Putting the mortgage on the cradle

A saloon keeper, his apron labelled 'The Saloon', nails a sign reading 'Inherited Appetite for Liquor' to a sleeping baby's cradle while the father drinks at the table behind. The line beneath, 'Thirty-Six States Can Stop This By Constitutional Amendment', offers a single remedy for a harm staged on an infant, without evidence for the inheritance claim or any alternative.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Fear appeal

Date: 1917
Period: First World War
Made by: American Issue Publishing Company (Anti-Saloon League of America)

Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights

Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: Movement
Regime: Wilson Administration
Leader: Woodrow Wilson
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Persuade or win support
Themes: Health, Elections and party politics
Event: US Prohibition Campaign
Regime: Wilson administration
Leader: Woodrow Wilson
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Library of Congress, 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

INHERITED
APPETITE
FOR
LIQUOR [on the cradle]

THE SALOON [on the saloon keeper's apron]

SALOON [shop sign, background]

Putting the mortgage on the cradle.
—The Instructor.

Thirty-Six States Can Stop This By Constitutional Amendment

SERIES G. No. 19.

THE AMERICAN ISSUE PUBLISHING CO.,
WESTERVILLE, OHIO.

A small printed emblem/logo beneath the publisher's imprint is too small to read and is not transcribed.