COOPERSTOWN —
I was an American history major in college and one topic that my professors never discussed was prohibition.
This ``oversight’’ occurred in spite of the fact I took several intensive classes on 20th century America, and my senior thesis class focused on issues from 1890-1940. After reading Daniel Okrent’s new book, ``Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition,’’ it’s hard to understand how the subject could have been so consistently ignored.
One commentator has referred to the book as the authoritative work on prohibition. It’s probably true. I doubt another title has looked as in-depth into the topic as this one. But why is a mystery to me. After reading Okrent’s work I not only found an overlooked piece of American history but one that provides valuable object lessons into the way our nation’s politicians make decisions today.
For those of you not familiar with it (and considering how it’s glossed over in history classes, that’s very likely) prohibition was passed as the 18th Amendment to the Constitution in 1919. Its passage basically banned the drinking of alcoholic beverages except for medicinal and religious purposes.
If you find it hard to believe in this day and ageof over-hyped wine and beer commercials that prohibition could have actually existed you also won’t be surprised to find out it was a colossal failure. In 1933 it was repealed by the 21st Amendment. The story of how prohibition managed to pass in the first place, how difficult it was to enforce once it was enacted, and how it managed to be repealed after 14 years is a fascinating one.
One thing that stands out in the 50 years that prohibitionists fought to have an amendment was their unusual coalition of supporters.
Progressives who saw it as a sin and vice were joined by suffragettes, racists, and nativists. Women pushing for the right to vote were tired of having to deal with husbands who would come home drunk after work.
Southern whites stereotyped former slaves as drunks who raped white women (the Ku Klux Klan were avid supporters of prohibition). And nativists who hated Irish and German immigrants saw those people as drunks who debased society.
The common theme is ``drunk.’’ There is no question that there was a huge increase in the number of saloons and drinking establishments around the country as the 19th century wore on. Still, the movement to ban alcohol seemed overwhelming because it takes two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states to pass a constitutional amendment. But as we see today clever political maneuverings can overcome what seems like long odds.
One thing that helped the ``dry’’ movement was that there were four constitutional amendments passed during the second decade of the 20th Century. The direct election of senators, the federal income tax, and women’s suffrage all led up to the passage of prohibition. For example, suffragettes and ``dry’’ advocates represented a common coalition. Employers also supported it as a way to keep their workers from coming to work intoxicated.
Of course, what works in theory doesn’t necessarily work in practice. When enough people want something they often find ways to get it whether it’s illegal or not. Just look at prostitution and drug use today. The passage of prohibition opened up a black market that enterprising entrepreneurs learned how to exploit. It also led to the rise of organized crime. Not only was there a huge market for illegal booze but there was no tax on it either.
Recent studies indicate that prohibition cut alcohol consumption by 30 percent in the U.S.
That doesn’t sound bad until you realize that the whole idea was to reduce it by 100%. A .300 batting average is pretty good in baseball but not with a constitutional amendment.
Enforcement of prohibition became something of a joke in many cases. When Al Smith became governor of New York he pushed through a law that banned state funding to enforce it. Saloons and ``speakeasies’’ in New York City operated openly in many cases.
The ``wets’’ started to shift the momentum towards repeal in the mid-20s. They were led by several corporate chieftains who despised the dry movement.
As conservatives they hated the federal income tax and corporate tax and thought re-establishing legalized alcohol and taxing it would undo the need for the other duties.
The Great Depression also helped the cause as the federal government needed the tax revenue that repealing prohibition would bring.
There are many lessons to be learned from the experience of the 18th Amendment and its eventual repeal. For one thing, politics and the manipulation of the federal system have gone on throughout our history and aren’t new phenomena.
There were just as many politicians back then who talked out of both sides of their mouth and weren’t as ``moral’’ as they claimed to be (Sound familiar?).
Also, taking away individual rights often brings about a backlash that makes enforcement difficult and opens up a black market.
And the experience may present a template on how to deal with such current issues as the war on drugs.
Prohibition was passed mainly because it was considered immoral and dragging down society. Its failure provides a life lesson in how not to deal with a societal ill. It’s a shame that our U.S. history curriculum tends to gloss over it. It’s an important and fascinating part of our history. Okrent’s work isn’t perfect.
It reads like a textbook at times, and at one point he digresses into an impassioned but unnecessary defense of Joe Kennedy who was commonly suspected of being a bootlegger. But those are minor flaws. There is so much valuable information here. It should be considered a must read.
DAVID KENT is the Cooperstown Village Librarian.
Columns
Book Notes: Prohibition should not be ignored
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From Fly Creek: For help with the smug
I’ve been having much fun lately, friends, writing a short book called “Saints for Special Needs,” completely fictional characters whomight get us thinking about humanity—and ourselves, in particular. Here’s a sample. Let me know your reaction. (Oh, and I have a fine cartoonist to illustrate the book!) [Almost every culture has a place for “the wise fool,” the vacant sort of person who, in fact, has a witty and trenchant view of humanity, and may even see into its future.]
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In These Otsego Hills: Still more from 1986
Early August found us asking the question, “Does anyone know when Edgewater was builtand by whom?” The answer, much of which came from Ralph Birdsall’s history of the village, appeared in the Aug. 13 column as follows:
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In These Otsego Hills: Continuing on from 1986 ...
We continue this week by answering the question we asked if anyone remembers the old Cooperstown National Bank? On May 13, we wrote: “Martha Dickison, Delaware Street, called to tell us about the Cooperstown National Bank where she worked at her first ‘real job’ after her graduation from school.
