totaled 4,701 against In 1898 they voted eight-to-one in during the heated debates over 1,065. in Charlottetown the issue favour of the principle of prohibi- American national prohibition, was more contested: between 1879 tion in a Dominion-wide plebiscite. which ended only in 1933. and 1894 there were five Scott Act Ottawa refused to enact mandatory As in other provinces, temperance plebiscites and the drys won three legislation and the issue remained pressures began to have political and by slim margins and lost in 1891 by with the provinces. With the repeal legal results in the late 1800s. Under fourteen votes. It appears that the of the Scott Act in Charlottetown in the federal Canada Temperance or city council was divided on the issue 1897, the government was forced to Dear Premier Haszard: Dear Premier Mathieson: It seems impossible to The petition of the get anything done with undersigned residents of this man Burke at the Town of Summerside Elmsdale who is delivering Humbly Sheweth that liquor openly and above Patrick T. Fanning has board. I have written to been convicted of the [Summerside Prohibition first offence against the Inspector] Gough until I Prohibition Act. That said am tired. He came up here Patrick Fanning has no about a fortnight ago and place of business and does got a warrant, but that not deal in liquors but is all that came from it. resides at the Queen Hotel The Temperance people where he is the caretaker. are mad and blame the Francis L. Haszard, That unfortunately at John A. Mathieson, Government. Could you 1908-1911 the solicitation of several 1912-1917 not get [Chief Prohibition parties he was the means Inspector] Jenkins and a constable or two to come of securing them some whiskey, though no profit up and make a raid. I would pay $100 out of my own accrued to himself out of the transaction. That the pocket to put Burke out of business. said Patrick Fanning has been a well-known and John Agnew, Alberton respected resident of this town for 49 years and is now 69 years of age. That we are of the opinion that the ends of justice would be fully served if the said There is no excuse for either druggist or physician conviction would not be enforced. not knowing their respective duties under the Act, and it seems to me a public disgrace and scandal the The undersigned inhabitants of Vernon and other way the law has been disregarded in respect to both places Humbly Sheweth that C.R. MacKinnon has these matters at Montague and Murray River... You been convicted of a infraction of the Prohibition say there is strong feeling in King's County that Mr. Act. That his hotel, consequently, has since closed Jenkins is administering the temperance law in a at great public inconvenience. That your petitioners very partial manner, this is the first time I have ever are desirous that the matter of enforcing the convic- heard of a complaint of this nature against him.... tion be suppressed. That it is very important in this Your threat that there is going to be trouble if the place to have the hotel open for the accommodation Government does not keep Jenkins out of King's County , is a most absurd and empty one and will probably have the very opposite effect to that which Information has today reached me that a move- you aim at. ment has been started to establish a liquor vendor- Premier Haszard s response to a letter from W.L. Poole, ship in O'Leary and that an application for the same President of the Kings County Liberal Association has been made to the government. Now, I am not certain that this information is correct, but if it is I want to impress you with the fact that just so sure as the application is granted, I renounce all allegiance pass a "Liquor Regulation Act" in 1898 and a "Tax Act" to the Conservative party. This is something abso- in 1899 in an attempt to further restrict sale. lutely unnecessary and personally I shall not stand In 1900 Prince Edward Island became the first prov- for it for a single moment. ince to successfully enact a prohibition statute, a law H.W. Turner, O'Leary written by Island Temperance Alliance and supported by all members of the provincial assembly. Its constitu- tionality was confirmed by a 1902 Prince Edward Island Enforcement was aided by the fact that the Island had Supreme Court decision. The sale of alcohol, except for no breweries or distilleries by this time, though this was permitted purposes, was banned. The latter included more a matter of business economics than the law. medicinal, industrial and sacramental uses - loopholes Island drys continued to serve as watchdogs over that were subject to abuse. Partly because of the tradi- the prohibition regime. Delegations from the Woman's tional belief that alcohol had medicinal properties, and Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Sons of partly because money was to be made, physicians were Temperance, backed by petitions and telegrams from loathe to relinquish this professional privilege. The gov- various Protestant churches, were a fact of life for Island ernment also allowed the sale of low-alcohol beer on the premiers of this period. As of 1918, the commission that grounds that it was "non-intoxicating." The adjective supervised the sale of "permitted" alcohol consisted of "prohibition" was misleading because the law did not three Catholic priests and three Protestant ministers. cover the entire province until 1906, and until 1923, Official vendors, originally paid through commission, individuals could import alcohol from other provinces. were placed on salary in the early 1920s. During the Dear Premier Arsenault: Dear Premier Bell: 5 By the way, I wish you l^gPN* '""" "^^^Ki Could you suggest could .-take a bit of the 1S1HK£ --,_.. -_ n H H a couple of good men edge off that Prohibitory l^lHHHlra ''%JHHL' for Kings county who Law as a little would would go on the new be very nice every cold ? Prohibition Commission morning when a fellow ^^^^^^Kf ^ i ^^^ ^ ^ ^S ^ H - one a Catholic and the thinks he has the flu... So other a Protestant. One far as I can learn it is a a Liberal and the other a very unpopular law. Conservative. KB. Birch, Port Hill Premier Bell to Rev F.C. Armstrong, Montague Your predecessors had Aubin E. Arsenault, come to the conclusion John H. Bell, 1917-1919 that only 5 to 10% of the 1919-1923 liquor got under prescrip- tion was for use as medicine. The 90 or 95% was intended and used for beverage purposes, and used 1920s; though mounting annual revenues from permit- by men well able to pay the price. In that view your ted liquor sales were a political embarrassment, liquor predecessors thought the proper course was to keep sales under prohibition were an important local source up the price of the liquor. That keeping up the price of provincial revenue. The larger prohibition commis- was itself a discouragement to the use of the liquor, sion was abolished in 1928 and replaced with a salaried and it was no objection that the government derived three-person body. In 1923 the Island voted against the a little from the sale. establishment of bonded warehouses, which would have Premier Bell to Samuel Martin, a member of the permitted the importation and storage of liquor for even- Prohibition Commission tual export to other provinces and countries. Temperance organizations and individuals monitored the law and its enforcement, attempting to control the appointment of inspectors, accepting tips from the pub- were hired to help prosecute these offenders. Another lic that were passed on to the authorities, suggesting constant complaint was that doctors were writing too legal amendments and refuting wet "propaganda" in the many bogus prescriptions for medicinal alcohol.