The Day's Dumpster Fire

Prohibition Fire Part 1. - Episode 59

• Ed and Kara

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In this episode, Kara dives into the beginnings of one of the greatest dumpster fires in American history. What started off as a noble movement to make men better men and to eliminate a societal toxin, turned into a decade of insanity, crime, and abject poverty for many.

We all know about Prohibition from the textbooks, but did you know that the movement started since before the Civil War? Did you know that the movement started because women didn't think men were bad, but alcohol turned them into something else in most cases? 

Kara takes us down the origins of what would become one of the most famous constitutional amendments in modern history. Alcohol is one of the most influential contributors to the development of this nation, but simultaneously, a major detractor. 

For more details and Kara's extensive show notes, check out the website. And in this episode, the Great Molasses Flood Episode is mention that is closely tied to this episode. 

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Intro:

Is there a picture of her? Yes. And I'm going to tell you her name after this little narrative that I go through. But yes, look her up. She's great. Great. Can't wait. Yeah. She came inside the men's establishment, walked directly to the counter and looked Mr. Dobson in the eyes and she said, Mr. Dobson, I told you last spring to close this place and you would not do it. Now I've come down with another remonstrance, get out of the way. I do not want to strike you, but I'm going to break this place up. And with that, the woman began throwing the packages she wrapped with her. Dobson probably ducked out of the way. His paper up stones and bricks began to fly, smashing through the mirrors, glasses, windows, and bottles. Once she was done at Dobson's bar, the woman went to two more and smashed those two. The final saloons she arrived at Kaya was kept by a Mr. Lewis. She spotted a younger man behind the bar and she told them, young man, come from behind that bar. Your mother did not raise you for such a place. Throw a break at the large rectangular mirror hanging over the bar that he was hiding behind to the woman's displeasure. However, the mirror didn't break. She looked around for something to throw at it and then she spotted a billiards ball on the table and she said, thank God, then hurled the billiards ball at the mirror and breaking a hold of the glass. I love her. So the woman who smashed an elephant to the floor, she, this is how I would be like, I'm done. Like see, I applaud the other side of it. I do.

Kara:

Hello everybody. This is Kara with your days dumpster fire where we don't celebrate humanity successes, but it's most fantastic billiards. And as ever with always, I have Ed and Deja boasts with me today. How are you guys doing?

Deja:

Hey hello? We're we're working IT today.

Kara:

Yeah, it's been like a good hour and a half since we walked on.

Deja:

But not even that severe. I smart guys. I'm doing so

Kara:

smart. We're yeah, everything from like troubleshooting cables to software updates. It's like we're about ready to turn into a call center over here.

Deja:

Thank you for

Kara:

doing great over here.

Deja:

The days dumpster fire. How can I help

Kara:

you?

Deja:

Don't forget guys, I did customer service for like eight years. So

Kara:

fair enough. Oh,

Deja:

we got that that answering the phone voice on lock and key.

Kara:

we'll Oh, have to prerecord you on like a phone line so people can call in. Yeah, there we go.

Deja:

Thanks for calling today's dumpster fire. We can't get to the phone right now but we'd love to hear your trash can fire.

Kara:

So let's see we have ideas rolling. This is it. Or to say in an Indian voice. No, thank you for calling today's dumpster fire.

Deja:

One thing to do.

Kara:

Yeah, use your ad edit that out. My name is Bob, I'm happy today.

Deja:

I have to remind that we are not South Park and there's things we can't get with. away We started too late in the game. Anybody who has ever called a call center in the past 10 years for whatever reason, they they've got Yeah, I just do the bitchy like customer service lady and I'm just like, Hey, no, I can't that. help you with your services today. Have a great time. Bye. You do that on your last day. Yeah, no, I don't know. I think I'm a little too nice for that. I'm like, oh, that was kind of rude. Let me call them back. Let me go call them, I apologize. Well, speaking of apologies, I think Karen has got a banger of an episode. It's it's like I'm looking at the notes here and it is like 16 pages long and she's not even done.

Kara:

Oh, guys, this thing's going to be bigger than donor, per day I think. Oh, man.

Deja:

Oh,

Kara:

I'm really It's excited. all and it's all about alcohol.

Deja:

Maybe it'll change my mind about drinking because I am a little bit hungover today. And maybe I should have taken some notes. I don't know. Well, nevermind.

Kara:

It is no crack open of beer.

Deja:

I do, I do love a good whisky.

Kara:

So, why? Well, today we're talking about prohibition, and the next week we're going to talk about prohibition, and then the week after that, how are you going to talk about prohibition? So, there's

Deja:

a potential for the week after that, so just put in your next month, month and a half.

Kara:

Yeah. Yeah.

Deja:

It's a prohibition.

Kara:

I really hope you like 1920s. But today, we're actually going to start in the 1840s. And

Deja:

baa

Kara:

the

Deja:

baa baa

Kara:

da da All right, chapter one. Whiskey Sour. Here we go. A 45 year old royal Navy officer turned author, sat at a writing table in the United States during a visit there. He'll be likely couldn't go out after dark, especially after seeing people burning effigies in his likeness and reading newspapers, calling for his hanging. I wouldn't want to go out either to be there. He wrote on the page in front of him detailing his experiences. He would called his piece of writing diary in America, and it would be published two to three years later in 1839. Frederick Mariett was considered a comedic, not-a-go-fiction writer, talk about niche. In diary of America, he notes an observation on a particular love affair Americans have with a favorite pastime. He says, and I quote, "They say that the British cannot fix anything properly without a dinner, but I am sure the Americans can fix nothing without a drink. If you meet, you drink. If you part, you drink. If you make it acquaintance, you drink. If you close a bargain, you drink. They quarrel and they drink and they make it up with a drink. They drink because it's hot. They drink because it's cold. If successful in elections, they drink and rejoice; if not, they drink and they swear. They begin to drink early in the morning. They leave off late at night. They commence it early in life and they continue it until they soon drop into a grave. To use their own expression, the way they drink is quite a caution. As for water, what the man said when asked to belong to the temperate society appears to be of the general opinion, it's very good for navigation."

Deja:

need that I in itself to just become a musical, like a Broadway performance, would have imagined like a hamilton-esque, like that would have hit hard bars.

Kara:

Right?

Deja:

A little behind it. I'm like, "Oh, okay, well, we got here."

Kara:

Not bad for a British guy, pretty good, especially in 1839.

Deja:

especially for a British guy.

