The History And Consequences Of Prohibition

One night in January 1826, Reverend Beecher found out that a friend died from alcohol poisoning. Beecher heard the same stories before about jobs being lost, life savings wiped, and women and children beaten because of alcohol. Beecher wrote a sermon about temperance. Due to his speech being so eloquent, it set motion events not even he could imagine. For the next one hundred years, Americans would argue about what to do with drunkenness. It would lead to passing of the 18th amendment. It was meant to destroy evil instead it turned ordinary humans into criminals.

Alcohol has part of our history since The Mayflower came here. In the 1800s, rum, whiskey, and other higher alcohol content became available. By 1830, average Americans drank 88 bottles a year. On April 5th 1840, six friends met at a tavern in Baltimore vowed to never have a drink again. They formed a society of reformed drunkards. Thousands of crying people confessed and signed the Washingtonian Pledge. Eventually, over 500, 000 men signed the scrolls. Clergymen denounced the society because they claimed that the drunkards can be reformed without joining a church. The Abolitionists saw alcohol as a cause as was slavery. They called it Temperance. New church organizations spurred up like The Sons of Temperance and Knights of Jericho. Susan B Anthony created a Women’s Temperance Movement, when she was refused to speak a Sons of Temperance meeting. For the next fifty years, temperance and suffrage will be extremely linked.

In 1851, Neil Dow, the Mayor of Portland, Maine, gather thousands of signatures to petition the state government to ban alcohol. Through Dow’s efforts, the bill passed on June 2nd 1851. For the first time, a state banned the sale of alcohol. With the law on his side, Dow led raids on liquor sellers. In June 1855, an angry crowd of 3, 000 Irish immigrants protested the sale of alcohol. Dow ordered the state militia to fire. As a result, seven were injured and one were killed. Meanwhile, the state citizens used loopholes to their advantage. Fisherman smuggled booze in coffins, bartenders charged for sugar crackers in return for a free drink, and sold bottles from under their pant legs. They became known as bootleggers. By 1860, Temperance and Women’s suffrage were overshadowed by Slavery and The Civil War. In 1862, the Federal Government charged $20 license fees and 20 cents for every gallon sold in order to pay for the war. Within a few years, 1/3 of the Federal Government’s budget came from taxing alcohol. After the war ended, thousands of immigrants began to come to America. They were willing to start a new life but will not give up old ways. A host of German entrepreneurs were satisfying the thirst for beer. By 1870, their output was 550 million gallons.

On December 23rd 1873, a visiting Temperance urges the women to protest hoping to destroy the liquor business forever. The next day, over two hundred women were led outside, all dressed in black, and singing, "Give to the winds thy fears”. The women stopped at three drug stores and they agree to never give alcoholic prescriptions again. Within days, the crusade erupted all over Ohio. In bigger cities like Cincinnati, Temperance faced bigger challenges. They got sprayed with freezing water and drenched with cold beer. Despite it all, they marched in 911 communities in 31 states. They closed down 1, 300 liquor stores. Overtime, the crusade dissolved due to lack of responsibility. Frances Willard was a strategist who commanded the WCTU. She took the reins of the WCTU in 1879 until she died 19 years later. She founded a global WCTU that gathered nearly a million signatures on a petition addressed to the rulers of the world, imploring to join together in a global ban on alcohol. Willard formed the Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction, to train boys and girls to dedicate themselves to eradicating alcohol through the school system. They used the textbooks to cause fear and control over the children.

Despite the Washingtonians, the woman's crusade, the WCTU, legions of clergymen, temperance lecturers, and school books meant to terrify, more saloons were opening every day. For millions of working men, saloons were a refuge from long day’s work in a factory or in a coal mine. At a bar, men could cash out their paychecks and learn English. The saloons were often belonged to one or another of the big brewers. The brewery paid for their licenses, provided the pool table and artwork, the bar and barstools. Decent citizens were appalled that most big cities tolerated corruption. The pimps worked hand-in hand with corrupt cops and accommodating politicians. It was all overseen by Mike Kenna. Many thought in order to solve the drunkenness problem was to destroy the saloon. On June 7th 1900, Carry Nation went to Kiowa, Kansas to vandalized 3 bars. The sheriff did not file any charges. She went on to vandalized bars in Topeka, Enterprise, and Wichita. Despite the governor’s plea to stop, Nation rallied hundreds of men and women towards The Home Defenders Army. She and her followers went to smash a barm filled with saloon fixtures and a warehouse stacked with barrels of beer. Within the month, her followers attacked more than 100 saloons in 50 towns. Anxious state legislators rushed through a bill to strengthen enforcement of the law and pacify her and her home-defenders' army. Once again like the Women’s Crusade, Nation’s movement died quickly as it arisen.

In 1893, in Oberlin, Ohio, a new organization had been established to fight the evils of alcohol: The Anti-Saloon League. Unlike the WCTU and Frances Willard, the league was determined that his organization would focus on a single goal: to get rid of alcohol. The Anti-Saloon League was modeled on the modern corporation. The man who made it all work was Wayne Wheeler, the League's ablest commander. He was a calculating political operative, willing to work even with politicians who drank as long they kept others from doing so. He wiped out Ohio’s legislature and governor when they opposed the League. In 1909, Wheeler received help from the Motion Picture Industry by releasing Ten Nights In A Bar Room. It was the Uncle Tom’s Cabin of the Temperance movement. For half a century, the brewers had been holding their own against temperance forces. Their industry was now one of the largest in America, producing 900 million barrels of beer a year. In some years, taxes on alcohol comprised 70% of federal revenue. Busch fought back against the Saloon League by buying legislature officials. By 1913, thanks to the efforts of the Anti-Saloon League and the WCTU, eight more states passed Dry Acts. During that year, the 16th amendment was ratified, authorizing the Federal Government to impose an income tax. The Anti-Saloon League had helped bring it about by allying itself with progressives and populists who favored the redistribution of wealth. The government would no longer have to rely on alcohol to fund its operations.

On December 10, 1913, in DC, a mass march representing the WCTU, and members of the Anti-Saloon League. If the march was a success, the prohibition of alcohol would be enshrined in the Constitution forever. The same day, it was introduced into the House and Senate. By the time WW1 came, it set off a hysteria due to American ships being sunk by U-Boats. The atmosphere was a disaster for the brewers. Congress passed a temporally war ban on the sale of alcohol. On January 16th 1919, Congress passed the 18th amendment. It would go into effect one year later. While the Temperance Leaders celebrated victory, six masked bandits emptied two freight cars of whiskey and another gang stole 4 casks of grain alcohol from a government warehouse. Making prohibition the law is one thing but enforcing it is another.