Prohibition: A Short Summary
I don't purport to be an expert on the subject, I just did some reading and watched a couple of multi-episode documentaries. Here's a bunch of colorized photographs from the era.
Prohibition--from which I got most of my information from Ken Burn's documentary. I had meant to post all of this weeks ago to coincide with the 81st anniversary of repeal, but a sudden departure of a manager left the traffic department shorthanded, and only I had the knowlege to pick up the slack until a new person could be hired.
American Prohibition had its roots early in the previous century. In colonial and early federal days, people drank alcohol daily, but at a very low percentage, about 2%. Different brewing techiniques brought about higher percentages of alcohol and also made hard liquors more common. But, the culture of daily drinking did not change with the new products. By 1820, preachers were already cautioning against the evils of alcohol.
Women were the biggest activists against alcohol. By the mid- and late 19th century, there had been several female-based revolts against alcohol and the local saloons, many of which were owned by breweries. The saloon was not the tavern of colonial days, which had been a respectable center of the community. It was now a male-only atmosphere where a man might blow his paycheck on getting wasted. Women, who had absolutely no rights, depended on those earnings, as did any children the pair might have. A man's trip to the saloon after work might very well result in having no food for the week. Rather than blame the stupid lout who just wasted money on himself, women went to blame the saloons and alcohol for their troubles. A classic case of "hate the sin, not the sinner." Men joined in, later, with their separate temperance groups, but women remained at the forefront.
Anti-alcohol proponents were also generally, rural, xenophobic white people. Immigration and technology was changing their world, and they didn't like it. They harbored a distrust of people living in the cities, especially those new Catholic and Jewish immigrants whose customs seemed strange. Even the Germans immigrants, some who made themselves wealthy off brewing beer, were considered suspect. To use a modern analogy, it's not unlike what you would hear in your average country song: I'm a good American because I'm real and farm and live in a small town. Not that it's a false statment, it's just a narrowminded and arrogant one.
By the 1910s, the temperance movement was in full swing, and some states already had their own prohibitions laws. US involvement in WWI helped move things along more quickly than expected. Prohibition supports made their case that grains to produce alcohol were being wasted, and should be made into bread to feed the troops. The income tax, created in 1913, brought in enough revenue to support the government, alcohol was supposedly not needed for tax revenue anymore. Signed by the last state in December 1918, ratified into law the following month, Prohbition was to take affect January 1920. The year gave time for businesses to create new game plans, and sell off their stock to those who could afford to stock up. One New York club uncannily bought enough booze to last them 14 years.
For those in the rural areas, life remained the same. For the populated areas, new ways to get booze popped up. Speakeasies--crammed, hot, hidden places with all walks of life having a swig. Crime also went up, with Italian, Jewish, and Irish mafias taking advantage of alcohol being illegal to finally give themselves the good life that had been denied to them for decades. Innocent people died in shootouts with government officials. It was not the utopia temperance movement folks had envisioned.
But, it was the first time women could drink publically. Saloons had been open only to men (and prostitutes), but everyday gals could go to speakeasies. It was also the first time since the reveloution that ordinary citizens flouted the law. There's a great number of photos where the new tubular fashions were used to smuggle alcohol. A woman wears a contraption with pockets around her waist filled with bottles. There is, of course, the image of the flask in the garter.
In the end, it was also women who helped bring back the fall of prohibition. Before, it had been because dependant women were tired of suffering because their menfolk drank away paychecks. During, it was because some women thought about how stupid it was to ban a substance, a substance some of them even enjoyed. It was mostly wealthy women behind this, who also disliked the extreme hypocrisy of "dry" politicians coming to dinner parties and expecting champagne.
Then, the crash of 1929. 25% unemployment meant the government wasn't making as much money off of income tax. People were unhappy with prohibition anyway, and it hadn't done much good in the end. Motions were made to repeal by April 1933, and by December, it was abolished. New Year's 1934 must have been helluva party.
Prohibition took 13 months to pass, and only 7 to repeal in the end.
This is just the bare bones. If you want to learn more, I highly recommend Ken Burn's 2011 documentary, available on Netflix.