Kara:

Yeah, Alcohol has been a part of American culture since the beginning of America. Perhaps for pleasure, or for necessity, it was probably both. Either way, it's been ingrained in American society for a long, long, long time. In 1628, the Mayflower Brought with it 42 tons of beer on its voice to the new world. This was typically commonplace as water would go bad on long journeys across the Atlantic. Beer was easier to preserve on ships, but still 42 tons is a crazy amount of beer. There's a story for the Mayflower. It goes when Captain Jones anchored the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock in November of that year, he stopped for passengers to find water because it does go bad to save the beer for his crew. So he was like,"Passengers, off. Find yourself some water. We're gonna drink the good stuff." A hundred and forty years went by, and the colonies were established across the Atlantic Seaboard. By 1767, colonial families were consuming about seven barrels of hard cider per year. So to put that into perspective, that's about thirty-five gallons of cider per person. Including women in children. By 1790, on average, the colonists were consuming about 5.8 gallons of pure alcohol per year. That number also includes women and children when people who didn't drink. That's a lot. Okay. Now, to be fair, and I'm gonna be throwing a lot of numbers like this around, these are usually generalized numbers. There were people who didn't drink, and there were others who drink a lot, but for our purpose, the colonists were drinking a lot of alcohol. In 1797, Jorge Washington opened a commercial whiskey distillery at Mount Vernon. Most distilleries in the late 1700s were about 800 square feet in size. Washington's distillery, because he doesn't play, was 2250 square feet. At the time of his death in 1799, it was one of the largest in the country. In that same year, the distillery produced 11,000 gallons of whiskey, valued at $7, 500, which today's money is $120, 000. The average distillery at the same time would typically produce 650 gallons of whiskey at the value of $450. So Mount Vernon was producing a lot of whiskey. Yeah, and that's including, like, I know when Washington died, he was among some of the richest. I didn't know this distiller was that big. Like that's the size. That's the size of a decently sized house. Yeah. I Washington's whiskey. Interesting. So I I 100% suggest checking out the Mount Vernon website. That's where I got the information. Very cool. George Washington wasn't the only founding father who had a hand in alcohol, though. He may have produced the most John Adams was known to have a tanker to hardseater every morning. James Madison would have a pint of whiskey every day. 1810, pint. One pint every day. Oh, man. Yeah. You how know, do you function? I feel like it was probably throughout the day, you know, but still that's kind of a lot. Yeah. That's true. And they're eight. Yeah, that makes 10. Yeah. In 1810, there were roughly 14 thousand distilleries in the US, along with countless taverns throughout the country. A new kind of drinking establishment would soon explode in popularity, as the 1800s came ahead and that would be the saloon. The first saloon was opened in Wyoming in 1822. Now saloons were a different kind of drinking establishment in that saloons were four men. They were a men's only establishment. And it was used for drinking whereas like a tavern was more like a restaurant where, you know, families could eat and then they could have a drink while they're eating and, you know, all that stuff. So saloons were a men's establishment for drinking and they started to rise in popularity throughout the industrial revolution, especially. They started spring up throughout the US saloon started to spring up throughout the US and mining town specifically cities were factories were built near meals, things like that. They were places for men who worked long hours and hard conditions. So men would gather there for lunch or after work to unwind after their shifts were over. And honestly, I can understand that you need a place to go after even working for 12 hours in a factory, I Especially guess. if you're living in like a one room house with kids and all that. Yeah, especially in the cities. Now I was going to say like I wanted you to get to the mining town parts. Do you know how people paid for their drinks in these mining towns? Generally, they would be pretty cheap. I mean, you know, give them their gold or whatever money they have and try it or whatever. What they would do is these gold miners. They would carry around basically pouches of gold dust. And you'd order a drink and the bartender, but the tradition was that you'd order a drink and then you would put your pouch out. And then the bartender would take a pinch of gold for a payment for the drink. And what you'd initially discovered was that the bartenders would hire people with massive hands. So that their thumb and forefinger could pull out the maximum amount of gold. And that that that was for the cause there was no real established US currency. So at that time, everybody just paid with like pinches of gold. which was Yeah, kind of kind of weird and very American at the same time. So saloons were built for men who worked long hours and hard conditions and they would gather their lunch. I think I said this already. Many saloons would offer free lunches with a purchase of a drink. And I thought this was just ingenious. So the lunches would usually consist of bread and cheese, Sartines, or salted fish crackers, pickled vegetables. What do all those foods have in common? Maybe it might as the cheese. They're all fermented or salted.

Deja:

Something

Kara:

salty. Yeah. They make you really thirsty. They make you really thirsty, so even though the food was free, they made the men very thirsty. And then it's just by more alcohol.

Deja:

Makes sense.

Kara:

Pretty smart. It's kind of like a rollercoaster tycoon where you crank up the salt level in the french fries so you can sell more soda.

Deja:

Which also makes you more parched in actuality.

Kara:

Yeah. Yes. Especially for drinking hard stuff, that's going to make you super dehydrated.

Deja:

This is a hole. This is a hole. Michael

Kara:

It's

Deja:

of

Kara:

a

Deja:

just

Kara:

hole, yeah.

Deja:

Charlie.

Kara:

Yeah. I'm

Deja:

going to be a little bit more careful.

Kara:

With the rise of the saloon came the rise in alcohol consumption across the US. In 1830, America seemed to have hit its peak. On average, nine gallons of pure alcohol per adult was being consumed. That means anybody over the age of 18, including sober adults and women could be included in that number. That's three times today's average. Nine gallons of pure alcohol. And I'm not talking like, you know,

Deja:

nine

Kara:

or eight percent stout, or whatever. It's like just rubbing alcohol.

Deja:

My little, my little white cloth. Yeah, this could be anywhere between 40 to like 70 percent. Like, because they really didn't have hydrometers back then, so they didn't know what the alcohol content was truly going to be. You could be moonshine, as far as everybody I knew. was just about to say a good old thing, a moonshine.

Kara:

Yeah, good old moon. Well, I'm going to talk about moonshine next part. But

Deja:

looking forward to

Kara:

It's

Deja:

it.

Kara:

going to be exciting. Anyway, throughout the 1800s, saloons would continue to adjust to their clientele. Considering their customers were primarily working low in commend, they became places rife with gambling, drinking, prostitution, and cheap heart alcohol, usually whiskey. And while saloons were a place to gather, especially for immigrant workers who found a place of comfort in the saloon, they also gained a really nasty reputation. Men were often seen staggering out of them. Bites were frequent in prostitution offered. Wasn't exactly clean with high standards like they had in Paris. Men would go home to families or their place of employment. Super drunk, blackened in bruised or both. Job loss was very common, and domestic abuse was a very serious problem for the wives of men who took full advantage of the town saloon.

Deja:

Rife.

Kara:

Rife. Rife Rife. Yeah. with it.

Deja:

With domestic violence.

Kara:

Yes,

Deja:

big time.

