---
title: He Can't Put It Out
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/he-cant-put-it-out-1917/
description: A heavy man in a top hat, labelled 'Liquor Interests', flees from a towering lit firecracker labelled 'Public Indignation'.
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![He Can't Put It Out](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/he-cant-put-it-out-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/he-cant-put-it-out-1917.jpg)

# He Can't Put It Out

A heavy man in a top hat, labelled 'Liquor Interests', flees from a towering lit firecracker labelled 'Public Indignation'. The poster presents rising anti-liquor sentiment as a force that cannot be stopped, so momentum stands in for the argument, and it shows the brewing and distilling trade as one caricatured figure rather than as named firms or arguments.

- **Date:** 1917
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** American Issue Publishing Company (Anti-Saloon League of America); drawing by Sam Fickel
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Movement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=movement)
- **Regime:** [Wilson Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=wilson-administration)
- **Leader:** [Woodrow Wilson](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=woodrow-wilson)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Health](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=health), [Elections and party politics](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=elections-party-politics)
- **Event:** [US Prohibition Campaign](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=us-prohibition-campaign)
- **Techniques:** [Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2001703874/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published 1917 in the U.S.; LoC: no known restrictions) Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
PUBLIC INDIGNATION

LIQUOR INTERESTS

He Can't Put It Out

SERIES G, No. 13.

Published by the American Issue Publishing Company, Westerville, Ohio.
```

The artist's small signature ('Sam Fickel') within the drawing, and a small circular seal/logo above the imprint line, are not transcribed as body text.

[← Братерство, рівність. Чу-чу! Гидь московська! (Fraternity, Equality. Shoo! Muscovite Filth!): Ukrainian People's Republic leaflet-poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gyd-moskovska-upr-1917/) [Helft uns siegen! Zeichnet die Kriegsanleihe (Help Us Win! Subscribe to the War Loan) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/helft-uns-siegen-1917/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [Das ganze Deutschland soll es sein. Haut sie auf den Chassepot! (German broadsheet song and caricature, Franco-Prussian War)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/das-ganze-deutschland-soll-es-sein-chassepot-1870/) (1870 · Bandwagon, Name-calling)
- [Boletín nuevo: Noticias importantes (New Bulletin: Important News), Revolución del Parque](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/boletin-nuevo-revolucion-del-parque-1890/) (Jul 29, 1890 · Bandwagon, Name-calling)
- [¡¡Glorias de México!! Porfirio Díaz y Ramón Corral, electos por el voto unánime del pueblo (Glories of Mexico!! Porfirio Díaz and Ramón Corral, Elected by the Unanimous Vote of the People)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/glorias-de-mexico-diaz-corral-1904/) (1904 · Glittering generalities, Bandwagon)
- [La vuelta del desterrado (The Return of the Exile)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-vuelta-del-desterrado-vanegas-arroyo-1911/) (1911 · Glittering generalities, Bandwagon)
- [Saludo y felicitación al Señor D. Francisco I. Madero al tomar posesión de la presidencia (Salute and Congratulations to Francisco I. Madero on Taking the Presidency)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/saludo-madero-1911/) (Nov 6, 1911 · Glittering generalities, Bandwagon)
- [The Menace front page, 12 April 1913 (Aurora, Missouri)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-menace-front-page-1913/) (Apr 12, 1913 · Bandwagon, Scapegoating). Content note: Anti-Catholic newspaper front page with a skull-and-crossbones emblem labelled 'Temporal Power' and claims of a Roman Catholic conspiracy.
- [Vote Against Woman Suffrage](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/georgia-vote-against-woman-suffrage-1915/) (1915 · Fear appeal, Bandwagon)