Purley Baker
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Purley Albert Baker (1858-1924) was an ordained Methodist minister who strongly opposed any consumption of beverage alcohol and was superintendent of the Ohio Anti-Saloon League. He became head of the national Anti-Saloon League in 1903 and five years later created the League's Industrial Relations Department to promote the idea that imposing prohibition would be a good business investment. He raised large sums of money to create a major information campaign, an important component of which was to demonize the producers of alcoholic beverages. Most brewer were of German extraction and Baker contended that Germans "eat like gluttons and drink like swine". League posters vilified the "Huns" who were portrayed as Neanderthals threatening the U.S. and its way of life. Stigmatizing German brewers proved to be a highly successful strategy as World War I approached.
