Woman Suffrage and the Liquor Interests, 1915
Courtesy, New Jersey Historical Society

"Yearbook, Women’s Political Union," 1916 Click on image to enlarge.

"Well, boys, we saved the home." "The Literary Digest, 51 (October 30, 1915) Click on image to enlarge.

In the early 20^th century, New Jersey’s liquor interests were opposed to woman suffrage, a view shared by liquor interests across the nation. Distillers and retailers of liquor believed that woman suffrage would bring about prohibition, owing to the many efforts since the late 19^th century, by such groups as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in New Jersey and elsewhere, to gain women the vote. The national WCTU was the first large women’s organization in the country to endorse woman suffrage. In New Jersey, Sarah Corson Downs led the New Jersey branch of the WCTU to greater membership and activities in favor of both temperance and suffrage. It was assumed that liquor interests had much to do with the defeat of the New Jersey woman suffrage referendum of 1915. Ironically, the 18^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution establishing prohibition was ratified by male legislators early in 1919 before women nationwide had the vote.