History of Prohibition in America

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5/1/1919; Archbishop Redwood Asserts Prohibition Will Encourage Perjury, Deception, Lawlessness, Sympathy with the Drunkard

8/21/1919; Mrs. Forsyth States Prohibition Results in Less Illiteracy, Better Morals, More Prosperity, Less Race Riots

10/14/1919, The Case for Prohibition

12/13/1919, The Poisonous Qualities of Spirits when Used to Excess, Why Do Men Drink?

1/8/1920, The Intemperance of Prohibition

1/16/1920, Brisbane, Sept. 24, 1919; The Benefits of Converting from Booze to Wealth Production

1/22/1920, America Goes Dry

1/24/1920, Letter Writer Believes Representatives of Drink Trade Planting Cheap Propaganda Against Prohibition

1/26/1920, Concert Celebrates Constitutional Prohibition

2/7/1920, Should England Follow Example of America & Become Sober?

2/14/1920; Australian, After Visiting America, Says Country Is So Dry He Forgot What Whiskey Tastes Like, but His Health Still OK

2/19/1920, Prohibition Supported by Those with Children Who May Be Eventually Exposed to the Temptation of Strong Drink

3/12/1920, Rejection of Prohibition in Poll New Zealanders Upsets Smugness of "Cold Water" Brigade

3/19/1920; Prohibition, the Middle View

3/30/1920; Mrs. Wheeler Points Out that Prohibition Harms Undertakers, Insane Asylums, & Divorce & Criminal Courts

4/23/1920; "Dry" Regime Reduced Prostitution 68%, Disorderly Conduct 53%, Murder 54%, Robbery 52%, Begging 76%, Assault 55%

4/30/1920, Money Always Beats Prohibition

5/1/1920; Mrs. Eva C. Wheeler, Lecturer from U.S., Addresses Audience in Roma, Australia, in Favor of Prohibition

6/30/1920, Vermont Drug Stores Sell 3,250,000 Doses of Opium Patent Medicines Every Month, 1.5 Doses Daily per Adult

7/16/1920, Temperance Is Self Imposed & Self Enforced, Prohibition Is Imposed by Others & Enforced by Policemen

7/21/1920, Queensland to Vote Yes or No on Total Prohibition

9/11/1920, Miss Grant Lectures for Prohibition, Claims Hotels Got Men Passed-Out Drunk, Who Woke Up Enlisted in Army

9/27/1920, The Mechanics of Passing the Prohibition Amendment

10/7/1920; Professor Warns G.B. Against Prohibition; Will Result in Spies, Parasites, Thugs Selling Abominable Liquor in Alleys

10/7/1920; A Sober Fact, the Working Man is Being Sacrificed for the Sake of the Leisure Hours of the Intellectual Classes

11/6/1920; Enforcing the Prohibition Laws, America's Extraordinary Experience

11/19/1920; Mrs. Forsythe Admits Temperance Work Not Popular, but Prohibition Is Only Thing That Will Increase Efficiency

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1/6/1921, Prohibition Equals More Raisins for California

2/11/1921, The Safety of Many Rest in the Hands of the Few in the "Age of Machinery" When Many Accidents Attributable to Drink

2/19/1921, Prohibitionist Declares 17,000 Children in New South Wales Require State Assistance Due to Victims of Intemperance

3/14/1921; Orator & Renowned Prohibition Advocate Asserts Drink Is Strong Enough to Drag Down Strongest Man & Purest Woman

4/12/1921; Federal Prohibition in the United States Is Doomed to Abandonment, According to Pro-Continuance Editorial in Perth

4/20/1921; No Leading U.S. Statesman, Politician, or Businessman, or Leader of Labor, Has Asked for a Repeal of Prohibition

4/22/1921; If Heroin & Cocaine Addiction Increase, the Effect of the Intent to Destroy Alcoholism Will be Worse than Prohibition

4/24/1921; Alcohol, if Used Properly, Liberates Energy & Stimulates the Brain, Moslems Abandoned Alcohol & Fell into Stagnation

5/12/1921; Prohibition Results in Lower Mortality, Tuberculosis, V.D., Insanity, Crime, Ignorance, Poverty, & Destitution Rates

