Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/248

LEFT ANTIPYRETICS 196 ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE Gregory XII. at Rome, and Benedict XIII. at Avignon, to renounce their claims with a view to promote union, but both evaded this as long as possible. At length, however, the cardinals attached to either court agreed to summon a gen- eral council, which met accordingly at Pisa in 1409. The council deposed both Popes, and constituted the separate bod- ies of cardinals into one conclave which elected Alexander V. to the papal chair. The Council of Basel (1431-1447), in its struggle with Pope Eugenius IV. (1431- 1447) for supremacy, attempted to arro- gate to itself the papal functions, and proceeded to elect Amadeus of Savoy Pope, as Felix V. The attempt, how- ever, failed; the Popes Eugenius IV. and Nicholas V. (1447-1455), secured their authority, the ambitious council finally dissolved itself, and Felix V. resigned his empty dignity, and was raised to the rank of cardinal by the magnanimous Pope himself. This was the last occa- sion on which the faithful were distract- ed by the sight of a rival pontiff within Christendom. ANTIPYRETICS, medicines which re- duce the temperature in fever. ANTIPYRINE, an alkaloid exten- sively used in medicine as an antipyretic, and possessing the valuable property of materially reducing the temperature of the body without the production of any distressing bodily symptoms. ANTIQUES, a term specifically ap- plied to the remains of ancient art, as statues, paintings, vases, cameos, and the like, and more especially to the works of (jrecian and Roman antiquity. ANTI-RENT PARTY, a party which gained some political influence in New York, and which had its origin in the re- fusal of tenants, who were dissatisfied with the patroon system in vogue in 1839, to pay rent. The matter was settled by compromise in 1850. ANTIRRHINUM (an-ti-ri'num), a genus of annual or perennial plants of the natural order scrophulariacex, com- monly known as snapdragon, on account of the peculiarity of the blossoms, which, by pressing between the finger and thumb, may be made to open and shut like a mouth. They all produce showy flowers, and are much cultivated in gar- dens. Many varieties of some of them, such as the great or common snap- dragon (A. majus), have been produced by gardeners. ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE, an organi- zation whose activities were undoubtedly the chief factor in the promotion of na- tion-wide prohibition under a Constitu- tional Amendment and the Volstead act which went into effect Jan. 16, 1920. The first step was the formation of the Anti- Saloon League of Ohio, chiefly through the labors of Dr. Howard H. Russell at Oberlin, in 1893. The basic idea was that the work so far had all been done under moral and religious auspices — by the churches, the W. C. T. U., and like organizations; that the results in the Pro- hibition party were of slow growth, and that a live organization was needed to influence political thought and action di- rectly. The prime aim of the League was to take the prohibition movement immedi- ately into the sphere of politics. Up to that time the work had been chiefly edu- cational, and results were slow in coming. The League frankly declared the liquor traffic to be a political issue — and started out from the beginning to attack it in that way. The only way to get prohi- bition was by laws — the only way to get the laws was to directly influence public opinion to elect the men who would make them. The liquor interests had for years been doing this. The Anti-Saloon League was formed to fight the enemy with its own weapons. To bring the issue square- ly before the people — not so much as a moral and religious issue as an economic and political one — was the work it set itself to do. In Ohio it went at once to the churches and asked the privilege through its speakers and printed matter, and general propaganda, of taking up the temperance work. It became in this way a kind of clearing-house for all the reli- gious bodies who were interested. In re- turn for their financial support it under- took to do the work for one and all of them, as a kind of collective executive of the most militant type. It began by a general canvass of all sections to tabu- late carefully the entire vote of Ohio for or against prohibition. When a district with a preponderance of prohibition sen- timent was found, it then went to work to find the best possible candidate for as many offices as possible from the Senate down who was committed to its side. By active propaganda such men were elected, until a final majority in both houses tri- umphantly carried through the Eight- eenth Amendment. A brother organization was formed at Washington governmental headquarters in the same year. Thus the very cita- del of politics was attacked from the start. Two years later the work was so well founded that the Washington League issued a call for a general Anti-Saloon League movement throughout the nation.