PROHIBITION The Not-So-Noble Experiment

By Emily Hingle

It seems inconceivable now that Americans would be committing a crime just by drinking an alcoholic beverage. The 18th Amendment was fought for by people who felt that alcohol was the cause of immoral behavior for nearly a century. This constitutional victory ushered in an era that we may laugh about now, but it caused hardship, suffering, and even death.

Prohibition in America was championed as early as the 1600s. Colonists throughout what is today Maine and Massachusetts imposed rules and laws about the sale or consumption of liquor and wine. Temperance associations formed in some states in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and the informal groups grew into the American Temperance Society, founded in 1826. For the next several decades, people opposed to alcohol consumption referred to as “drys” championed laws that decreased the availability or outright banned alcohol.

Although drys were winning some victories, the Civil War halted their efforts. It was a few years after the end of the war when the temperance movement would regain steam with the founding of the Prohibition Party in 1869, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in 1874, and the Anti-Saloon League in 1893. Many states enacted their own laws limiting or banning alcohol due to pressure from temperance groups, but the laws varied widely.

World War I had begun by 1914, and this gave the drys an opportunity to complete their mission. The Wartime Prohibition Act was passed by Congress on November 18, 1918. It instituted a temporary ban on alcoholic beverages with an ABV of more than 1.28% in order to conserve grain. Just months later, Congress ratified the 18th Amendment on January 16, 1919, and it would go into effect on January 17, 1920.

Foreseeing issues with enforcement of the amendment, Congress passed the Anti-Saloon League’s bill, the National Prohibition Act (Volstead Act), on October 28, 1919, which defined “intoxicating liquors” as any beverage containing greater than 0.5% ABV, laid out fines and jail sentences for offenders, and imbued law enforcement with search and seizure abilities.

Louisiana was one of the few states with no alcohol prohibition laws on the books when the 18th Amendment was enacted. While some of the state’s populus was in favor of Prohibition, other citizens particularly in the southern part of the state were not. Governor Huey Long was asked by the mayor of Atlanta what he planned to

11:30am - 4:00am

Serving food until 4am Pizzas, Burgers, Hot Dogs, Sandwiches, Wings Over 100 Beers All Sports Packages Sixteen 65" TVs do about enforcement, and he responded, “Not a damn thing.” Members of the New Orleans City Council tried to get liquor declared food supplement to no avail.

Hardships began as soon as the last legal drink was sold. The financial difficulties of shutting down distilleries, breweries, and saloons were bad enough, but business owners were threatened with lawsuits if they didn’t pay their saloon tax for the remainder of the year, even though they were not allowed to sell alcohol.

The average citizen could easily find a drink, but the quality was questionable. As early as January 6, 1920, L'Abeille de la Nouvelle Orleans newspaper reported that people were drinking poisonous alcohol and dying or becoming blind. A headline in The Times Picayune from December 31, 1921 read “Orgy Unchecked by Morgue Toll of Poison Liquor.”

During the short life of the 18th Amendment, thousands of people members were jailed in New Orleans.

The New Orleans Police were not very interested or available to worry about “wets.” Federal agents were keen to make examples of drinkers here, as a 1924 report from the US Attorney General’s office said southern Louisiana was 90 percent wet. On August 11, 1925, 200 federal agents came to town with the task of finding as much liquor as possible. They found and destroyed more than 10,000 cases of liquor.

IRS agent Izzy Einstein made it his mission to expose the ease of obtaining drinks and to make arrests. He wanted to see how quickly he could get a drink in the cities that he visited on his nationwide tour. He arrived in New Orleans in 1923 and was able to find a beer in a mere 35 seconds. His cab driver was selling beer from under the seat. It was the fastest drink that Agent Einstein found.

By the end of the 1920s, support for Prohibition was waning. It was costly to died from drinking tainted liquor. The government mandated that industrial liquor should have toxic chemicals including quinine and methyl alcohol added to it to discourage people from drinking it.

Dr. Charles Norris, Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, stated on December 28, 1926, “The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol. It knows what the bootleggers are doing with it, and yet it continues its poisoning process, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States Government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes.”

Louisiana was in a position to import liquor via rum running from islands in the Caribbean, and it became a big business. The Coast Guard became aware of this activity and sought to end it no matter the cost. USCGC Dexter shelled and sunk a schooner named I’m Alone in the Gulf of Mexico in March 1929 that was carrying liquor from Belize. One of the eight crew members died, and the remaining crew enforce, and people were able to find or make alcohol anyway. There was a serious concern about death and injury due to imbibing tainted liquor, though some drys related that the victims brought it upon themselves. State taxes were way down because they weren’t collecting taxes on alcohol or on bars which led to infrastructure issues. The Great Depression had begun across the nation in 1929.

Presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt made a repeal of the 18th Amendment part of his platform. He won the presidency in 1932 over his rival Herbert Hoover, and the 21st Amendment was ratified by December 1933. Some states chose to keep certain anti-alcohol laws after that, but all states had ended total prohibition by 1966. Upon the repeal of the 18th Amendment, more than 900 retail beer permits were issued in New Orleans within a week.

The story of Prohibition is more than just a failed “noble experiment,” it’s a story about a contentious time in modern American history that exemplifies the consequences of legislating morality.