Kara:

It's a bad deal. Yeah, I feel like we're going to start seeing temperate societies forming. Yeah, temperate societies were forming as early as the 1790s. But they were usually kind of small and with church groups. Well, here we are. Small groups and organizations such as the American temperate society, the cold water army, and the sons of temperants began to sprang up throughout the country, calling for temperance. The difference between temperance and prohibition is temperance was a call for moderation of alcohol. So like let's just hone it down a little bit where prohibition was abolition of alcohol. Yeah. Zero total ban. These groups early on were started by religious men, but gained steam throughout the 1800s as alcohol consumption rose. There were African-American branches, there were branches for women, there were religious organizations. So it started to kind of spread all over the place. A sons of temperance meeting was being held in Albany, New York in June of 1853. The room was crowded, full of men standing in the sweltering heat, ready to hear the speakers of the temperance movement. A woman and a black dress with her brown hair pulled back tightly began to prepare her speech, making her way in front of the crowd accompanied by a small group of women that made up the women's branch as a group. Before she could get up the stage, however, she was stopped by the chairman of the sons of temperance. He looked at her and he told her, listen and learn, denying her the opportunity to speak. Understandably angry. Susan B. Anthony and the women in attendance left the hall and held their own temperance meeting without any men. She then published her experience with the sons of temperance in a local Albany newspaper to get in the attention of the women of the temperance movement. By April, Anthony gathered about 500 women to a meeting in Rochester where they created the Women's State Temperance Society. They elected Elizabeth Katie Stanson as president of their organization.

Deja:

Coolish! Steph Ever.

Kara:

Right? Was this before or after she wrote the Declaration of Independence Women before? So Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Katie Stanson are known for suffrage, but they got their start in temperance. Okay. Many of the women caught up in the men's love for drink, blames, saloons or they blame the booze. They usually didn't blame the men, which I thought was pretty interesting. They always blamed the alcohol or the saloon. Without the right to vote, they decided it was time to speak up. A change needed to happen and maybe if they did it right, they could get suffrage along with temperance. However, by the mid 1850s, regional differences began to fracture the unity of the temperance movement that was going on. Northern organizations began to leave heavily into complete prohibition of alcohol, along with abolitionists to happen to have no tendencies. So it needs to be said that the women of the temperance movement before the Civil War were also partnering with the abolitionists in the north. So they were often good friends with abolitionists who were calling for the end of slavery. And I heard a story and while I was doing this research I thought was really interesting. In the 19th century the big social movements were the abolition of slavery, suffrage which would come later and prohibition which would come later, but they all start here and together. And I thought that was a pretty cool way to look at it. I didn't really realize that all three kind of started at the same time. Yeah. Yeah. In the South organizations held onto more moderate views creating some tension between the regions. Once the Civil War broke out in 1861 the temperates move and started to collapse. Organizers, members and attention to the movement redirected to the war, which, I mean, fair. At the same time, alcohol was commonplace during the war, especially amongst the soldiers. The US government even raised taxes on alcohol to generate money for the war effort as it was going on. Well, it seemed as though the temperance movement was over by 1865 after the war ended, supporters prohibit was never over only temporarily overshadowed. So the first temperance, it was like, 200% of the time. You see, it began. Well, I think that's it. It's a cocktail. The first temperance. It's a kind of fun to say, the first temperance this temperance movement began in the late 18th century and lost its momentum during the Civil War. It was initiated and organized primarily by religious men on the East Coast before it expanded. The second temperance movement was launched and organized by women after the Civil War, ended the US saw a massive increase in industrial activity throughout the nation, especially in large cities. With industrialization came immigration and an influx of working men with that influx came the popularity of saloons and alcohol sparking the same issues that caused the temperance movement's game traction before the war. Men were losing jobs, domestic violence was common and prostitution and saloons were also common. So it's really gross, but they were also bringing home diseases and stuff to the family and it was bad. It's just bad. The women continued to blame the saloon and the booze. They sold there so good on them for not blaming the men. They were blaming the alcohol and these of it tired of the effects of that alcohol had on men in their society. The women decided to try to make a change. In 1873 groups of women and Ohio began stepping inside saloons or right outside of them out of the front door blocking the entrance, dropping to their knees and praying for the men inside the establishment, maybe praying for them to be shut down just kind of depends on how bold they felt. This began a movement that would span across the country gathering thousands of women who prayed outside of saloons with the globe with the goal of closing down as many slums as they could. Some shop owners did agree in that they would close and some agreed that they would stop selling alcohol, some signed agreements or petitions that they would close. Others, however, weren't so agreeable. These women were pushed. They were spit on some had beers thrown out them as they were praying. But they continued and by the time they use crusades ended, the women on these protests, crusades, whatever you want to call them, it spread over 900 communities, 33 states and territories and close countless establishments across the country. These women's crusades lasted until 1874. So they lasted about a year in a speech in a speech in that same year Susan B. Anthony called the crusades the greatest quote, the greatest moral crusade of our time. However, after they began to die down saloons and establishments would just reopen while they weren't exactly long lasting these protests inspired a group of people to create a movement that proved to be much more influential than their predecessors.

Deja:

So I have a question.

Kara:

yeah,

Deja:

You're telling me what they did with the women did was they would go and pray in the front of these saloons or whatever these

Kara:

place

Deja:

is and they would have stuff just like thrown at them, and they wouldn't stop, they would just pray through it. And I'd be fighting.

Kara:

Yes.

Deja:

So good on them because I would probably had a very quick ending to my story because I, I can, I just admire anyone who can have anything thrown at them out of utter disrespect. It's one of the most subhuman things you can do to someone else. And in a moment where they're looking out for the benefit of these men. Some of them don't mean anything to them, but they're still that like, it's just I would be fighting and I'd be like, I'd be just as belligerent as a drunk man, completely sober. So good for that. So yeah, you'd be like throwing down fisticuffs, like you've got like a baseball bat on you like. Oh, yeah, no, we've got like, and you can't see I'm a small person and like I'm gonna find ways to conceal my weapons because if you throw a beer on me, it's on. It's up. Its up in smoke. It's up. And from what I've seen in my 42 years, um, never, ever, ever fight a small woman. Uh-oh. You do not want to be attacked by a small woman. And I'm ethnic. Yeah. And then we just throw on the ethnic parts. Yeah. And I'm ethnic. Yeah, it's, uh, I got an ethnic background. We Can don't play. I throw in an English nerdy perspective here? Okay. If it's up and smoke, I need you to comment on it, because I feel like that's pretty like good grip. That's good. Yes. Especially in the Yes. saloon. So when we look at like the time after the Civil War, and we look at, and we start looking at these women's movements and these peaceful protests and all that kind of stuff, that was heavily, heavily influenced by Thoreau and civil disobedience. And after Thoreau wrote civil disobedience, the way minorities protested completely changed. So it was like, you're not here to start a riot. You're here to send a message by kind of like this, yeah, by interrupting things. Right? And that's what the women were doing is, um, a lot of women were, and Susan Benthien was one of them was a big fan of this peaceful type of protesting, because like, they become the martyrs. When they see bad stuff happen, like the general population, see these bad stuff happening to these women, and they're just praying. That makes everybody inside look a thousand times worse. And then then when you like read, um, Kings like, um, letters from Birmingham, Jail, he mentions this, he mentions the like, suffragette movement, he mentions Thoreau. So like, this is a perfect case where a simple piece of literature had like a profound impact on how Americans were going to protest. Now, don't get me wrong, there were still riots. Like, there are the Pinkerton riots and, and all that kind of stuff. But it did introduce the idea that you can protest and you can make a statement, but you don't have to be violent. Well, I think there's like this psychological like deception or perspective change that is kind of subconscious to the person who is on the obnoxious belligerent, you know, riot side of protesting. When you are looked at like, you have these people who are peacefully protesting. They're able to make a point without causing harm yeah, to anyone, demeaning anyone, making anyone else feel small about themselves or their, their issues or whatever. It's empowering them to stand up and say something or do something when you have that like site, but that like perspective change, and you see that like, Oh, dang, I'm sitting here like throwing bats into a house and like do, you know, doing XYZ, spitting on a woman who's sitting here praying, like numbers wise, eventually, there's going to be a seed planted in one of their heads. Yeah. Yeah, when the alcohol, I want to pop. yeah, when the alcohol wears off, they're The going to. point of it is like, even if it's one man, what did I do? And then like, yeah, and to follow on to that, wait, what you're saying, Dacia, look at Gandhi. Gandhi looked at movement and basically based all of his protests off of like what these women were doing, so that when the British were making Indian workers case bullets and pork fat, which is something that really would against their their beliefs, Gandhi just told the workers to sit down. Like don't, don't get upset, don't get mad in the factories, don't break stuff, don't throw stuff, just sit down. So it's amazing the impact that this movement had on various parts of the world because like in the 1800s, America was a teenager was trying to figure itself out. But the rest of the world was looking in on America, like, okay, America, you're just like a little kid compared to the rest of the world. How are you navigating these problems? And then you have shining moments like this that completely redefined how to protest.

