Book review: Last Call

This book was authored by Daniel Okrent in 2010 (ISBN 978-0-7432-7702-0). The subtitle is "The Rise and Fall of Prohibition".

This is one of those books I enjoy so much: vivid writing about an era I know a little of but come to know more. Most people I know label Prohibition a failure; in many ways it was, but the consequences of alcohol abuse before, during and after this period was and is not much better.

Okrent starts with a summary of alcohol use in the early days of the Republic. The United States started sopping wet:
* In the 1820s liquor was less expensive than tea.
* Four ounces of whiskey was the official, daily ration for U.S. Army soldiers from 1782 to 1830.
* In 1830 the yearly, per-capita adult consumption was seven gallons of pure alcohol: a little less than 6 glasses of wine per day.

The dry movement started from two quarters: women and Christians. Women who would be called feminists today agitated for suffrage and for sober men, men who would not disperse their meager earnings at a bar while their children went hungry. Christians objected to the rowdy, intemperate, and womanizing ways of these inebriated men.

For female activists alcohol was one of many issues. For the Anti-Saloon League ("ASL"), alcohol was the only issue. Started in 1893 in Ohio by Methodist and Baptist clergy, and catapulted by Wayne Wheeler's leadership starting in 1903, it was possibly the most effective political organization ever. It never controlled more than 10 percent of the vote, but that 10% was wholly committed to the prohibition cause. Its members would vote for the devil if he was dry and against God if he was wet. The 10 percent was enough to swing almost any election; as a result, "drys" outnumbered "wets" in both houses of Congress by three to one during much of the period between 1913 and 1933.

The 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution authorized Congress to pass laws outlawing "intoxicating liquors" represented a significant blow to the national budget: taxes on alcohol represented 30% of federal revenue. The abolition of alcohol, therefore, was possible only because ASL promoted the 16th amendment, which created the national income tax.

Congress did pass such a law: the Volstead Act of 1919. It defined "intoxicating liquors" as fluids containing more than one-half of one percent alcohol. It also defined the exceptions, many-numbered and humorous. They included:
* Alcohol used for religious purposes.
* Alcohol used for medicinal purposes.
* Alcohol already owned before the effective date of the Act.
* Self-produced cider and homemade wine.

Regarding the exception for religious purposes, the population of Rabbis increased during prohibition. Some even went so far as to set up stores, with signs outside announcing the sale of "wine for sacramental purposes". Customers would approach to store, sign up for membership in the congregation, and purchase their wine. Catholics were not far behind, with Napa Valley wineries producing all they could for the diocese across the country.

Under the exception for medicinal purposes, doctors, dentists and veterinarians were permitted to issue prescriptions on government-issued forms. For the consumer, the physician's bill was generally three dollars, the pharmacist perhaps a dollar more than that.

The exception for already-owned alcohol led to stockpiling, not mention favoritism towards those wealthy enough to purchase large quantities before enforcement.

Enforcement, or the lack thereof, probably doomed Prohibition. In addition to the very large exceptions described above alcohol flowed freely from Canada and from the sea. From Canada it was floated across the Detroit River or driven across from Montreal. Men from the United States were hired to drive their cars North across the border, leave their car unlocked and parked in a garage for an hour, return to the garage and collect an honorarium, and drive back home. They did not know what was done to their cars during that hour, nor did they want to know. Alcohol was sometimes stored in the tires of automobiles, in place of air. From Britain and other points alcohol came across the sea.

On the consumer side, the further one traveled North and East the easier alcohol was to obtain. Movies glamorize the "speak-easy", and they did exist, but for the most part no subterfuge was required. While the outside of a club may not have openly advertised drinking, its offerings were well known to the public and to the police. Protection payments to the police and to criminal gangs were treated as a cost of doing business. The criminal violence occurred on city streets, on the Detroit River, and upon the oceans. The criminality arose, of course, because the alcohol trade was illegal and thus immensely profitable, much as the trade in cocaine and heroin is today. The parallel struck me in the following story from the book.

Before national prohibition many states, mostly Southern and Western, had enacted their own prohibition laws. These laws remained on the books during national prohibition and some outlasted it; some by many years (e.g., Kansas did not allow saloons open to the public selling individual drinks until 1987). During prohibition the voters of Massachusetts were asked to repeal their state's prohibition law and to stop state enforcement of the federal law (the 18th amendment provided for concurrent federal and state jurisdiction). All of Massachusetts, with the exception of Cape Cod, supported the measures. After all, more enforcement meant that criminal activity would be more lucrative and the actual perils of enforcement were small. Many in Cape Cod were making a nice living in the alcohol "business". The parallel, for me, was the recent marijuana legalization referendum in California. It failed. Given California's liberalism on social issues and the tax revenues it would have generated for that cash-strapped state, I was surprised by the outcome. How many of those "no" votes were cast by those involved in the illegal marijuana trade and were happy with the status quo?

While alcohol may have been easy to obtain, its quality varied widely. There was no truth-in-labeling act; alcoholic drinks were not even legal. A tavern might put the plainest alcohol in its high-priced bottles. That is, if you were lucky. The unlucky would be drinking industrial alcohol.

A number factors led to Prohibition's demise. Primary was its haphazard enforcement: it bred disrespect for the law and encouraged criminal violence in major cities. Secondary was the death of Wayne Wheeler and the subsequent decline in the ASL's power. Tertiary were the repeal efforts of wealthy Republicans, such as the DuPont and Rockefeller families, who resented the exercise of government power, the difficulty in obtaining liquor, and the increased income tax that resulted from the loss of alcohol taxes.

The 21st amendment, repealing the 18th, became effective in 1933.