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Baskin-McGregor Act by
Mike Cox | |
In
some ways, the Wild West died in Texas in 1907 with the passage of a piece of
legislation called the Baskin-McGregor Act.
Little known today, an Internet
search shows only three references to the act in all the World Wide Web.
"The
drouth [sic] has begun," the Amarillo Weekly Herald mourned when the law went
into effect on July 18, 1907. But the drought had very little to do with any shortage
of water, except for those who preferred a little branch water with their whiskey.
Passed by the 30th Legislature early in the administration of Gov. Thomas M. Campbell,
the Baskin-McGregor Act profoundly affected what the new law referred to as the
"drinking public." Not to mention the purveyors of booze.
The act mandated
that:
" Saloons
close at midnight and on Sundays
" Neither prostitutes nor "lewd women" could enter a saloon or stay there if they
did " Women
could not work as a "servant, bartender or waitress" in a saloon
" Pianos, organs or other musical instruments could not be played in saloons
" No games prohibited by law would be allowed (to put it plainer, no gambling)
" "Sparring, boxing, wrestling, cock fights or any other exhibition or contests"
be prohibited in saloons
In other words, very little that had previously
been associated with saloons in wild and wooly Texas remained legal. Prostitution
and gambling had never been legal, of course, but this new law amounted to major
party pooping.
To add insult to injury to the alcohol industry in the
state, the new law required bar owners to pony up an annual license fee of $375.
As former Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms special agent Bob Alexander wrote in his
biography of John H. Behan, "Sacrificed Sheriff" (Silver City, NM: High-Lonesome
Books, 2002), "Clearly, the saloon owners and their customers were displeased,
while others saw Baskin-McGregor as a long over-due opportunity to 'clean up'
the state."
Indeed, saloon owners, their dice-throwing or garter-displaying
sub-contractors and a loyal patrons did not see the new legislation in quite as
favorable a light as preachers and assorted anti-saloon, anti-drinking "do-gooders."
The legislation passed in Austin, where many a lawmaker ran tabs in local watering
holes and could count on a warm, first-name greeting in the red light district
along Second Street, did not stop drinking, gambling and prostitution in the Lone
Star State. But it sure crimped quite a few folks' lifestyles.
The new
law also heated up local politics across the state, with candidates often dividing
on their enthusiasm for local enforcement of the measure. Resulting tensions were
enough to drive a man to drink.
Sensing that, one beverage distributor
in El Paso published this timely newspaper advertisement:
"For a politician's
nerves, after a strenuous day's work, nothing is better than a bottle of Miller's
'High Life' beer. We personally recommend it. Carr-Bass Liquor Co."
Years
later, following Prohibition and then the private club era, it once again would
become possible to buy a mixed drink in Texas on any day of the week, but the
Baskin-McGregor Act marked the end of a rough and tumble era in the Lone Star
State. | |
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