The American Issue Publishing Company (AIPC). It was the publishing house of the Anti-Saloon League of America.

Westerville, Ohio, was a small town near Columbus. In 1909, its residents of gave a site valued at about $10,000 to the Anti-Saloon League. It was for the site of a printing plant. Workers started and completed the building that same year.

On June 13, 1909, the AIPC was incorporated. It was owned by the Anti-Saloon League. All its capital stock was held in trust by five trustees. The Board of Directors of the Anti-Saloon League elected them biennially. The purpose of the Company was to publish materials to promote prohibition.

The printing presses of the AIPC operated 24 hours a day and employed 200 people. Within the first three years, it was producing about 250,000,000 book pages per month. That’s one-quarter of a billion!

Also, the quantity increased yearly. This dwarfed the enormous output of the National Temperance Society and Publishing House. It took over half a century to print one billion pages.

In addition to books, the Company printed magazines and newspapers. They included the American Issue, American Patriot, New Republic, and the Scientific Temperance Journal. Also the National Daily, Worker,  Intercollegiate Statesman, and International Student. It also printed pamphlets, leaflets, posters, placards and other temperance materials.

Printing just one of it’s magazines, the American Issue, during a single month consumed 950 pounds of ink and fifty tons of paper.

Ernest Cherrington

The general manager of the Company was Ernest Cherrington. He reported that if all the pages it printed over a twenty year period were placed end-to-end, they would circle the earth 80 times.

The AIPC played a major role in advancing the prohibition movement. Of course, it publish an enormous quantity of temperance materials as well.

It also produce some of the most important works in support of Prohibition. One was The Standard Encyclopedia of the Liquor Problem. Ernest Cherrington edited this six-volume work. It was published between 1925 and 1930. The Anti-Saloon League gave copies to every school and college in the country.

The massive volume of temperance materials had a lasting effect on American culture. Indeed, almost one in five U.S. adults supports outlawing all alcohol drinking by everyone. Of any age. And for any purpose.

Most people are surprised to learn that not even National Prohibition (1920-1933) went that far. Discover what it prohibited and what it didn’t. You’ll be surprised!