Prohibition: A Cautionary Tale

Wednesday, January 13 2010. TAGS: society | law | prohibition

By THOMAS FLEMING

On Dec. 5, 1933, Americans liberated themselves from a legal nightmare called Prohibition by repealing the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Today most people think Prohibition was fueled by puritanical Protestants who believed drinking alcohol was a sin. But the vocal minority who made Prohibition law believed they were marching in the footsteps of the abolitionists who sponsored a civil war to end another moral evil—slavery.

At least as important was the belief that Prohibition would produce health and wealth. Yale economist Irving Fisher, the best-known economist in the nation in the early 20th century, predicted that a ban on alcohol would guarantee a 20% rise in industrial productivity. He cited "scientific" tests that proved alcohol diminished a worker's efficiency by as much as 30%.

Fisher and many other anti-alcohol proponents were fervent believers in eugenics, the science that preached humans could and should control the evolution of the race. His book, "How to Live: Rules for Healthful Living Based on Modern Science," was a best seller. Removing alcohol from the national diet was central to many eugenicists' belief that an invigorated America would eventually create a race of supermen and women.

The weapon of choice was the local option law by which a majority of voters could ban alcohol from a town, county or state. By 1900, 37 states had these laws and the machinery of petitions, letters, telegrams, parades and mass meetings was worked out. More than 20,000 Anti-Saloon League (ASL) speakers were preaching Prohibition in church halls and other public platforms around the country.

Soon whole states had banned alcohol. In 1907, Oklahoma entered the Union with a dry Constitution. In 1913, Congress passed a law banning the shipment of "intoxicating liquor of any kind" into dry states, making it impossible for individuals to buy a bottle of whiskey without travelling quite a distance to get it. Angry citizens and liquor industry spokesman appealed to the courts.

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