Sunday, 14 June 2009

      Why do Americans hide what is so obvious to everyone? Or did anyone ever seriously believe there’s just apple juice in the bag?!? No, everyone knows it’s liquor, but you need some cultural knowledge to understand why Americans engage in this senseless national sport of hiding the obvious. In the United States today, the habit of drinking alcohol in public is still frowned upon and the reason for that, as is so often the case, lies in the past. It lies in a growing alcohol problem of American men in the 19th century and society’s quest to cope with it by prohibiting alcohol in the entire country by 1920. 

     The movement against alcohol started in the 1830s and grew to a national endeavor by the end of the 19th century. The rough life in the west and the poor living conditions of the first industrial workers created an increasing affinity for alcohol in several strata of society. Since the middle of the century, however, another economical development furthered the problem: German immigrants flooded the States and with them they brought a new type of lager beer. Sweeter than the common liquor, it soon became the most popular alcoholic drink, and by 1890 sold better than the traditional distilled spirits. With new technology, especially the telegraph, the railroad and mechanical refrigerators, brewing companies such as Anheuser-Busch or Pabst could establish big businesses, expanding nationally. Saloonkeepers stuck to selling the traditional bottled beverages and rejected the unpractical kegs, which required a tap in order to pour and sell the beer. The brewing industry reacted and opened its own establishments. With one bar per 150 to 200 inhabitants, they literally flooded the country with alcohol, causing another problem. Saloonkeepers were faced with enormous competition from breweries and came up with some business on the side to keep their mainly male customers: gambling, cock-fighting and prostitution. 

     This development threatened the core of American identity, which still drew a lot from Puritanism and the ideal honest, hard working, and pious life. Several organizations fought against the growing abuse of alcohol. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union was especially agitated and tried to persuade saloon owners to change their business practices. With no active political rights however, the impact of women in politics was still rather small. The Anti-Saloon League, founded in 1893 in Ohio, had greater success. With their more modern approach, like having their own press and numerous branches throughout the U.S., they soon turned temperance into a powerful national movement. With several states already being “dry,” the entry of the U.S. in the First World War in 1917 provided the movement with the last boost it needed to prohibit alcohol nationwide. The Anti-Saloon League utilized the patriotic sentiment of sacrifice and righteous living for their cause, and led the country into14 years of prohibition. 

     The 18th amendment to the constitution was proposed by the senate in December, 1917 and made effective on January 16th, 1920. Known as the “Volstead Act,” it prohibited the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol for consumption, but did little to actually enforce the new law. Many parts of society perceived prohibition as interfering too much with their personal lives, and ignored the new law. Even though consumption of alcohol went down 70 percent, there were ways to circumvent prohibition and it was easy to find places that would sell liquor illegally. In cities, so called speakeasy clubs emerged. New York alone had between 30,000 and 100,000 of these speakeasies. In the countryside, illegally produced moonshine, distilled at night in countless private barns, was so rampant that many songs even today testify to its popularity. Nonetheless, substantial parts of society supported prohibition. Such diverse groups as African Americans, rural southerners, Progressives, the Ku-Klux Klan and large numbers of American women approved of the banning of alcohol, each hoping for their version of a better society, with greater social peace. 

     But during the Great Depression prohibition grew increasingly unpopular. Additionally, big mafia gangs, such as Al Capone’s or Bugs Moran’s, rose in big cities. Liquor trafficking and the smuggling and selling of illegal alcohol, then a capital crime, proliferated.

      The rise in crime finally helped lead to the repeal of prohibition. On March 23rd, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act that allowed the sale and consumption of beer and light wines with the remark, “I think this would be a good time for a beer.” The noble experiment, as ex-president Hoover later called it, was finally entirely repealed on December 5th, 1933, assigning the question of the legality of alcohol to the jurisdiction of individual states.

     The repeal affected what was hoped for. Organized crime of the big mafia gangs of New York, Detroit and Chicago decreased, and in the aftermath the once scrupulous alcohol industry that had escalated the situation before 1920 agreed to greater regulations of alcohol in fear of a second prohibition. In the American collective memory, however, the time of prohibition and the social problems and crime linked to alcohol, are still vivid. Prohibition has impacted American cultural identity; it explains why public drinking is still socially and legally banned, and it is also the reason for a flourishing production of brown, thin paper bags.

- By Katharina Hundhammer, 

   M.A. History and Intercultural Communications

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Eva   |2009-06-16 20:50:05 Ahhhh! Und wieder ein großes Rätsel gelüftet. W eißt du, ich musste beim Lese nimmer schmunzeln, d a ich an die Aktivistinnen in den Lucky Luke Heftc hen den ken musste, die mit ihren Protest-Plakaten, die Männer in der Bar,verhauen habe n. Toll ges chrieben. L.G.Eva Reply | Quote 2 0

pbr lover  - pabst   |2009-07-05 08:27:17 interesting article. it's 'pabst,' not 'papst.' Reply | Quote 0 0

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