Kara:

The Women's Christian Temperance Union or the WCTU was established in November of 1874 during a convention in Cleveland, Ohio. From the time it was established in the early 1890s, from the time it was established, comma, to the early 1890s when it's membership hit its peak, the union gained over 200,000 members making it the largest women's organization in the United States. the WTCU accepted anybody who wanted to be a part of their movement, the focus not only on alcohol moderation but prohibition, the unions, the second president Francis Willard was elected in 1879. She took what the WCTU was doing and made it even more influential. Francis Willard was born on September 28th, 1839, yay September babies in Churchville, New York. She was raised in Wisconsin in Illinois and she grew up in a deeply religious family with values that would later shape her social and political views later in life. Willard graduated from Northwestern Women's College, where she would become a professor, then in 1871 she became the dean for the Women's College and would remain there until 1874 when she took up the helm of the WCTU. After getting the presidency over the organization in 1879, Willard governed the organization under her, "Do everything policy." This policy expanded the WCTU beyond temperance to include suffrage, child labor, prison reform, public health, social purity, and labor rights by the 1890s, 25 of 39 departmental programs within the organization were addressing non-temperance issues. So, I did a little checking here. It said that in the early 1890s when membership hit its peak, the WCTU, the union gained over 200,000 members. I looked it up. America's women population, and I'm assuming this is like all females, consisted of 31.4 million people. Now when you, like 200,000 sounds like a drop in the bucket compared to 31.4 million, but compared to like, if you blow that up to like today, where there's 300 and 40 million people here and like 150 million of them are women, that's a pretty big movement. It's a big movement. They had branches across the country. That's massive. It's huge there. They were highly influential, not just in the prohibition temperance movement, but in other movements too. Like I was saying. So they're massive. Are they still around today? Yeah. Yes. They are still around today. I got a lot of this information from their website. Interesting. Wow, I just looked that up. And I will say a theme that I've been running into a lot with this topic, because I like themes. Is when we talk about anything in history that we try to generalize in our heads. It's really important to remember that this country is a collection of a lot, a lot of different types of people. From different types of background with different belief systems and opinions and all of that stuff. So a lot of the big question, how did how did prohibition even pass. If it just failed. Yeah. You have to remember that all of these people, even though they kind of go into groups like this, they're all different. They all had a reason to why they voted, which this way or that way, and they're all influenced by something. Yeah. Because it takes a lot So. to a past amendment. Yeah. Like it's. I can't remember the exact fact that it has to be like three quarters of the states all have to vote on it. Or. Yes, and we'll actually about. talk Okay. Yeah. We'll have. We'll have some civics. It's Yeah. included in our history lessons today. But. But yeah, it was a big deal, you know, and people were tired of. Men being idiots because of Well, alcohol. they're dumb enough as is when they're sober. Yeah. Right. We love. The WC to you published a newspaper. They held meetings and conducted public outreach across the nation and becoming one of the most influential temperate groups in the United States. They even brought temperance into schools with their. Quote scientific temperance instruction on quote curriculum. Children will do math problems that include an alcohol and provide a textbooks about the dangers of alcohol. Most of which had some very dramatic inaccurate claims. I believe one textbook claimed that if somebody drank enough alcohol, they would blow up. Hang Okay. Yeah. Okay. So funny story. My dad was an alcoholic. And he died drinking. He actually died when he was 42. And they went to go cremated him. He had so much alcohol in his system that when he approached, like, because they light the furnace and then they kind of like push you in, uhm, he caught fire before he actually got into the furnace. And he had like, like, two bottles of vodka in him. And there was one time where he had like a Bunsen burner who was working on, blueing a barrel of a gun and he got his arm too close to the flame and there was actually a tiny little blue flame on his arm. He was sweating out that much alcohol. Not quite an explosion, but flammable. There's, there's like a couple of percentage points of truth to that. The state ratified a prohibition law that banned the manufacturer and sale of intoxicating beverages, receiving a hearing, that a lot today, in that state in particular. It officially took effect in January of 1881, despite the new law saloons and Kansas businesses continue to operate. They did so, but either just paying the fine they were charged while selling alcohol or they would find loot holes in the state law that was already written. Local Temperance organizations worked with the state government to enforce and enhance the prohibition law, but generally failed. Popular support for prohibition in Kansas begins to decline opening the door for passionate prohibitionists to take matters into their own hands. So first and foremost, we have some foreshadowing here. I feel like this was a learning opportunity that wasn't taken. It does happen as well in Maine, which we'll talk about, but yeah. No, it was. If there's a morning in June, when a saloon owner named Mr. Dobson and Kyowa Kansas received quite the shot outside. He saw a woman clad in black nearly six feet tall and 180 pounds, walking towards his saloon with what looks like packages in her arms. That is a big lady friends. Yeah, I would not want to meet this woman face to face, but I find her fascinating and whenever I read about her, I want to clap.

Deja:

Is there a picture of her.

Kara:

Yes, and I'm going to tell you her name after this little narrative that I go through, but yes,

Deja:

See.

Kara:

look her up. She's great.

Deja:

Great. Can't wait.

