The Dark Side of the Roaring Twenties: Prohibition Slideshow by Sharon Rounds Hoover Library McElroy Project

The Dark Side of the Roaring Twenties: Prohibition

Slideshow by Sharon Rounds

Hoover Library McElroy Project

Prohibition

• The banning of the manufacture, sale, and possession of alcoholic beverages

For Prohibition

• Anti-Saloon League of America– One-issue lobbying group– Slogan was “agitation, legislation, and law

enforcement”– Had branch offices in every state and most

large cities– Played key role in getting Congress to pass

legislation

Olson, James S. (1988). Historical dictionary of the 1920s: From World War I to the New Deal, 1919–1933. New York: Greenwood Press.

The Term “Dry”

• During the 1920s, the term “dry” came to refer to any individual who supported Prohibition and the Eighteenth Amendment as well as any restaurant or nightclub that honored the law

Clark, Norman H. (1976). Deliver us from evil: An Interpretation of American Prohibition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Against Prohibition• Association against the prohibition amendment

– Began meeting in 1918, but not formally organized until 1920

– Believed that prohibition was dangerous because it represented a centralizing force which destroyed state and local rights

Olson, James S. (1988). Historical dictionary of the 1920s: From World War I to the New Deal, 1919–1933. New York: Greenwood Press.

The Term “Wet”• Individuals who opposed Prohibition and

establishments that defied the law by serving alcohol were known as “wet”

Clark, Norman H. (1976). Deliver us from evil: An interpretation of American Prohibition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.

Hoover’s Stance as Food Administrator

• Advocated complete ban on brewing and distilling for beverage purposes during the war to save grain for more vital uses

• Lever Act – banned the production of whiskey and gin for the duration of the war

• Left it up to President Wilson to impose similar curbs on beer and wine

August 1917

• Hoover proposed that President Wilson establish a committee to determine “whether we should interfere with the brewing trade in any fashion”

• President Wilson instructed that “we had better leave the brewing trade alone until the situation develops more clearly”

Lever Act Creates Other Problems

• Became open invitation to the Prohibition lobby to pressure President Wilson to take drastic steps against beer and wine

• Mid-November: Hoover informed the White House that dry “agitation” for further action against alcohol under the Lever Act was so intense that some Americans were refusing to conserve food so long as other foodstuffs were going to the breweries

Problems

• Brewing industry consumed significant quantities of critically needed barley

• Brewing industry also tied up 15,000 cold-storage cars desperately needed for other purposes

• But, if federal government suppressed brewing of beer entirely, Hoover feared that it would anger the “laboring classes” and drive them to consume more wine and leftover whiskey

Solution for the Moment

• President Wilson issued an executive order to require brewers to cut the use of foodstuffs in beer production by 30% from 1917 levels and to reduce the alcohol content of beer to a maximum of 2.75%

• Breweries could manufacture the same volume of beer as before, but it would be weaker

• Hoover calculated that the restriction would save the country 18,000,000 bushels of grain in the coming year

Hoover’s Warning

• If the government now totally suppressed beer making, it would place the country on a “whiskey basis” with far worse moral effects

U.S. Food Administration. Press Releases #200-299, September 12 – October 9, 1917 to Press Releases, #700-799, February 25 – March 30, 1918, Box 11. Folder FA 2, Press Releases #400-499

May 1918

• America’s wheat reserves steadily dwindled• Hoover begged nationally for people to conserve

the precious grain• Hoover issued an appeal to be read in the

churches asking all who could to refrain from eating any wheat or wheat products whatsoever

May 21, 1918

• Representative Charles Randall of California introduced an amendment to a pending agricultural appropriations bill

• Amendment would forbid the spending of $6,100,000 until President Wilson issued a proclamation under the Lever Act prohibiting the use of foodstuffs in the production of beer and wine for the rest of the war

• The amendment was passed by the House of Representatives

Wilson’s Response

• The “wise and statesmanlike thing to do was to let the situation stand as it is for the present, until at any rate I shall be apprised by the Food Administration (Hoover) that it is necessary in the way suggested still further to conserve the supply of food and feedstuffs. (The Food Administration) has not thought it necessary to go any further than we have in that matter already gone.”

Nash, George H. (1996). The life of Herbert Hoover: Master of emergencies, 1917–1918. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum. (Call # E802, N37)

Food Administrator Hoover’s Response

• “If the American people want prohibition it should prohibit by legislation to that end and not force the Food Administration to the responsibility for an orgy of drunkenness… If the American people or Congress will stop the sale of distilled liquors, the Administration will find no difficulty in stopping brewing.”

U.S. Food Administration. Press Releases #800-899, March 30 – April 30, 1918 to Press Releases #1300–1400, November 12, 1918–April 1, 1919, Box 12. Folder FA, Press Releases #900–999)

The “Thorny Question” of Prohibition

• “I have taken the attitude from the beginning that my business was simply under the direction of the President to give administration to the Food Law, and that it was not my business to advocate either one way or the other, legislation for the furtherance of moral or economic questions - that this is solely the job of Congress.” - Herbert Hoover

Nash, George H. (1996). The life of Herbert Hoover: Master of emergencies, 1917-1918. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum. (Call #E802, N37)

18th Amendment

• Passed the House on December 18, 1917• Certified as ratified on January 16, 1919• Went into effect one year later on January 17,

1920

- Why one year later?

