Amber Faber

Gustavo Ibarra
Life, Society & Drugs
November 10, 2016

Discussion 4: What did we learn from the Alcohol Prohibition?

The temperance movement is a social movement against the consumption of alcoholic

beverages. Temperance movements typically criticize excessive alcohol consumption, promote
complete abstinence (teetotalism), or use its political influence to press the government to enact
alcohol laws to regulate the availability of alcohol or even its complete prohibition. The
temperance movement was a significant mass movement at this time and encouraged a general
abstinence from the consumption of alcohol. A general movement to build alternatives to replace
the functions of public bars existed, so the Independent Order of Rechabites was formed in
England, with a branch later opening in America as a friendly society that did not hold meetings
in public bars; there was also a movement to introduce temperance fountains across the United
Statesto provide people with reliably safe drinking water rather than saloon alcohol -as well as
a variety of temperance halls and coffee palaces as replacements for bars. Numerous periodicals
devoted to temperance were also published and temperance theatre, which had started in the
1820s, became an important part of the American cultural landscape at this time.
In 1864 the Salvation Army was founded in London with a heavy emphasis on both
abstinence from alcohol and ministering to the working class, which led publicans to fund a

Skeleton Army to disrupt their meetings. The Salvation Army quickly spread internationally,
maintaining an emphasis on abstinence.
Although Prohibition is widely understood to have been a mistake, public officials seem
to be only now beginning to recognize its lessons for contemporary policy. In the case of alcohol
Prohibition, high-ranking officials cite issues with organized crime as urgent motivations for
reform. Just as with the modern War on Drugs, Prohibition predictably led to widespread
corruption. The criminal justice system came into contact with the vast sums of money the law
had made available to organized crime, and many politicians succumbed to the same type of
temptation. The Wickersham Commission, appointed by President Hoover, documented not only
the rise of organized crime and major corruption but widespread brutality among police at the
time.
The movement gained further traction during the First World War with the imposition of sharp
restrictions on the sale of alcohol in many combatant countries in order to preserve resources for
war use. In the UK the Liberal government passed the Defense of the Realm Act 1914 when pub
hours were licensed, beer was watered down and was subject to a penny a pint extra tax, and in
1916 a State Management Scheme meant that breweries and pubs in certain areas of Britain
where armaments were made were nationalized.