Kara:

She came inside the men's establishment, walked directly to the counter and looked Mr. Dobson in the eyes. And she said, Mr. Dobson, I told you last spring to close this place, and you would not do it. Now I've come down with another Remens Strance get out of the way I do not want to strike you, but I'm going to break this place up. And with that, the woman began throwing the packages. She brought with her dobson probably ducked out of the way his paper up stones and bricks began to fly smashing through mirrors glasses windows and bottles. Once she was done at dobsons bar the woman went to two more and smashed those two. The final saloon she arrived at in Kyowa was kept by a Mr. Lewis. She spotted a younger man behind the bar and she told them young men come from behind that bar your mother did not raise you for such a place. Throw a break at the large rectangular mirror hold hanging over the bar that he was hiding behind. To the woman's displeasure, however, the mirror didn't break. She looked around for something to throw at it and then she spotted a billiards ball on the table and she said, thank God, then hurled the billiards ball at the mirror and breaking a hold of glass. Okay. So the woman who She did smashed. not listen to the row. She

Deja:

see this is how I would be.

Kara:

I am done.

Deja:

Like see, I applaud the other side of it. I do. But sometimes if you strike me the wrong way. Come out. Okay. Err.

Kara:

So she really did say those things she really did go to Kayaa and smash up the saloons

Deja:

Oh

Kara:

her

Deja:

man, I'm just

Kara:

name.

Deja:

kidding guys. I wouldn't do that.

Kara:

She really did do this. Her name was Carrie Nation. And I took that right out of her autobiography that she wrote night, you know, she was a member of Kansas of the Kansas chapter of the WC T, and she became extremely frustrated, obviously, with the lack of enforcement of the prohibition laws in the state. Before her first smash in Kayaa in 1900 nation wrote letters to the government officials about the saloons that were still operating, but nothing happened. Finally, she became so fed up that she took matters into her own hands. Later, that December of the same year in 1900 nation went to the most expensive prominent bar in Wichita, Kansas called the hotel carry saloon. There she took a hatchet with her and smashed everything inside. It took her all of 30 minutes and it was over by 830 in the morning. I'm looking at pictures of her, she is a very intimidating looking person man. And like there's so many pictures of her holding a hatchet. That's what she was famous for.

Deja:

You know, she... Oh, she kind of clean in my eyes.

Kara:

She's a little fanatic but she's great. At the hotel carry she destroyed about $3, 000 with a property which is 109,882 dollars in today's money. She was jailed for three weeks without being charged for a crime but she was bailed out by her husband who divorced her less than a year

Deja:

We

Kara:

later.

Deja:

don't like that man.

Kara:

That man wasn't an interesting fellow. I'm

Deja:

sure.

Kara:

He was just a guy, you know. And to be fair to that guy, she again, she was a little fanatic if you read her, her memoir.

Deja:

I can't wait. You're like,"Oh, whoa."

Kara:

Yeah.

Deja:

It's

Kara:

very passionate.

Deja:

understand. I mean, cool for

Kara:

But

Deja:

getting her

Kara:

I

Deja:

out, hopefully you

Kara:

can never

Deja:

stand by her but why did they divorce?

Kara:

Well, he felt that she was...

Deja:

Oh, god. Oh, yeah. Probably fear for his life.

Kara:

Yeah, it grew apart.

Deja:

Maybe a little bit. Yeah, I mean, that's fair.

Kara:

And it's like, well, I don't blame the guy.

Deja:

How tall was she? She's probably taller than She's six. him. Yeah, I'm looking at this picture of her next to this guy and I'm pretty sure they're not even on leveled ground and she's just the same height. I can't tell.

Kara:

She's a

Deja:

Yeah, I mean...

Kara:

tall lady.

Deja:

I get that there are strong opinions out there that lead to strong action. So I can understand not being able to tolerate that anymore. From a perspective. Hopefully it was good and hopefully it was all right,

Kara:

I

Deja:

hopefully.

Kara:

mean, you want to clap for her, but also keep in mind, right?

Deja:

Yeah, I mean...

Kara:

I'm

Deja:

not a person who loves violence. I feel like I speak a little aggressively sometimes, but I don't like acts of violence.

Kara:

I do want to give it

Deja:

to you. Oh,

Kara:

she never wanted to hurt anybody. She just wanted.

Deja:

That's good.

Kara:

Okay.

Deja:

This is why we have rage rooms now, but this is way in hindsight. You know what I mean? This is why we have rage rooms. This was her rage room. her rage. This was Dude, I saw a picture of a bar. It had a banner on it that said, all nations welcome except for Carrie.

Kara:

Yes.[ laughter ] Ah, Lions

Deja:

Talk

Kara:

and...

Deja:

about a TMZ headline.[ laughter ]

Kara:

We continue to travel to various towns between 1900 and 1906, with her hashtag at the reddit smashing saloons and gaining attention as she went. So every time

Deja:

I... I can't

Kara:

smash a saloon. There would be like a little crowd following her. Even the first

Deja:

Yeah,

Kara:

time she gained like...

Deja:

like a little posse.

Kara:

everyone. Uh huh.

Deja:

Oh,

Kara:

She called her smashings, hatchetations.

Deja:

Oh, we're

Kara:

We gained

Deja:

obsessed.

Kara:

quite the following going on.

Deja:

[ laughter ]

Kara:

We love her. She would speak at

Deja:

A

Kara:

very...

Deja:

hashlinging slasher.

Kara:

Yes. Various temperate events ensilled pewter hatchet pins to make money. She would use them... Yes. She would use the money she made to post her own bail whenever she got arrested.

Deja:

She could have billed if she wanted to get arrested. Well, she would... Queen. Queen... That's girl math. [ laughter ]

Kara:

Overall, nation smashed a number of saloons in the region and was arrested about 30 times. In the six years she was active. Well, she did not have any legislative impact on prohibition law. She did make sure the cause stayed alive in the eyes of the public was nothing more than a hatchet at a speech.

Deja:

Oh my gosh.

Kara:

[ laughter ] Yeah,

Deja:

I'm it's ladies. obsessed Next with these level. like, articles and

Kara:

Oh,

Deja:

newspaper.

Kara:

they're.

Deja:

I'm like, what I'm listening and like watching, looking at these like headlines, like 'carry nation fe-, I just like this word.' You know,'beaut, like, be, be-be-ut-tee'.

Kara:

Oh, yeah, mm-hmm.'Beaut.'

Deja:

'Carry Nation' fights in but- OH- dancehall.

Kara:

So, yes, Hit pause. Take some time to 'Blow Click of Carry Nation'. She is one of the most fascinating women I've read about a long time.

Deja:

I'm very interested in this. Yeah.

