St. Paul's political convention history: The Prohibition Party's 1916 gathering

Let's talk about the time a political convention came to St. Paul — not the Republican gathering of 2008, but a convention that rolled in a century ago.

In 1916, the Prohibition Party rallied in St. Paul.

Writer Jack El-Hai dug into this little-known history for the website Wonders & Marvels, and he joined MPR News Tom Weber to talk about what he discovered.

The saloons were particularly quiet when the party arrived, El-Hai noted.

"The Prohibition Party is America's oldest third party that's still in operation," he said. "They began in 1869, and as their name suggests, their main thrust early on in their history was to prohibit the sale of alcohol in the United States."

With the Eighteenth Amendment looming, the St. Paul gathering "was a very critical time for the Prohibition Party. They wanted to get that amendment passed so prohibition would be enforced all around the country."

At that point, the party's victories had been small: They'd helped elect a California congressman and a Florida governor. They'd succeeded in getting a few states to pass prohibition laws of their own. But the party was aiming higher in St. Paul.

It was also a moment for an identity crisis: If prohibition became national law, what would happen to the party? Were they about to make themselves irrelevant?

They nominated J. Frank Hanly of Indiana as president. They were hoping to rake in a million votes with the election — more than they'd ever received, and enough to trounce the other large third party of the time, the Socialist Party.

But that didn't happen. Hanly garnered barely over 200,000 votes, and was heavily outpolled by the Socialists. It was a humiliating moment for the party, El-Hai said.

Though the Eighteenth Amendment was later ratified and Prohibition became law across the country, the Prohibition Party itself never rose to power.

But that doesn't mean they went away: They held a 1992 convention in Minneapolis, El-Hai noted. And they ran a candidate in 2012, who garnered 518 votes.

This year, they're still campaigning, but the costs of a convention have become too much. Jim Hedges, of Pennsylvania, won the Party's nomination this year by conference call instead.

The party's St. Paul convention in 1916 did make history in one respect, though.

A woman was put forward for nomination as vice president at the convention. She didn't get it, El-Hai said, but it was the first time a woman was considered for president or vice president by a major minor party.

For the full discussion with Jack El-Hai on the Prohibition Party's 1916 convention in St. Paul, use the audio player above. El-Hai's full article is available from