Arkansas Liquor Law of 1913

The Arkansas Liquor Law of 1913, also known as the Going Law of 1913 was an important piece of Prohibition legislation in the state of Arkansas. The law, sponsored by nineteen senators, made "it unlawful for any court, town or city council to issue a liquor license except when the same is asked for by petition signed by a majority of the adult white inhabitants (including women) living within the incorporated limits of the town where the license is to be used." Anti-prohibitionists claimed a small victory in that the act allowed saloons and bars to petition county courts for licenses, much like Arkansas bars and clubs do today. The act required that pro-license counties "must have voted 'for license' at the last general election on that subject." The act did not repeal local liquor laws, but made cumulative all anti-liquor laws already in force and decisively tilted state policy against the "wets." The act was adopted on the grounds that it helped guarantee "the public peace, health, and safety."

In the wake of the 1913 law, only five places in the state continued to permit saloons.

References

• Ernest Hurst Cherrington, ed., The Anti-Saloon League Yearbook (Westerville, OH: The Anti-Saloon League of America, 1917), 79-83.
• Thomas R. Pegram, "Temperance Politics and Regional Political Culture: The Anti-Saloon League in Maryland and the South, 1907-1915," Journal of Southern History, 63.1 (February 1997): 76.
• David Y. Thomas, "Liquor Legislation in Arkansas," American Political Science Review 7.3 (August 1913): 434-435.