Budweiser spells temperance - May, 1914

Perhaps he doth protest too much?

Thanks to magazineart.org

Bismarck--the "Greatest of the Germans". Bismarck, like all Germans, prized Personal Liberty as the breath of life--a NATURAL RIGHT to be guarded and defended at any cost. Among our millions of law-abiding German-American citizens there is not a man who does not consider it insolent tyranny of the odious kind for any legislation to issue this command: "Thou shalt NOT eat this--thou shalt NOT drink that." Germans know that there is no evil in the light wines and beers of their fathers. EVIL ONLY IS IN THE MAN WHO MISES THEM. Fifty-seven years ago, ANHEUSER-BUSCH founded their great institution upon the tenet of the Constitution of the United States. During these fifty-seven years they have honestly brewed an honest beer--the kind that has added to the temperance of nations. Their great brand--BUDWEISER--is demanded throughout the world. Its sales exceed any other beer by millions of bottles, proving it to be in a class by itself.

December 31, 1913

It's December 31, 1913. Revolution is in the air and the map is rapidly changing. Outside of the Americas, the world is still largely divided into weakening empires run by autocrats and colonists. The Republic of China is about to celebrate its 2nd birthday. (Its people, sick of having been left in the dark ages like feudal serfs while Westerners defined and dominated the modern world, had just ended 2000 years of monarchical rule in a series of revolts and uprisings.)

 
Vladimir Lenin has been living in exile in Austria and other places in Western Europe since the first, failed Russian Revolution (1905), which is where he will remain for 3 more years until a series of uprisings (over food shortages, inflation, long work hours, dangerous work conditions, and urban overcrowding as a result of rapid industrialization) will depose Nicholas II and bring an end to tsarist Russia.