Alcohol and Drinking History in America: A Chronology

Promising Future for National Prohibition

1913.

• The Webb-Kenyon Act was passed banning shipment of alcohol beverages into a state if the law of that state prohibited it. If effect, this prohibited shipping or importing alcohol into a state with statewide prohibition.¹
• “The Sixteenth Amendment, creating the legal authority for federal income tax, is enacted. Between 1870 and 1915, the tax on liquor provides from one-half to two-thirds of the whole of the internal revenue of the United States, amounting, after the turn of the century, to about $200 million annually. The Sixteenth Amendment thus makes possible, just seven years later, the Eighteenth Amendment”² by reducing dependence on the taxes from alcoholic beverages.
• Purley Baker, head of the Anti-Saloon League, led a parade of the League down Pennsylvania Avenue to the steps of the U.S. Capitol where he presented copies of a proposed Eighteenth Amendment to bring about National Prohibition to two dry congressmen.³
• Over half the population of the country lived in areas in which prohibition laws existed. ⁴

1914.

• There were as many as 1,400 breweries in the country employing over 75,000 people.⁵
• There were over 13,000 drinking establishments in New York City.⁶
• Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Virginia, Washington State and West Virginia ⁷ adopted statewide prohibition.⁸
• By 1914, 33 states in the U.S. had adopted statewide prohibition.⁹
• The Prohibition movement reflected a cultural war in the country. For example, in arguing in favor of Prohibition, Congressman Richard Hobson of Alabama asserted that

  "Liquor will actually make a brute out of a Negro, causing him to commit unnatural crimes. The effect is the same on the white man, though the white man being further evolved it takes longer time to reduce him to the same level." ¹⁰

• William Hamilton Anderson, one of the most successful lobbyists of the Anti-Saloon League, arrived in New York to make the state and city dry. Using local option, his strategy was to begin with rural areas and work toward the larger population center. The “Dry Warrior” pledged to punish anyone who stood in the way of his agenda and he effectively used such tactics as false rumors, forged documents, character attacks, and intimidation to achieve his goal.¹¹
• A temperance organization called the Flying Squadron of America mounted a nationwide campaign promoting temperance. Three groups of speakers presented revival-like programs in cities across the U.S. in 1914 and June 1915.¹²

1915.

• The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), often called the Klan of the 1920s, was "revived in Atlanta in 1915 to defend Prohibition," which existed in Georgia at that time.¹⁴
• Defending Prohibition was a cornerstone of its “reform” agenda. An historian has observed that “support for Prohibition represented the single most important bond between Klansmen throughout the nation.” Another scholar wrote that “enforcement of Prohibition, in fact, was a central, and perhaps the strongest, goal of the Ku Klux Klan.”¹⁵ For more about the anti-alcohol nature of the KKK visit The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Alcohol, & Prohibition.
• Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, and South Carolina adopt statewide prohibition.¹⁶

1916.

• Colorado, Idaho,¹⁷ Iowa,¹⁸ Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Washington¹⁹ adopted statewide prohibition.²⁰
• “The Prohibition Party elected Sidney Catts governor of Florida in 1916.”²¹
• The Pharmacopoeia of the United States dropped whiskey and brandy from its list of useful drugs.²²

1917.

• Senator Morris Sheppard introduced the Eighteenth Amendment.²³ Great effort was made to get it acted on before 1920, because in 1920 there was going to be a new census and when the census changed, the cities, which were the wet part of the country, were going to have more representation in Congress and the small towns were going to have less representation in Congress.²⁴
• The Lever Food and Fuel Act made it illegal to distill beverage alcohol in order to preserve food supplies during WW I.²⁵
• It became illegal to sell alcohol to members of the military forces.²⁶
• Indiana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, and Utah adopted statewide prohibition.²⁷
• The president of the American Medical Association (AMA) endorsed Prohibition and the House of Delegates of the Association passed a resolution opposing the use of alcoholic beverages and discouraging the use of alcohol therapeutically.²⁸

1918.

