Ira Landrith, March 23, 1865 (Milford, Tex.) – October 11, 1941 (Pasadena, Calif.)
VP candidate for Prohibition Party (1916)
Running mate with nominee: Frank Hanly (1863–1920)
Popular vote: 221,302 (1.19%)
Electoral vote: 0/531
The campaign:
The 1916 Prohibition Party nominees were both what could be called militants on the issue of alcohol. Hanly had organized a prohibition road show called Hanly's Flying Squadron Foundation that criss-crossed the nation in 1914-1915 and Rev. Landrith (a Theodore Roosevelt lookalike) was one of the several featured speakers in that endeavor. A former controversial Republican Governor of Indiana, Hanly had been nominated by (and withdrew from) the Progressives for another gubernatorial run before he accepted the Prohibition nomination for President.
The Prohibition Party platform was a wordy and long document with fairly left-wing economic policies and a strong anti-war stance. It also included this accurate reminder as the Party prepared for a whole new voter bloc: "We condemn the Republican and Democratic parties for their failure to submit an equal suffrage amendment to the National Constitution. We remind the four million women voters that our Party was the first to declare for their political rights, which it did in 1872. We invite their co-operation in electing the Prohibition Party to power."
They were on the ballot in 43 states with their strongest finish being in Florida with 5.93%. Their next best showing was in California with 2.77% (27.713 votes) and that was just enough to tilt the state to Wilson. It was a very close national election and at first it appeared Republican Charles Evans Hughes was the victor over Democrat Woodrow Wilson. Some historians feel that the Hanly/Landrith ticket were spoilers in the Golden State, thus deciding the final outcome of the national result.
This would be last national election where the Prohibition Party finished with more than 1% of the popular vote. Prohibition would be the law of the land during the next four presidential elections.
1916 also saw the election of the only Prohibition Party governor, Sidney Johnston Catts of Florida which might explain why the Presidential ticket also finished so well that state. As it turned out, Catts ultimately didn't do the Party any favors as he was an unapologetic religious bigot, lynch-loving racist, and hater of German immigrants.
Election history: none
Other occupations: Presbyterian minister, President of Belmont College for Young Women in Nashville (1904-1911), editor, orator
Buried: Mountain View Cemetery and Mausoleum (Altadena, Calif.)
Notes:
In the same cemetery as Herbert W. Armstrong, Eldridge Cleaver, Richard Feynman, Laura Oakley,
and George Reeves.
"A Saloonless Nation by 1920, the three hundredth anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims."--Ira
Landrith, 1915
If elected, and if Frank Hanly had died in the same manner (automobile accident), Landrith would
have become President on August 1, 1920.
Locations: Lebanon, Tenn. 1890 - Nashville, Tenn. 1891-1904 - Chicago, Ill. 1904 - Nashville, Tenn.
1905-1915 - Boston, Mass. 1916-1917 - Chicago, Ill. 1917-1919 - Winona Lake, Ind. 1920-1926 -
Chicago, Ill. 1927-1932 - Winona Lake, Ind. 1933-1937 - Pasadena, Calif. 1938-1941.
Was an officer in the short-lived National Party 1917-1919, which was an umbrella group for
Prohibitionists, former Progressive Party members, single-taxers, pro-war Socialists, and the
National Woman's Party.