Kara:

It's great. So while the WTCU can- WCTU, I was getting confused. While the WCTU continued to build its influence over the U. S. and Carry Nation was performing her hatchetations across Kansas, another organization found its footing. The Anti-Solun League was founded in Ohio in 1893 and by 1895, it too was a national organization. The Anti-Solun League gained most of its following from evangelical churches amongst other groups across the country. This one was mostly men and some women but mostly men because the women were more drawn towards the WCTU, which is understandable. Anyway, its objective was to secure federal legislation prohibiting the manufacturer and sale of alcohol in the United States. They worked towards this goal by taking an active role in enforcing temperance laws in states that already had them, such as Kansas, gained public support and lobbied for politicians in line with their values. At the helm of this group was a young lawyer named Wayne Wheeler.

Deja:

Mr.

Kara:

Look

Deja:

Wheeler.

Kara:

at Wayne Wheeler's, let's look him up, fight a picture. Wayne Bidwell Wheeler was barely 30 years old when he earned his law degree, enjoyed the ASL. He was kind of scrawny, standing about 5 feet and 6 to 7 inches tall. He wore wire rim glasses, a well manicured clipped mustache and a tailored suit. He looked more like a bank teller than a political powerhouse but he would change America and how it operated for the next 30 years, 13 years, sorry, 1313.

Deja:

His description is giving the bell hop in, oh he's like a French bell hop or something like that in some Disney movie or something like that. I'm going to find it and I'll get back to you. But I am, this is what I am imagining in my head.

Kara:

Excellent.

Deja:

Just so you know, I'll find it. I

Kara:

believe that what the WCTU was doing was noble and very respectable. They were making a mistake in being involved in other college that were not call causes that were not provisioned. He and the ASL started advertising campaigns in different magazines and newspapers, opposing distilleries and brewers. Between the ASL's efforts and the WCTU's involvement in the fight for prohibition, the issue is beginning to be one of great public debate. People who wanted prohibition began calling themselves dry while those who supported the idea of keeping alcohol in their lives called themselves wet. So we're going to start here and that a lot. So how did distillers and brewers respond to all of this negative marketing about their products, they decided to fight fire with fire. Chapter three, old fashioned. So we're going to rewind back to 1862 about one year into the Civil War in response to both new taxes on alcohol to raise money on the war effort. German immigrant brewers forms the United States Brewer's Association in New York City with the goal to reform tax laws. So these guys were all about the tax laws. They weren't they weren't you know concerned about keeping their brewing up and running. They were mostly like we have to figure out these tax issues in 1869. The prohibition party was officially founded in support of the temperance. Founded in support of the temperance movement that was getting traction after the Civil War ended. The brewers Association saw them on the rise earlier in 1867, releasing a resolution against them stating we will use all means to stay the progress of this fanatical party and to secure our individual rights as citizens that we will sustain no candidate of whatever party in any election. This was an any way disposed towards the total abstinence cause.

Deja:

Yeah,

Kara:

passionate. Yeah, we tell those people.

Deja:

Like you, you tell them.

Kara:

Throughout the late 1800s and into the early 1900s before the First World War beer was becoming extremely popular in the United States, despite the rising calls for prohibition from the people in the dry camp. According to the United States Brewer's Association Brewer's Almanac from 1979, in 1865 about 2252 beer breweries existed producing 3.7 million barrels with adult consumption at about 3.4 gallons per person. Okay. So 1865, we've got just over 2,000 breweries producing 3.7 million barrels. Okay. Now these numbers are really interesting, and I'm gonna point them out because I'm a visual person if I don't see it. Whatever I say, just go over.

Deja:

Yeah.

Kara:

By 1910, they were about 1,568, so 1,568 breweries less breweries selling a whopping 59.6 million barrels that year with adult consumption at 20 gallons per adult. So even though the number of breweries went down, the amount of barrels sold skyrocketed.

Deja:

My liver hurts. Reading that number.

Kara:

crazy

Deja:

20 gallons per adult.

Kara:

Yes, of beer, not like pure alcohol, like we said before, but just beer.

Deja:

Okay. Well, we think about it, you know, 6 to 8 ounces, spread out over 365 days. Like That's, it's that's not not. too bad. Yeah, like we, but it's not crazy. It's like a beer, it's like a like a plan of beer a day.

Kara:

But you also have to remember with these numbers, too, there are lots of people who are sober. Yeah.

Deja:

They're just dividing it by the basic average population of America.

Kara:

Right. So just things to take into consideration. Yeah. I'm just kind of impressed that they. How few, like they, the number of breweries decreased, but the production went up. Yeah,

Deja:

it?

Kara:

isn't

Deja:

Yeah, that's what I'm like sitting here like wait,

Kara:

like how

Deja:

a lot by a lot too. So what I think happened when we go from 1865 to 1910. We also see the rise of the tycoons. So I have a funny feeling what happened was, is like some of these larger breweries bought out other ones. For example, if you look at like Miller Coors, they have like 15 to 20 other breweries all under their umbrella. Like those at this time if you got bought out, like say you had a company that got bought out by standard oil. Well, now you are standard oil. So I bet you anything. What happened was that there was, we have the rise of the tycoons and they can a lot of, yeah, a lot of buyouts and and just absorbing other breweries in not to mention technology. Like you detect the technology skyrocketed as well. And your distilleries are now like three stories tall versus maybe five feet tall. That's that's what I'm thinking is happening with those numbers. But that is still an impressive gain at almost 60 million barrels that year. Yeah, man, that's a lot of beer.

Kara:

10 beer brewers had control of almost 80% of the alcohol sold and saloons across US. Okay, that okay, that tells me they consolidated this growth and beer consumption was due to multiple factors that primarily stem from the ongoing industrial revolution occurring at the same time. Mass immigration into the United States brought Irish and German immigrants who knew better processes on how brew beer, making a tastier and better quality, also probably making more bottling beer was a new technology that was being used by business partners adult is bush and ever hard and hyzer. Used to make distribution a lot easier and more widespread by 1910 they were the largest brewer in the United States. And hyzer and other large brewers also began using refrigerated train cars buying out licensing from saloons pasteurization was invented to refine distribution. So there were a lot of different pieces of technology that actually made distribution for these large brewers a lot easier and faster. And then on top of that they're buying the licenses out from saloons, so not only did they own the beer they own the saloon or at least part of it distribution and production, worth the only things beer brewers were refining. In response to both the WCTU and the ASL brewers began to release their own advertising campaigns to sway public opinion. Many claimed that beer was liquid bread and beneficial to your health even depicting children being offered a glass. Perhaps became perhaps claimed that their beer was healthy was a healthy tonic passing it as a natural medication. Beer Brewers also began running advertisements claiming that beer due to its lower percentage in alcohol was healthier and more beneficial than hard liquor. These claims created a division between the disillers and the brewers that would undermine public support for both institutions. So while beer was gaining popularity, America's oldest wet institutions, distilleries, also had to go against the dry groups. Between 1893 and 1903, a committee of wet scholars conducted a scientific study of the effects of alcohol primarily in response to the WCTU's scientific temperates instruction run that they had in schools, which there, I kind of, I get it. They argued that there are claims that WCTU's claims had no basis in logic or scientific investigation, which I think is a fair Fairs, claim considering they were talking about bodies spontaneously, conbusting after drinking yeah. alcohol. And these distilleries are going to have the money to possibly actually do real studies. Yes. I don't think it's so like for either group, but they argue that their claims had no basis logic. The committee published their findings in 1903 and you can find them and you can read them under three titles. The liquor problem was one, substitutions for saloons was the next one and the last one was economic effects and the IRS prohibition units. The research gave way.