• The War Time Prohibition Act was passed to save grain and other materials for the war effort in W.W.I. ²⁹
• Florida, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Wyoming adopted statewide prohibition.³⁰
• The specific dates, arranged chronologically, on which different states ratified the Eighteenth Amendment during the year were:
  • January 8, Mississippi
  • January 11, Virginia
  • January 14, Kentucky
  • January 28, North Dakota
  • January 29, South Carolina
  • February 13, Maryland
  • February 19, Montana
  • March 4, Texas
  • March 18, Delaware
  • March 20, South Dakota
  • April 2, Massachusetts
  • May 24, Arizona
  • June 26, Georgia
  • August 9, Louisiana
  • November 27, Florida,³¹

• The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment was established in an unsuccessful effort to prevent National Prohibition. However, it grew dramatically in membership after Prohibition was implemented and its unintended effects became obvious.³²
• The Anti-Saloon League called the alcoholic beverage industry "un-American," pro-German, crime-producing, food-wasting, youth-corrupting, home-wrecking, [and] treasonable."³³

1919.

• Ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment occurred quickly. “On January 7, Ohio and Oklahoma ratified; the next day, Idaho and Maine; the following day, West Virginia. After a weekend lull, fifteen more states approved the dry amendment in the span of four days, including states that had only recently shifted into the dry camp. On the afternoon of January 16, 1919, Nebraska became the thirty-sixth state to ratify the Eighteenth Amendment, giving it the three-fourths majority needed for enactment.”³⁴ It went into effect one year later and banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States and its possessions. Contrary to common belief, it did not prohibit the purchase or consumption of alcohol.³⁵
• The specific dates, arranged chronologically, on which different states ratified the Eighteenth Amendment during the year were:
  • January 2, Michigan
  • January 7, Ohio
  • January 7, Oklahoma,
  • January 8, Idaho
  • January 8, Maine
  • January 9, West Virginia
  • January 13, California,
  • January 13, Tennessee,
  • January 13, Washington,
  • January 14, Arkansas,
  • January 14, Kansas,
  • January 14, Illinois,
  • January 14, Indiana,
  • January 15, Alabama
  • January 15, Colorado,
  • January 15, Iowa,
  • January 15, New Hampshire,
  • January 15, Oregon,
  • January 16, Nebraska,
  • January 16, North Carolina,
  • January 16, Utah,
  • January 16, Missouri,
  • January 16, Wyoming,
  • January 17, Minnesota,
  • January 17, Wisconsin,
  • January 20, New Mexico,
  • January 21, Nevada,
  • January 29, New York,
  • January 29, Vermont,
  • February 25, Pennsylvania,
  • May 6, Connecticut,*
• Three states did not ratify the Eighteenth Amendment (Illinois, Indiana, and Rhode Island). New Jersey ratified it two years after National Prohibition went into effect.³⁶ Alaska and Hawaii were not yet states.
• The National Prohibition Act of 1919 was enabling legislation for the implementation of the Eighteenth Amendment. It is commonly called the Volstead Act after Congressman Andrew J. Volsteadwho chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee and who sponsored the legislation.³⁷
• The Volstead Act was vetoed on October 28 by President Woodrow Wilson, who cited both moral and constitutional objections. However, Congress overrode his veto the same day.³⁸
• The World League Against Alcoholism was established by the Anti-Saloon League. The goal of the World League was to create prohibition throughout the entire world.³⁹ The fact that the League was against alcoholism rather than alcohol reflected the fact that temperance activists tended to view any consumption of alcohol to be equivalent to alcoholism.
• The Central Trades and Labor Council of New York threatened a general strike unless beer was exempted from impending Prohibition legislation. About 500,000 union workers endorsed the idea, which was squelched by Samuel Gompers only with great difficulty.⁴⁰