6/17/1921; France, Spain, & Italy in a State of Degeneracy Due to Wine; Gentlemen Drink Wine, but Gentlemen Also Held Slaves

7/27/1921; Prohibition Increases Law-Breakers Who Don't Consider Themselves Law-Breakers, but Run the Risk of Being Poisoned

8/10/1921, Businessmen & Labor Agree on the Overwhelming Evidence in Favor of Prohibition, Wine Ok for Sacramental Purposes

9/10/1921; The 18th Amendment Benefits Those Who Ceased to Drink, but Inferior Brands Result in Increasing Alcohol Insanity

9/16/1921; Great Prohibition Tide Sweeping Across the World, S. America, Scandinavia, Arabia, Bolsheviks, Catholics, Japan, Etc.

10/4/1921, Is Prohibition in the U.S. Proving a Successful Experiment or Is It Producing a Host of New Evils?

10/25/1921; Australian Prohibitionist Travels to U.S., Finds Only Two Drunks; 26 Governors Tell Him Prohibition Successful

10/26/1921, Ex-Senator Says Czar of Russia Saw the Evil of Vodka & Banned It, Even the Bolsheviks Have Exercised Prohibition

11/2/1921, Fourth Amendment Inhibits Enforcement of 18th Amendment, Bootlegger Profits Estimated to Be $500,000,000

11/9/1921; In Poll of 54 City Police Chiefs in U.S., Arrests for Drunkenness Has Fallen From 372,497 in 1917 to 141,071 in 1920

12/23/1921; California Grape Industry; Prospects for Marketing the 1920 Wine Grape Crop; Grape Syrup, a Logical Solution

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1/7/1922, Soft-Drink Establishment Raided by Prohibition Agents for Third Time in One Month

2/11/1922, One Prohibition Agent Suspended for Fraud & One Agent Arrested for Assault During Raid

2/20/1922, Two British Parliamentary Prohibition Investigators Visiting U.S. Declare it a "Bootleggers Paradise"

2/25/1922, Courts Congested with Bootleg Cases Awaiting Trial, Some Offenders Arrested Several Times Before Being Tried

3/11/1922, Samuel F. Rutter Appointed Federal Prohibition Director with Instructions to "Make California Dry"

4/6/1922; Churchman, Dr. Blakeslee, 76, Who Witnessed Lincoln's Last Speech, Believes 18th Amendment Will Never Be Repealed

5/16/1922, Temperance Advocate Quotes Henry Ford Who Said Alcohol Was a Good Thing for Engines, but Bad for Engineers

6/2/1922, Drink More Dangerous to Britain than Germany in the Great War, Salvation Army Derelicts Down 75% from 19,500

6/7/1922, Banning of the Drink Evil in America Resulted in a Wonderful Acceleration of Happiness, Children Now Have Boots

6/13/1922; Australian Traveler to U.S. Gives Up Booze Due to Prohibition, but then Finds Hip Flasks as Common as Cigarettes

6/17/1922; Prohibition Results in More Available Hospital Beds, Less Babies to Adopt, Decreased Death Rates, Less Tuberculosis

7/14/1922; Prohibition a Farce; Has not Prohibited, nor Has it Lessened the Misory & Crime Attributed to "Booze"

8/7/1922, Québec Tax Collectors Get Windfall Revenues from U.S. Prohibition, West Virginia Moonshine Profits Increase

9/2/1922, Prohibition Converts Jails into Schools, Does Not Permit Families to Buy Diamonds for Girlfriends of Drinksellers

9/4/1922; Before Prohibition, Drink Resulted in Accidents on Railways & in Industrial Centers & Near Extermination of Red Indians

10/19/1922; Australian Temperance Council Obtains Abstinence Pledges, Endorses Political Candidates, Distributes Free Leaflets

10/21/1922; Inferior Whiskey, Hi Prices, Being Vouched for, & the Necessity of Making Strange Signals not Worth It in Chicago

10/21/1922; Presbyterian Church Gains 89,000 Members Due to Prohibition, Baptists 120,000, Methodists 237,000

10/27/1922, Chicago Prosecutor Believes Less Cases Due to Closing of Saloons, In 15 Years Prohibition Will Be Seen as Blessing

11/9/1922, Wine Served from Teapot, Falling Dish Signals Raid imminent, Undercover Agent "Izzy" Makes 800 Arrests in N.Y.C.