Deja:

That's gold,

Kara:

the liquor problem. Yeah, like the good one. The research gave wet groups, a scientific argument while fighting against prohibition at the time. And again, I kind of get it like I get the argument. Yeah, we just got to be careful not to fight BS with BS. Right. The stillers fought prohibition on a few different fronts going up against the ASL directly, they lobbied for wet friendly policies state federal, in federal and state governments using their immense

Deja:

in

Kara:

wealth and influence over the wet population both inside and outside of government until 1913 taxes coming from the stilleries made up over half of the government's revenue. A tax legislation from the school, so it wasn't like official, but it was a wartime legislation that was in place they never got rid The stilleries use this as a primary argument to keep wet policies in place. Unfortunately for them, however, the passage of the 16th amendment in 1913 created an official income tax policy that was an effect originally is a wartime policy. This one created a more stable income of revenue without relying exclusively on taxes from distillery and alcohol taking away the political advantage they had been leveraging since the Civil War. So now we have the, you know, these distilleries who were giving the government all kinds of money. And that influence goes down a little bit because the government found another way to make money that didn't involve as much alcohol consumption in an attempt to use religion as a defense whiskey distiller George Garvin Brown wrote a book entitled the Holy Bible repudiates prohibition. The book was essentially a collection of Bible quotes that could be taken in favor of Licker. And while it was a valiant effort, it certainly wasn't enough to win the fight against prohibition. Fighting for their reputation from both brewers and prohibitionists, distilleries found themselves in a fight of survival around the ropes. The early 1900s marked a period of great success for the temperance and prohibition movements, while brewers and distillers were fighting. Instead of focusing on the dry groups, brewers and distillers started to blame each other losing focus of what they were fighting against the wet versus dry struggle became so intense that the American public became divided on the issue whenever it came up. By the time the US entered World War I in 1917, the fight for prohibition finally hit the mainstream. Chapter 4. French 75. It's April 6, 1917. It's a front page of the Seattle Star newspaper brandishes its headline and big, bold, black letters quote "war" is begun today. Below the headline is an image of a ship cannons on it as Navy officers prepare to enter World War I along with multiple pieces of information such as other wars beginning in April along with World War I developments and the following was written beneath that. Washington, April 6 was declared at 1/13 this afternoon, and exactly that hour President Wilson signed the joint resolution passed by the House and the Senate declaring a state of war between the United States and Germany. An hour before the resolution was signed by Vice President Marshal at 12/13, these were the last formalities necessary to make the United States and ally of England, France, and Russia in a World War of democracies against atrocities. These acts followed by the passage followed the passage by the house 373 to 50 of the joint war resolution at 3 a. m. The first act of war the seizure of 91 German ships in American ports came swiftly after the vote in the house. See how sorry 1917 you can read it it's cool. The U. S. entered World War one after Wilson found out about the Zimmerman telegram a telegram describing plans from Germany to attack the U. S. through Mexico. It came after a slew of different problems with German U votes, attacking U. S. ships in the telegram was the final straw. Once the United States entered the First World War, all of the country's resources were aimed to aid the war effort. This included yeast and grains that were used by beer brewers and distillers to produce alcoholic beverages. At the same time, anti-German sentiment throughout the U. S. escalated very quickly. Anti-German propaganda began to spring up in the U. S. in a number of different ways. Street signs, names, schools, foods and even town names were changed. I listed some of my favorites here. Berlin, Michigan was changed to Marn, Michigan, for the Battle of the Marn. Sauer Kraut was called Liberty Cabbage. Liberty Cabbage is love it As as better than Freedom Cabbage I yeah. guess. This is pretty good. In Chicago streets named Lubbock, Frank Florte and Hamburg were changed to Dickens, Charleston and Shakespeare. Hamburgers were called Liberty sandwiches. Yes that I remember. German books were banned in the States and German immigrants were often harassed. German businesses suffered similar fates including German beer and brewing companies that really hard to build what they had. Both the ASL and the WCTU took advantage at the moment. They began telling the public that supporting brewers and buying beer took away from soldiers rations. The WCTU wrote a petition in 1918 aiming to ban alcohol during the war and send it to Woodrow Wilson in hopes of getting his support on the issue. While fighting for prohibition, the WCTU also raised money to purchase Liberty bonds that were used to pay for ambulance, food, clothing, and other resources on the front lines in Europe. They were actively working with social work camps and hospitals for soldiers who were returning home from the war, including holding celebratory weekend mean parties. So they were trying to do a lot of good work over there. Like the WCTU, the ASL leaned heavily into the anti-German propaganda, calling beer unpatriotic and dangerous for American soldiers fighting overseas. Unlike the WCTU, however, the ASL continued to make prohibition its priority. They went so far as to call saloon owners and patrons draft daughters, which is great. Driven by Wayne Wheeler, the organization used the word effort to gain support both in the public and within the government. They had a two-pronged attack here, which they could do because they weren't focused on anything except prohibition. That's the difference between the ASL and the WCTU aside men women thing. The ASL focused solely on prohibition where the WCTU did a bunch of other things to you. Even before the US entered the war, the ASL was on a role in gaining support for the prohibition cause. Wheeler targeted dry politicians from any party they came from. He didn't care about any other policy, as long as they were dry, you had the support of Wayne Wheeler. If you have the support of Wayne Wheeler, you're going to be fine in politics. That's how influential he was. If that politician was Republican, but dry, he got ASL support. If they were Democrat, but they were dry, they had Wayne Wheeler in their corner. This type of support created dry blocks in the government. Those were informal coalitions of lawmakers across party lines who supported prohibition legislation. So that's how they did it. How interesting. Yeah, they didn't care what you believed in or anything as long as you were dry. Wow, okay. They worked in the margins is what they talked about. They lobbied and they lobbied hard, targeting as much support as they could gather. Wayne Wheeler himself would be seen in the streets, donning his little business suit and his most smash, making speeches about the benefits of prohibition and what it could gain for the country as well as strengthening water mobilization. The organization was putting pressure on dry politicians as they supported to create dry legislation in Congress. In particular, the ASL partnered with Senator Mora, Shepard of Texas and Representative Andrew Volston to make sure the pressure cooker that was prohibition never ran out of steam. It was constant. On the state level, local chapters of the ASL focused on doing the same type of lobbying, but in the state governments. So in both state and federal governments the ASL would keep track of votes, so they would almost like a tally. They would keep track of dry vote, dry votes from politicians to see who was voting for what in terms of their causes and where their weak points were in their system. The outcome of the ASL's efforts were about to come to full on this, this thing's gonna, gonna boil over here soon. About 23 states had already passed state prohibition laws by 1916 because of these efforts, and, you know, people have their experience, but there's a lot going on here. Dry states were generally backed by the Supreme Court, who assisted them by facilitating trade arrangements between wet and dry states to ensure that the sale and manufacture of intoxicating beverages did not occur in dry states. In 1917 the read amendment was passed, penalizing anybody who imported alcohol into a dry state for personal consumption. Punishment varied from fines to imprisonment depending on what state you were in, or how much alcohol you had. Throughout 1917 Congress continued to pass nationwide legislation that constricted the manufacturing and zealous of alcohol in an effort to not only protect the dry states but redirect the grain and yeast resources to Europe before soldiers fighting in the war. In May of 1917 the Food Control Act was passed, which prohibited liquor producers from using food materials to produce intoxicating beverages, including beer. In November of 1918 he could see a building up and building up and building up in November of 1918 the War Time Prohibition Act was passed two months before the 18th Amendment was passed. The act banned the sale and intoxicating the sale of intoxicating beverages until the president declared an end to US mobilization of military and World War one. Wow. Yep, so it didn't just happen overnight like this, this was a very slow progression. Well, I find it interesting that the Supreme Court assisted trade arrangements between wet and dry states like that, I feel like that is totally out of their bounds. Well, they did. did. And then and then the read amendment was passed penalizing anyone who imported alcohol into a dry state for personal use. And the Constitution it it for bids Congress from passing any laws or amendments that affect interstate trade, so like how did that not get brought to the Supreme Court.

