Learn about 1920s Prohibition with these old magazine articles. Find information on Prohibition in the 1920s.
KEY WORDS: Prohibition Movement in Britain,author John Hay Beith anti-temperance movement,1920 anti-temperance movement in UK,short-lived UK Prohibition Movement,efforts to prohibit alcohol in UK 1920
Prohibition in England? (The Pathfinder Magazine, 1920) Read More »
To be sure, there were complications with the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. While American clergy debated with government concerning the issue of sacraments involving wine, one enterprising restaurateur took advantage of the fact that the law, as it was originally written, only involved alcoholic beverages and decided to offer an inebriate in the form of a jelly sandwich.
Getting Around the Prohibition Laws (Stars and Stripes, 1919) Read More »
I 1913 Presbyterian preacher Billy Sunday (1862 – 1935) was, without a doubt, one of the most visible advocates for the successful implementation of any federal legislation that would outlaw liquor across America. When it became clear to many that Prohibition was causing far more problems than it solved, he continued to strongly support the legislation, and after its repeal in 1933 the Preacher called for its reinstatement.
Billy Sunday Campaign Trail for Prohibition (Literary Digest, 1913) Read More »
Tobacco is not food. It is a drug. A healthy human being can get along without it. One who has never used it is better off, his health has a surer foundation and his life expectancy is greater than in the case of one who is a habitual user.
The cautionary paragraph posted above was written in the early Twenties, and this article points out that the health advocates of the that era were not delusional or ill-informed in matters involving tobacco and health care. Tobacco’s ability to harm was understood so well that an effort was afoot in the U.S. Congress to make the weed illegal. Needless to say, that effort did not get very far.
In the 1950s, some people questioned whether cigarettes were truly dangerous – click here to read about it…
Shall Tobacco Be Prohibited, Too? (Current Opinion, 1921) Read More »
For some unexplained reason, H.L. Mencken (1880 – 1956) wrote this essay under the pseudonym Major Owen Hatteras. The one page article is written in typical Menkenese and catalogs example after example of how prohibition is creating a worse society, not a better one; citizens of all stripes who would otherwise be judged as honest souls, are instead committing illegal acts and there seemed to be no end in sight to such behavior.
Lord, Deliver Us from Prohibition (The Smart Set, 1920) Read More »
By the time this short notice was seen on page one of THE STARS and STRIPES during the Spring of 1918, the political momentum was clearly on the side of the Prohibition advocates and the voters of many states had elected to go dry long before the Congress had decided to amend the Constitution. The 1918 election in New York between Wets and Drys was a close one and the eyes of the nation were watching. The headline read:
PROHIBITION RACE NOW NECK AND NECK: TWENTY NEW YORK CITIES DRY AND NINETEEN WET…
The deciding and unknown factor was the women of New York, who were permitted to vote in municipal elections.
The 1918 New York Elections (The Stars and Stripes, 1918) Read More »
On the same day that it was announced that the state of Georgia was going to prohibit alcohol a full year and a half prior to the Congressional measure, a bill died in the state legislature that would have prohibited all alcohol substitutes that had caffeine, as well (Georgia, you’ll recall is the home of the Coca-Cola Company):
In an effort to force the bone-dry majority of the House to the greatest extreme, Representative Stark of Jackson, Friday offered an amendment which would have barred all substitutes for liquor, all patent medicines, and soft drinks containing caffeine.
Anti-Soft Drink Legislation Defeated (The Atlanta Georgian, 1917) Read More »
Since the earliest days of World War I, the European combatant nations made some adjustments in regard to the sale of alcohol and the hours in which pubs could operate. When the U.S. entered the war in April of 1917, Congress decided that they had better do the same – but they were far more harsh on the topic – closing bars entirely and outlawing all wines and spirits – except for their use in religious sacraments. In the attached article journalist gathered data from various newspapers that were located in states that were already dry in order to study how the experiment was proceeding.
W.W. I and the Advancement of Prohibition (Literary Digest, 1916) Read More »
A 1922 magazine article concerning the dangers of black market liquor in the United States during the Prohibition period (1919 – 1933):
When you drink bootleg the chances are better than nine out of ten that you are drinking rank poison.
This is not the statement issued either by Prohibitionists to discourage drinking, or by a Anti-Prohibitionist to show what Prohibition has brought us to. It is the conclusion of a large newspaper service, which had it’s men in various parts of the country buy the ‘ordinary mine-run of bootleg liquor’, and then had the samples analyzed to get an idea of what a man’s chances are of getting poisonous booze.
Click here to read about President Woodrow Wilson and his wish to re-write the post-war Prohibition restrictions.
Bootleg Whiskey as Poisoner (Literary Digest, 1922) Read More »
Seeing that much of the momentum to prohibit the national sale, distribution and consumption of wine and spirits originated with a hardy chunk of the observant Christian community, the Reverend John Cole McKim decided to weigh in on the topic. McKim tended to believe that:
Christ, being divine and consequently infallible, could not have erred. Since it is well known that Christ used wine Himself and gave it to others…
He further opined:
But to vote what one regards as a natural right shall be declared forever illegal, is cowardly, un-American, and un-Christian.
Christianity vs. Prohibition (The North American Review, 1918) Read More »
