In the late 19th and early 20th century, Prohibition advocates made a variety of arguments. Limiting access to alcohol would reduce crime. It would increase respect for law and order. It would restore family unity and harmony. It would save the government money. It would make the country healthier and safer. After Prohibition became law in 1920, it turned out to have the opposite effect on all counts.
A historical exhibit at Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London gives a “spirited” telling of the story: what led to Prohibition, how it was passed and enforced, how it changed the country and what led to its repeal in 1933. The subject has special significance in New London. The Coast Guard was the one federal agency – all of them drastically underfunded – that was somewhat successful in enforcing the law, and Connecticut was one of only two states (the other being Rhode Island) to reject the 18th amendment.
“People didn’t quite realize the effect it would have until after the fact,” said Jane LeGrow, the director of exhibitions. “For example, people didn’t realize liquor was the fifth-largest national industry. It wiped out a giant part of the national economy. Taxes went down because it put people out of work.”
The exhibit is a traveling show from the National Endowment for the Humanities. LeGrow supplemented it with many items from the museum’s collection. These include pages of The Hartford Courant with stories about Prohibition enforcement, as well as artifacts illustrating how Prohibition made alcohol forbidden and chic, increasing its appeal to women and leading to sex- and race-mixing in illegal clubs.
The 18th amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol. It was still legal to drink, possess or buy it, although where there were buyers there were sellers, so selling to buyers was a legal violation. The Volstead Act, which was separate from the 18th amendment, laid down ground rules for enforcement and penalties.
In early America, water often was not safe to drink, so adults and children relied on hard cider, beer and wine, which kept longer. By the mid-19th century, the average American drank copious amounts of liquor each day. At the same time, saloons were limited to men only, so a woman could only guess at her husband’s consumption. If a man came home drunk and belligerent, his wife had no legal rights.
“The saloon was a home away from home for working men, but by others it was considered a destructive force in American life,” LeGrow said. “Women had no way to protect themselves from the worst excesses of drinking. Temperance was women trying to advocate for themselves.”
The drive to outlaw alcohol was led by women active in the suffrage movement. Still, Prohibition appealed to a wide spectrum of activists. Progressives felt drunkenness stood in the way of social reform. Religious leaders worried about public morality. Nativists hated German immigrant brewers like Anheuser, Busch, Coors and Schlitz. Populists felt drink weakened the working classes.
“It had so many aspects to it: government control, personal freedom, morality, political activism, social change. All these concerns brought about both the legislation and the backlash against it,” LeGrow said.
Once Prohibition became law, the unanticipated facets in the concept became clear. Unemployment rose. The decrease in tax revenue made adequate funding of enforcement impossible. Crime syndicates thrived, because illegality didn’t decrease public demand. Bootleg liquor could be damaging to health or at times fatal. Traditional respect for the rule of law dwindled. And once the youth of America lost respect for the rule of law, they began to rebel in ways their elders found shocking.
By the 1930s, with the Depression bearing down, the 18th amendment was repealed. Ironically, the repeal effort was led by women. “People thought everyone would be better off with Prohibition. But nobody was better off,” LeGrow said.
Suddenly, thousands of jobs opened up again and speakeasies closed and were replaced by old-fashioned legal saloons. But the country was changed forever. “It led to a rise in activism by people who felt disenfranchised. It had a huge impact on the country in that it egged on social change,” she said.
SPIRITED: PROHIBITION IN AMERICA is at Lyman Allyn Art Museum, 625 Williams St. in New London, until May 25. lymanallyn.org.