Wording of 18th Amendment

• Section 1: After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited

State Reactions to the Amendment

• Ratify: To approve and sanction formally• Iowa said yes on January 15, 1919• Rhode Island rejected the Amendment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Question to Secretary of Commerce

• Herbert Hoover asked by Senator Borah:“-Second – What is… your attitude toward the Amendment and its enforcement in case you are nominated and elected?” (asked in letter during 1928 presidential campaign)

Herbert Hoover Bible, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum, West Branch, Iowa

Response of Secretary of Commerce Hoover

• “I will, however, say again that I do not favor the repeal of the 18th Amendment. I stand, of course, for the efficient, vigorous and sincere enforcement of the laws enacted thereunder. Whoever is chosen President has under his oath the solemn duty to pursue this course.”

• “Our country has deliberately undertaken a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose. It must be worked out constructively.”

- Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover Bible, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum, West Branch, Iowa

Volstead Act

• Defined “intoxicating” beverages as any liquor having as much as 0.5 percent alcohol

• Established a Prohibition Bureau in the Treasury Department in 1919

• First Chief of Enforcement Division was John F. Kramer

Parrish, Michael E. (1994). Anxious decades: America in prosperity and depression, 1920-1941. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Copy available at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum, West Branch, IA.

Kramer’s Vow

• “…This law will be obeyed in cities, large and small, and in villages, and where it is not obeyed, it will be enforced…We shall see that it (liquor) is not manufactured …sold, nor given away, nor hauled in anything on the surface of the Earth or in the air.”


Problem!

• Agency was given only $2 million to achieve its goals

• Production of alcohol was still “legal” for industrial purposes

• Support of local governments needed to help with enforcement

Passing off the Problem of Enforcement

• Enforcement started as a division of the Treasury Department

• Passed off to the Department of Justice’s new Bureau of Prohibition on July 1, 1930

http://www.ttb.gov/about/history.shtml

http://www.hartlandhighschool.us/teachers/Kosla/Progressivism.htm


• EXCEPTION: The tax-related and regulatory activities, “the permissive provisions,” remained at the Treasury under a new Bureau of Industrial Alcohol




• Eliot Ness was the most illustrious enforcer, toppling Chicago’s organized-crime king Al Capone on tax evasion charges



Other Problems of Enforcement• New York and Wisconsin, along

with some other states, repealed all local laws that supplemented the Volstead Act

• Other states left enforcement and costs to Washington

• Inefficiency and bribery added more loopholes

• Many officials in charge of enforcement were “bought off” by criminals


Mayor William Hale “Big Bill the Builder” Thompson, Chicago,

Illinois• He was “as wet as the

middle of the Atlantic Ocean”

• He did not run for reelection in 1923 when it was found out that some of his closest political allies had stolen nearly $1 million in school funds

“Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not

cure or even diminish it.” - Mark Twain

• Americans cooked their own alcohol in homemade stills

• Smuggling across Canadian and Mexican borders could not be stopped

Sann, Paul. (1957). The Lawless Decade. New York: Crown Publishers. Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum.

“Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not

cure or even diminish it.” - Mark Twain

• Three successive White House administrations gave nothing but lip service to the Dry Cause (and wet lips at that in Harding’s case)

Sann, Paul. (1957). The Lawless Decade. New York: Crown Publishers. Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum.

Political Cartoon

“Two Points of View.” Political Cartoon. New York Tribune, Inc., 1930.

Just goes to show you how different perspectives can be when you look at things.

Court’s Reaction

• Gave nothing but small fines to offenders who got caught

• Jail sentences for Prohibition violators would have filled the prisons to overflowing

• There were not enough judges to hear cases, and quite a few were “paid off” by the bootleggers (i.e., the mob)

Reaction by John D. Rockefeller• “When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it

would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon, a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared, many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before.”Rockefeller, John D. [Letter on Prohibition]. In Okrent, Daniel. (2003). Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center, New York: Viking Press (pp. 246-247).

Even Dr. Seuss Got into the Debate

Prohibition is an awful flop.We like it

It can’t stop what it’s meant to stop.

We like itIt’s left a trail of graft and slime,It’s filled our land with vice and

crime,It don’t prohibit worth a dime,

Nevertheless we’re for it.http://www.albany.edu/~wm731882/media_during_prohibition_final.html

So, What Became of Prohibition?

• 1932 – Democratic party endorsed prohibition repeal in 1932 and adopted an amendment to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment on February 20, 1933

• Ratification was called for by the states in special conventions, rather than by state legislatures

• Ratification was completed on December 5, 1933

http://www.answers.com/topic/amendment-xxi-to-the-u-s-constitution

Documents

The Dark Side of the Roaring Twenties: Prohibition Slideshow by Sharon Rounds Hoover Library McElroy Project