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Up On Hawthorn Hill: Spring inventions
The second line of Lawrence Durrell’s novel “Justine” reads as follows: “In the midst of winter you can feel the inventions of Spring.” I first read all four novels of his magnificent Alexandria Quartet during the year I traveled from Saigon to Paris after working in Vietnam for a refugee organization for several years.
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From Fly Creek: Revving up for spring
Time to bring you up to date on Fly Creek’s happy clambering into Spring. First, the eatery scene. “Is Jerry’s open yet?” The answer is, “Oh, yes!” The porches are freshly stained; the lawns a uniform green, and the hop vines are already climbing the posts on the covered side deck. Blue and I went up there to lunch earlier this week, and I celebrated spring with my traditional bacon, onion and Swiss cheese hamburger. We two sat on the deck, enjoying the broad view and some spectacular clouds marching across, up toward Schuyler Lake.
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In These Otsego Hills: More from 1986 ...
This week we continue with the discussion of telephone service from the pre-dial days. On March 12 we noted that: “No one has yet produced a telephone directory from pre-dial days, but Doug Preston of New Hartford recalls that some business (which one?) in the village had the phone number 7.”
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Home Notes: Celebrations abound at the Thanksgiving Home
April was a month of celebrations and much to appreciate. We had a 90th birthday celebration for Wanda Noyes on April 4 including her family and friends. Personal care staff Dee Bouck worked with residents to hand paint Easter eggs for the tree in the activity room.
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In These Otsego Hills: 1986 continues ...
This week we continue our journey through the columns of 1986 with the answer to the question “for whom, according to tradition, was Hannah’s Hill named?”
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Book Notes: Baseball book features local contributors
Baseball is part of the nation’s fabric. Most kids have a memory of the game either from playing Little League, attending a major league contest or meeting a favorite player. In Cooperstown that feeling is magnified since we are the official home of baseball. We get to see firsthand what has made the sport the national pastime.
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From Fly Creek: Ya really wanna know?
SETTING: Fly Creek General Store. CAST: Assorted seated geezers, drinking coffee. [Door opens, enter heavy-set geezer; walking slowly with wide stance, maybe prostatitis.]
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In These Otsego Hills: Returning to 1986 ...
For the past several years now we have undertaken sharing some of the area’s oral history we have collected over the years that we have written this column. Therefore, this year, we would like to go back to 1986 to share that rather unusual year. Those who were here then no doubt remember that it was that year that the village celebrated the bicentennial of its founding.
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From Fly Creek: For reasons unknowable
[Jim’s reached back to 2002 to share one of his favorite columns.] My father was born as the last century began into a river village in tidewater Maryland. He told me once of a man there in his boyhood who, like so many, made a thin living tonging for oysters in the cold months and, in the hot and humid ones, crabbing and raising vegetables.
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In These Otsego Hills: CCS balancing act ... side two
Last week we shared a number of activities in which students at CCS can participate. We thought it was an impressive, if not overwhelming, list. And we are indeed pleased that the young people of our area have these opportunities. However, we think it is also important to keep in mind that these undertakings do have a cost associated with them. They are not free. In fact there are, no doubt, those who would say they do not come cheap.
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From Fly Creek: A graceful crowd
Make of this what you will, friends. I feel I’m really meant to share it with you. Despite good medication for my Parkinsonism, every four or five weeks I can sensethe symptoms building up on me, giving me more than ordinary trouble. Lately it’s been falls, and last week brought a typical one. I’d gone out to get the paper, moving along with penguin steps on the snowcoved ice patches, and usingmy spike-tipped cane the waya climber uses an ice axe. But circumstances overcame me. Parkinson’s wipes out the possibility of multi-tasking.
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In These Otsego Hills: This and that and the other side ...
We note that the CCS Class of 2012 is presenting its senior class play, “Snow White” by Tim Kelly, this week with performances 7:30 p.m Thursday and Friday, March 29 and 30, and at 11 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 31. All performances will be at the Nicolas J. Sterling Auditorium at the Middle/High School.
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In These Otsego Hills: That green thing ...
Of late we have noticed that our email inbox has been much busier than usual. In fact, we find ourselves hard pressed to keep up with all the various messages we receive. As a result we suspect we have not answered some in as timely a fashion as might be thought appropriate.
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From Fly Creek: What you need to know
In their last Sunday’s bulletins, all 84 churches of Otsego County were to have carried announcements of an important meeting; most of them did. But because the announcement is so important, and not just to the churched, here it is again.
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Book Notes: Living the magic of ‘Hoosier’
A lot of people consider “Hoosiers” the best sports film of all time. The 1986 classic follows the exploits of a fictional small town Indiana high school basketball team in 1952 as it attempts to achieve the impossible dream of a state championship. The story is inspired by the true life achievement of the 1954 Milan team, who with an enrollment of only 161 students shocked big city power Muncie Central on a last second shot to win the state title. It’s the kind of sports story that represents something that is hard to grasp unless you live in a small town.
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In These Otsego Hills: The most perfect village... home to heavy industry?
We suspect we would get a whole lot more accomplished if we spent less time thinking, pondering and musing about things. In fact, there is a good possibility we might actually have completed our goal of cleaning the basement if we only focused on the task at hand, instead of trying to figure out the world around us. It almost makes us wonder if it is possible to think too much about things. We certainly hope not because should that be the case, we are in deep trouble.
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Up On Hawthorn Hill: The past in the present
Clichés abound about the value of photographs. Most are probably true at least to a certain extent. What I do know about an image is that it represents something of the past that is not the pastitself. But that is the power of any image. It represents something that once was. The beauty of an image, revisited, is that it functions as a catalystfor reliving in the present a past experience. My own view, one that I thank the Spanish writer Jorge Luis Borges for, is that all we ever can experience is the present.
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From Fly Creek: For help with the smug