12/18/1922, American Authorities Want Right to Board Foreign Ships in U.S. Territorial Waters & Seize Stocks of Liquor

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1/2/1923, Temperance Leaders in Australia Encouraged by America's Success in Prohibition Experiment

1/2/1923, Nine Persons Shot & Killed in Rows Arising from Christmas Festivities, Eight Deaths Reported from Wood Alchohol

1/3/1923, Seventy Arrests in N.Y.C. Made for Prohibition Violations During New Year Celebrations, 170 Arrested in Washington

1/3/1923; Substituting Wood Alcohol for Liquor Results in Eight Deaths on Christmas, but Less Court Cases from Drunkenness

1/5/1923; Prohibition in Chicago Results in Immense Fortunes for Scoundrels, Increased Insanity from Wood Alcohol

1/5/1923, Republican Senator Saxe Declares Volstead (Prohibition) Act a Joke, Judges Beginning to Disregard Volstead Act

1/8/1923, Australian Temperance Observers Returning from U.S. Say Working Class Benefiting from Prohibition More than Rich

1/9/1923, Another Traveler Returning to Australia Believes Prohibition a Total Failure in U.S., More Drunks Now than Before

1/10/1923, Prohibition Resulted from 100 Years of Agitation by Women; Breweries & Saloons Blamed on Germans & Irish

1/11/1923, Congress Failed to Foresee Results of Prohibition, Churches Not Being Filled, Bribery on Colossal Scale

1/11/1923, Liquor Traffic: Banishment vs. Limited Hours; America Has Gone All the Way Dry Except for Lawbreakers

1/12/1923, Inhabitants of Remote Island Free of Alcohol Found to Live Longer While Free from Disease & Epidemics

1/12/1923, Should Foreign Ships in U.S.A. Ports Be Alcohol Free or Forced to Lock Up Intoxicants?

1/13/1923, Prohibition in U.S. Resulting in Enormous Expense in Enforcement with Less Tax Revenue, Foreign Ships Profit

1/16/1923, Prohibitionist Who Defeated Winston Churchill in General Elections Arouses Interest in England

1/16/1923, Emissaries for Liquor Trade Claim Prohibition Is Total Failure; Prohibitionists Believe U.S. Never So Strong

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[YM]

From today's point of view, Prohibition was one of the most bizarre attempts at social engineering in American history. How could people sincerely believe that such a deeply rooted cultural phenomenon as enjoying alcoholic beverages could be uprooted by passing a law. The current craze of legalizing marijuana and "soft drugs' doesn't compare because they have always been illegal (see the film "Fahrenheit 451" to see how drug legalization suits the ruling cliques since it encourages passivity).
Drunkenness was a major problem in the US which lead to the decades-long efforts by the Temperance movement to bring about Prohibition. Interestingly enough, it was considered a feminist issue, since women suffered the most from the effects of alcoholism with problems such as the man of the family taking his weekly pay down to the local tavern at the end of the week and drinking away the family's income, or violence in the home from a drunken husband and father.
Prohibition had a lot of support and Franklin Roosevelt, when he ran for President in 1932 tried to avoid defining himself as either "wet" or "dry" although he did move to repeal Prohibition when he assumed office.
Still, it is hard to imagine how the proponents of Prohibition could think they could, with the wave of the hand, uproot the widespread love of alcoholic beverages.

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For the most part it was because they believed they had God on their side. Most temperance movements were associated with churches.

For a vigorous rebuttal to these movements see the opening sequence of "The Wild Bunch."

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It's easy to understand why the laws were passed. Baby sitting alcoholics is not fun. ... Nuisance alcoholics should be sent to the work farm for 30 days. Let 'em dry out and get some useful production out of 'em. ... It's interesting to see who foresaw the problems of prohibition without the benefit of hindsight. ... Alcohol amplifies one's personality. If one is truly a nice person, they'll be a happy drunk. It they're a born jerk, they'll be an arrogant drunk. ... Stalin plied his closest advisors with alcohol, getting them as drunk as possible so as to test their true personalities. He looked for total loyalty first and documented all other indiscretions (such as corruption or deviant behavior) in case someone needed to be purged for disloyal thoughts.

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