Committee of Fourteen

The Committee of Fourteen was founded on January 16, 1905 by members of the New York Anti-Saloon League as an association dedicated to the abolition of Raines law hotels.

History
The Raines law was passed in 1896 and it gave hotels the right to sell alcoholic beverages on Sundays which saloons were banned from doing by blue laws. To get around the law, saloon keepers built rooms with beds within the saloon and then applied for a hotel liquor license. The rooms became convenient places for prostitution. The Committee demanded on-site visitations of the premises to determine what was a saloon and what was a legitimate hotel. On May 1, 1905 a law was passed that a city inspection had to occur before a license was issued. By 1911 most Raines Law hotels had closed and the Committee was disbanded in 1932 when it ran out of money.

Members of the Committee

 * William H. Baldwin
 * Walter G. Hooke
 * Mrs. Mortimer Menken
 * James Pedersen
 * John P. Peters
 * Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch
 * George Haven Putnam
 * Francis Louis Slade
 * Percy S. Straus
 * Lawrence Veiller
 * Frederick H. Whitin
 * George E. Worthington
 * Raymond B. Fosdick