George K. Hinds was a New York City school teacher and Prohibition Party activist. He started teaching around the year 1896 and continued to do so for at least 25 years.
Hinds ran as a Prohibition Party candidate for several offices. In 1910, he ran a prohibition party candidate for justice in the first district of the New York Supreme Court. He ran again for the same office in 1911, 1912, and 1916. In the 1912 election, he received 464 votes. In 1920, he was one of the elector candidates in New York for the Prohibition Party presidential ticket of Aaron Watkins and D. Leigh Colvin. In 1921, Hinds ran as the Prohibition Party candidate for mayor of New York. Hinds ran on a platform centered strongly on enforcing national prohibition in New York City, expanding the school system to ensure all children had access to an education, and working to make city departments more efficient. In a news interview Hinds stated, “What other candidates for mayor may promise to do as a duty, I offer to perform as a pleasure”.
He especially sought to appeal to appeal to women voters and teachers, and expressed hope that he might get more votes than his friend D. Leigh Colvin. Sources differ as to Colvin’s vote totals in 1917, so it’s uncertain whether or not Hinds accomplished this goal. But Hinds managed to get 1,045 (0.09%) votes and came in 5th place.
In a time of adversity, for the Prohibition Party, George Hinds stepped up. In the1922 election, the New York Prohibition Party needed its candidate for governor to get 15,000 votes to maintain statewide ballot access. The Democratic Party had nominated Al Smith, who was an open anti-prohibitionist, for governor. The Republican Party nominated Nathan Miller (who was personally opposed to prohibition, but claimed that he would enforce all laws). The New York Republican Party attacked the Prohibition Party and claimed that since national prohibition had been established that the party no longer had a point in existing.
The Anti-Saloon League sided with Miller as a lesser of two evils, and tried to pressure the Prohibition Party to co-nominate Miller as a fusion candidate. The New York Prohibition Party resisted this pressure. At the state convention, the state committee voted 25 to 6, to nominate Hinds instead of Miller. George Hinds accepted the nomination and ran in spite of the challenges he would face. He advocated for strong enforcement of national prohibition in New York, called out the Democratic and Republican parties for being weak on enforcement, told voters that voting for the Prohibition Party would send a message in favor of national prohibition, and asked voters to give the Prohibition Party chance to show them what they could do if they ran the state government.
Hinds received 9,498 (0.38%) votes and came in 4th place. Since he came up short of 15,000 votes, the party lost its statewide ballot access. The New Prohibition Party later regained statewide ballot access in 1930, with Robert Carroll’s campaign. But the party lost statewide ballot access again in 1934, and has not regained it since. While the political climate was challenging, George Hind and other party activists persisted, and helped pave the way for future activism and accomplishments.
Sources:
“A Bootleggers Candidate”. The Buffalo Commercial. (Buffalo, N.Y.). October 26, 1922. Accessed, March 27, 2019. https://www.newspapers.com/image/313415921/?terms=george%2Bhinds%2Bprohibition
"Candidate - George K. Hinds." Our Campaigns. Accessed March 27, 2019. https://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=49784.
“Canvassers’ Report Adopted”. The Kington Daily Freeman. (Kingston, N.Y.). November 15, 1922.Accessed, March 27, 2019. https://www.newspapers.com/image/35419220/?terms=george%2Bhinds%2Bprohibition Carroll, Raymond G. “Dry Seeks to Rule New York”. St. Louis Star and Times. (St. Louis, Missouri). September 22, 1921. Accessed, March 27, 2019. https://www.newspapers.com/image/203798023/?terms=george%2Bhinds%2Bprohibition
“Dry Canidate for Governor Asks for Bone Dry Voter’s Vote”. Illustrated Buffalo Express. (Buffalo, N.Y.). October 22, 1922. Accessed, March 27, 2019. https://www.newspapers.com/image/442544696/?terms=george%2Bhinds%2Bprohibition
Kestenbaum, Lawrence. "New York 1920 Presidential Elector Candidates." The Political Graveyard. Accessed March 28, 2019. http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/NY/ofc/pr1920-election.html.
“Miller Declined Dry Candidate”. The Kington Daily Freeman. (Kingston, N.Y.). October 2, 1922.Accessed, March 27, 2019. https://www.newspapers.com/image/35412351/?terms=george%2Bhinds%2Bprohibition
Murlin, Edgar L. The New York Red Book. Albany: J.B. Lyon Company, 1913. “Other Past Candidates: New York”. Partisan Prohibition Historical Society. Prohibitionists.org. Accessed March 29th, 2018. http://www.prohibitionists.org/Candidates/candidates.html
“Serious Split in the Ranks of Dries”. Buffalo Truth. (Buffalo, N.Y.). December 16, 1922. Accessed, https://www.newspapers.com/image/494848381/?terms=george%2Bhinds%2Bprohibition
“State Prohibition Party refuses to Indorse Governor”. Illustrated Buffalo Express. (Buffalo, N.Y.). October 1, 1922. Accessed, March 27, 2019. https://www.newspapers.com/image/352851350/?terms=george%2Bhinds%2Bprohibition
“The Prohibition Party is bone dry and the only party in which one can record his vote of protest in this campaign against the return of the saloon with its disgraceful record.” George Hinds Another Step in the Wrong Direction The state government took another step in
-- Contributed by Jonathan Makeley
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