Home > Anti-Saloon League Museum > Leaders > Francis Scott McBride Superintendent

Ohio does not so much need an adequate historian for the state as she does a capable teller of what has come out of her hill country. To succeed her hillborn son, Purley A. Baker, another of the same nativity has been elected General Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of America.

Dr. F. Scott McBride, in his twelfth year as State Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League of Illinois, was so elected on April 9. Starting fifty-one years ago in Carroll county, he did his college browsing at Muskingum, and finished three years of training at the United Presbyterian Theological School at Pittsburgh. After an eight years pastorate in the United Presbyterian Church of Kittanning, Pa., and a two years pastorate at Monmouth, Ill., he was drafted by his abilities, by events and by the management of the Anti-Saloon League of Illinois, into League service as an executive - district, state, and now national.

He is large of frame, an ex-star in football. Scotch in blood, he has the physical and moral tenacity of his forebears. Under his leadership the prohibition forces of Illinois have attained and hold state-wide political mastery and have even won notable victories within the city of Chicago. He is bitterly hated by the friends of the liquor traffic, of course. That traffic will now face a leadership in which the moral inheritance of the hills of Scotland and the hills of Ohio are combined.

Bishop Thomas Nicholson. President of the Anti-Saloon League of America and for eight years a resident of Chicago, has an unusual opportunity to study the work of Dr. McBride. The Bishop Says:

"'I look forward to a successful management of the administration of the Anti- Saloon League by Dr. F.Scott McBride. He is a man who has had decidedly successful experience in the management of a great state League. He has shown great poise and reserve force. He has shown tact courage, discretion and has proven himself a man of indefatigable energy. He is a good speaker, an organizer, an administrator of recognized ability. He has been one of the most valuable men on the executive committee of the National League and his personality, his devotion to the cause, his intimate knowledge of the problem and his proved ability as an administrator all give promise of vigorous and effective administration of the affairs of the Anti-Saloon League."