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Prohibitionist

Introduction

Temperance advocates also appealed to

corporate America. Henry Ford signed on to

literature warned

the cause after drys convinced him that the

From January 17, 1920, to December 5,

that alcohol could

saloons were sapping his workers' productiv-

1933, America experimented with the prohibi-

ity.8 The prohibitionists preached the evils of

trigger every

tion of alcohol. When the Eighteenth

Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1920,

alcohol from the pulpit, taught them in the

conceivable

it was the culmination of a well-funded, well-

schoolhouse, and filibustered from the state-

human malady,

organized, multifaceted anti-alcohol effort

house. When they needed a final push, some

that was more than 100 years in the making.

turned to ethnic demagoguery. The onset of

from dysentery to

Though the various organized temperance

World War I provided ample opportunity for

spontaneous

movements date back to well before the Civil

the drys to exploit stereotypes of hard-drink-

combustion.

War, the initial political success of prohibition

ing Germans and Italians to garner support

for a constitutional amendment.9

can largely be credited to the grassroots efforts

of two organizations, the Women's Christian

Prohibition itself, of course, was a cata-

Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon

strophic failure. It took about three years for

League.1 Those two organizations and their

a black market bootlegging industry to find

its footing, but by the mid-1920s Americans

supporters initially took their case for a dry

were drinking as much alcohol as they were

society to state and local governments,

immediately before the ratification of the

attempting to persuade cities, counties, and

Eighteenth Amendment.10 More people were

states to use more discretion in the licensing

of saloons.2 Some of those advocates called for

drinking and drinking more at each sitting,

and they were drinking dangerous liquor

higher taxes on beer, wine, and liquor (others

manufactured by amateurs who did not

didn't, because they viewed excise taxes as state

endorsement of alcohol).3 Others sought to

always know what they were doing.

Corruption ran rampant, from the most

ban alcohol near churches, schools, and public

provincial city and county law enforcement

buildings. That incremental approach to tem-

officials all the way up to the U.S. House of

perance won converts city by city, county by

Representatives, which housed its own stock

county. Federal prohibition might never have

of bootlegged liquor,11 and to the Department

happened without it. By 1900 a dry founda-

tion had been laid--nearly one in three

of Justice, where President Warren Harding's

Americans lived in a jurisdiction that prohibit-

attorney general, Harry Daugherty, became

ed alcohol.4 By 1913 that number jumped by

the administration's corrupt point man for

bootleggers.12 Many politicians blatantly sup-

half; nine states were entirely dry, and an addi-

tional 31 granted cities and counties the

ported prohibitionist policies while regularly

option of going dry on their own.5

imbibing themselves. The prohibition move-

ment was well aware of the duplicity but was

Those provincial legislative successes

willing to grant its most public supporters

came only after concerted efforts to win

immunity in exchange for needed political

hearts and minds to the dry cause. Here, too,

patronage.13

the prohibitionists employed a multifront

effort. They regularly invoked alcohol's dev-

Though temperance advocates often cited

astating effects on children--one of the

the plight of women and children in the cam-

WCTU's earliest victories was to compel pub-

paign for the Eighteenth Amendment, its

lic schools to teach the purportedly dire

enactment had the effect of introducing an

health consequences of regular alcohol con-

entire generation of American women to alco-

sumption.6 They used dubious science to

hol. More women drank during the 1920s

than ever before, and both men and women

support their cause--prohibitionist literature

began drinking at a younger age.14 By the mid-

warned that alcohol could trigger every con-

ceivable human malady, from dysentery to

1920s deaths, illnesses, and hospitalizations

spontaneous combustion.7

due to drinking soared, as more potent, less

2