---
title: '"Swear!"'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/swear-dry-and-klan-1923/
description: Kirby's recurring 'Mr. Dry', a top-hatted figure with an umbrella labelled 'Anti Saloon League' that stood for all prohibitionists, clasps hands with a…
section: Collection
---

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

[!["Swear!"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/swear-dry-and-klan-1923.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/swear-dry-and-klan-1923.jpg)

# "Swear!"

Kirby's recurring 'Mr. Dry', a top-hatted figure with an umbrella labelled 'Anti Saloon League' that stood for all prohibitionists, clasps hands with a hooded Ku Klux Klan member holding a whip before a burning cross. The drawing moves the Klan's stigma onto the League by showing a sworn alliance; historian Thomas Pegram describes the actual relationship as informal ties between some League officials and local Klans, while League activists at the time denied involvement with Klan vigilantism.

- **Date:** November 11, 1923
- **Period:** [Interwar](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=interwar)
- **Made by:** Rollin Kirby (cartoonist, New York World)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=cartoon)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [Coolidge Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=coolidge-administration)
- **Leader:** [Calvin Coolidge](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=calvin-coolidge)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Elections and party politics](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=elections-party-politics), [Race and ethnicity](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=race-ethnicity)
- **Event:** [US Prohibition](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=us-prohibition)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [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/2016682737/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (1923 work by Rollin Kirby, d. 1952; LoC: no known restrictions) Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

## Text on the object

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

```
ANTI
SALOON
LEAGUE

KU KLUX

"SWEAR!"

Sunday 11th Nov. 1923
[illegible — additional handwritten scheduling note]
[illegible — handwritten notes, left margin]
```

'ANTI SALOON LEAGUE' runs down 'Mr. Dry's' coat sash; 'KU KLUX' appears on the hooded figure's robe front (the full 'KU KLUX KLAN' is implied but only these two words are legible). The title '"SWEAR!"' and a date are lettered below the drawing; faint cursive production notes in the lower-left margin and the artist's signature at lower right are too small to transcribe reliably.

[← "It's none of the public's business"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/none-of-the-publics-business-1923/) [Die neuen Steuern: Restlose Ausplünderung des Proletariats! (The New Taxes: Total Plundering of the Proletariat!) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kpd-die-neuen-steuern-1924/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [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)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)