Bishop James Cannon jr

From dKosopedia

Category: Temperance movement

Bishop James Cannon, Jr. (November 13, 1864, Salisbury, Maryland – September 6, 1944, Chicago, Illinois[1] was an American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and prominent leader of the temperance movement in the 1920s until he was derailed by scandal.

After the death of powerful Anti-Saloon League leader Wayne Wheeler in 1927, Cannon, chairman of the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals, emerged as the most powerful leader of the temperance movement in the United States. Journalist H. L. Mencken said of Cannon that "Congress was his troop of Boy Scouts and Presidents trembled whenever his name was mentioned."

However Bishop Cannon's short-lived power came to an end when he was forced to defend himself before a Senate committee against charges of financial irregularities as a lobbyist, before the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South on charges of immoral conduct, and before a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to violate the Federal Corrupt Practices Act.

Cannon's highly profitable stock speculations on margin with a corrupt securities firm, his hoarding of flour during World War I that was sold at a great profit, and his sexual affair with his secretary long before his wife's death all destroyed the reputation and influence of this once powerful dry (prohibition) leader. The expose was but one of the many factors contributing to the repeal of prohibition.

Related

• National Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S.

Source

Kyvig, David. Repealing National Prohibition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979.

• History of Anti-Alcohol Movements