If we want to understand the change in any society, we have to turn the clock back a little. In American society today, wine and liquor may be seen as normal beverages like other food items, but if we go into history, we get a lot of interesting information. Can anyone imagine today that there was a ban on alcohol in America, and that too not for a month or two, but for 13 years. During that time, such a war was waged in American society against the prevalence of alcohol that anyone’s heart would tremble after knowing its truths.
It was the year 1920. Two years had passed since the end of the First World War. Even though America was not involved in the First World War, industrialization was growing rapidly and America was manufacturing vehicles and weapons and supplying them to the European countries involved in the war. As income increased, factories in the country also started increasing but conflicts in the society were increasing. On one side were feudal lords and on the other African slaves, on one side were Catholic Christians and on the other were Protestants, on one side were rich industrialists and on the other were factory workers… Prosperity was increasing and so was social conflict. Meanwhile, President Woodrow Wilson announced prohibition of liquor in the entire America on 17 January 1920. This decision caused panic among the public. On the other hand, the illegal liquor business got a chance to flourish. The illegal business that gave immense wealth gave birth to another power center, the mafia, which started seeing itself as a power center to control the society.
How did the campaign for prohibition of liquor start?
To understand the history of the spread of alcohol in American society, we have to go back even further to the time when the British ruled there. The Irish and Germans who followed the British to America were known for making alcohol, but the drinkers were the local Americans. Large barrels of beer started coming to America from Europe and whether it was the farm workers or the factory workers, everyone started drinking to their heart’s content. During the time when George Washington was fighting for America’s independence, every soldier got a ration of half a glass of rum or whiskey every day. Even doctors started writing the dose of alcohol in the prescription, farm workers kept barrels of beer outside their houses so that they could fill a mug and drink it as soon as they returned. Fishermen would also sell illegal alcohol by hiding it in their shoes and then the word bootlegger was born.
Cold Water Army launched
While there was protest against slavery in America, voices were also raised against the practice of alcohol. A wave started spreading that this is not our American culture, it has been brought by outsiders. This was started by a group called ‘Washingtonian’. They performed a street play – ‘Ten Nights in a Bar-Room’. In which a girl comes to call her drunken father home, and she herself gets drunk and falls down. Later a film was also made on this. Now people in society sit together and share their bad experiences of drinking alcohol. This concept was adopted by the group ‘Alcohol Anonymous’. Even school children formed an anti-alcohol group which was named – Cold Water Army.
Women’s anti-alcohol satyagraha
The most important of these was the Satyagraha of women. In the American society of that time, women used to do household chores only. Children were also 7-8 years old, women had no say in politics either. Husbands were lying drunk in bars and wives were handling the responsibilities of children and home. This was increasing conflicts in ordinary households. Women like Eliza John Thomson and St. Frances Willard started a big campaign against alcohol. They used to sit in front of liquor shops and pray. Groups of women started doing this Satyagraha in every city. Information about the ill effects of alcohol was printed even in children’s books. Many of these women were attacked and some were caught and made to drink alcohol.
Violent protests
The number of liquor shops in the country kept on increasing. By the beginning of the twentieth century, three lakh legal and lakhs of illegal liquor shops had opened in America. People used to hold business meetings in liquor shops and discussions used to take place. Bar tenders used to deliberately add more salt in the food so that people would drink a lot of beer. Satyagraha against liquor was becoming violent. A middle-aged woman named Carrie Nation used to go out with an axe in one hand and break all the bottles and glasses after entering the bar. She was put in jail but as soon as she was released, she would go out again with an axe. Seeing her, many other women also started vandalizing the bars with axes.
Then came the liquor ban law…
The government earned a lot of money from liquor. It was the fifth largest industry in America. Liquor kingpins even started claiming that they had many senators in their pockets. When the pressure for prohibition increased, the government thought of increasing taxes and banning liquor. Capitalists like Henry Ford and Carnegie supported prohibition because the workers in their factories started getting drunk. The final blow came in the First World War when the Germans opened a front against America. Now the Americans stood up against German culture. German liquor shops started being demolished across America, German textbooks were burnt, German-Americans were attacked. When the campaign against German prohibition started, fronts were opened against other types of liquor as well. Thousands of women marched against liquor in Washington. Finally the political fraternity also decided to take a tough stand and prohibition was implemented through a law in the Parliament.
Woodrow Wilson’s government legalized it. The 18th Amendment passed the Senate in 1919 with a 68 percent supermajority. 46 of the 48 states ratified it. Certain types of alcohol, such as those needed for religious ceremonies and medical alcohol, were exempt. The law was enforced more strictly in many states. Drinking alcohol was not illegal during Prohibition, but the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquors was prohibited, not their consumption. According to the law, any wine, beer or spirits Americans had accumulated in January 1920 were theirs to keep and they could enjoy them in their homes.
‘Special’ discount spoiled the game!
For most people, it was just a few bottles, but some wealthy drinkers built huge wine cellars and even bought up liquor stores’ entire stocks to ensure they had enough stock of legal alcohol. Some states even refused to enforce Prohibition. Drug stores continued to sell alcohol as ‘medicine.’ However, people in many places took advantage of the exemption by doing strange things. While sacramental wine was still allowed for religious purposes, the number of suspicious rabbis and religious leaders suddenly increased. Drug stores were allowed to sell ‘medicinal whiskey’ to treat everything from toothache to the flu.
With a doctor’s prescription, ‘patients’ could legally buy a pint of hard liquor every 10 days. Despite the illegal trade, alcohol consumption decreased significantly in many places. According to a study done by economists from MIT and Boston University, alcohol consumption decreased by 70 percent during the early years of this period, but gradually the strictness in the states started to decrease and then alcohol consumption started to increase.
On the other hand, gangs selling liquor illegally became active. There was firing in Chicago. Mafia godfathers like Al Capone and John Torrio emerged who started meddling in politics after earning huge money from the liquor business. At the same time, the economic depression brought America to its knees. Industries were ruined. Factory workers became unemployed. Americans were restless to deal with the economic depression. When Roosevelt took power in place of President Hoover, it was announced that prohibition would be abolished.
The Great Depression opened the way for a return to alcohol!
By the late 1920s, Americans were spending more money than ever on black-market alcohol. New York City had more than 30,000 speakeasies, and Detroit’s liquor trade was second only to the auto industry in its contribution to the economy. As the country plunged into the Great Depression, anti-Prohibition activists argued that the potential savings and tax revenue from alcohol could not be ignored. The public agreed.
Franklin D. Roosevelt won the election by a landslide after he called for the repeal of prohibition during the 1932 presidential campaign. The ban ended a year later when a majority of states ratified the 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th Amendment. In New Orleans, the decision was honored with 20 minutes of celebratory cannon fire. Roosevelt is believed to have celebrated the occasion by drinking a dirty martini. And thus ended the 13-year era of prohibition in the US.
However, after so many decades, there is no talk of alcohol ban in America, but many local governments have imposed a limited ban or at least have implemented health control on the sale and manufacture. In 2014, a survey by American news agency CNN revealed that 18 percent of Americans believe that drinking alcohol should be banned.