Deja:

I mean, it's the government.

Kara:

Man, that is, but I mean this all take all these steps here to take place in like a span of two years. Yeah. Man, that's a fast. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on there. And a Wayne Wheeler was very. What's the word involved. OK, in a lot of this. Chapter five on April 4th, 1917. Senator Maura Shepard of Texas introduced to the Senate judiciary a joint resolution on the prohibition of alcohol on a federal level in the form of an amendment to the Constitution. The report stated that an amendment should be added for prohibition prohibition for the following reasons. The popularity of prohibition amongst the public siding states already practicing the evils of alcohol using the same arguments as the temperance and prohibition movements, and Congress lacked the constitutional authority to regulate prohibition during peacetime, so it was now or never. All right. OK. The state judiciary thought it was great and they moved it forward to Congress in Congress. The proposal for a amendment was debated from July 31st, 1917 to August 1st, 1917, so they debated for a day. In Congress, the debates echoed those that others have debated for some time already, especially in the streets. The dry supporters argued that alcoholic beverages were evil and drinking was detrimental to the health and welfare of society. Now, I do want to remind you of all the nonsense that these people were going through early in this conversation, we have domestic abuse, we have violence, we have STDs floating around and all of that stuff. You're throwing down all the cards things, yeah, it's a whole thing. So when they say things like alcohol is evil, it sounds really silly, but it is important to remember why this is what it is.

Deja:

Yeah, because when you're when you're seeing this influence grow gradually over time and get worse and worse, essentially, I'm sure within the behavior of this bounce that is going to the saloon, you're going to blame the behavior on the common denominator and that's the substance.

Kara:

correct let's see alcohol

Deja:

and then you're being you're becoming a, almost like a battered wife and some,

Kara:

yeah, depending on the person for sure, and then there's other guys who were not,

Deja:

depending on the,

Kara:

yeah, and then there's like other dudes who did not beat their wives. They were probably great husbands and fathers, but,

Deja:

for sure.

Kara:

That a national prohibition would also prevent smuggling from wet states to dry states a common problem that the Supreme Court had been dealing with. The wets responded by pointing out that a national prohibition on a federal level was giving too much power to the federal government by giving it the right to control individuals social or personal habits. They also argued that it was overstepping the state's authority to police their own population, so they're bringing up a lot of legal things here. Others claimed that the new amendment would violate the American tradition of self-governance, and all of those arguments were very valid on both sides. I would argue that Senator Henry Cabot Lodge from Massachusetts had a very strong argument that would overshadow the next 13 to 15 years. He believed in argued that enforcing prohibition on a national and federal scale would be impossible for the federal government to take on, and the laws put in place for the amendment would easily be disobeyed. But, in the end, the dry side of the argument prevailed by passing the amendment through Congress, but the two thirds vote, because remember, in Congress, you needed to use your vote in the Senate and the House. So this one passed in the Senate, and before they sent it to the House, the Senate did add a little blurb about states holding authority over enforcement, just, you know, we've got to get that out of the way, it's fine. So it was sent to the House, goes to the state, goes to the Senate first, then it goes to the House. So so far our steps are judiciary, it's got to pass through there, Senate, and then House, and then it goes in states. So if you ever want to pass an amendment, leave this a step to take, the House debated the amendment for a day, kinda like the Senate, before it passed and sent it out to the states for ratification, all in December 18, 1917. The states were given a span of seven years to ratify it, and the goal for a successful ratification by the states was three quarters of the states to agree. I think we're at 48 states now. It only took about a month. The 19th amendment was ratified by the state's January of 1919, approved on January 16 with the signature of the Secretary of State prohibition was set to be put in effect one year later on January 17, 1920. And I actually have the amendment here, and going to read it to you. This is how it is written, you can read it right now. But the amendment is written as such. After one year from the ratification of this article, the manufacturer, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liqueurs within the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. The Congress and several states shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation, that's a little blurred there. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several states as provided in the constitution within seven years from the date of submission hereof by the states of Congress. So that is the amendment. What do you notice about the amendment? That's all you get. It's literally some senses, right? Yeah, I feel like there can be a lot of loopholes. Right.

Deja:

Quite vague in general. Like, for example, intoxicating liqueurs, but what about alcohol that is used in medicines? What about alcohol that is used to make explosives like the 1919 Boston molasses flood, it generalized.

Kara:

What constitutes as an intoxicating beverage? Well, it's an intoxicating liquor. Even still, what makes it intoxicated? What what what are we aiming for here? Right? Like how much alcohol do you need to make it intoxicating? So, the amendment has no instruction on enforcement or what would happen if the law was broken to fix this they knew when it passed a legislative act needed to be passed to provide clear guidelines for prohibition. We need some clarity. Andrew Bolson, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, engineered and championed an act that would take care of this problem and Wayne Wheeler helped him write Okay. Good old Wayne Wheeler. The National Prohibition Act, or the Volsdaed Act, was passed in Congress in late 1919. When it got to Woodrow Wilson's desk, he vetoed it, actually. But his veto was overwritten by Congress. The act was finalized on October 28th, 1919 in preparation for the 18th amendment to go into effect. So this is what this thing says and we're gonna end it with our lovely bullset act because it is very important that we should all remember it. The bullset act prohibited the sale, production, and transportation of any beverage that contained more than half a percent or more of alcohol. 0.5% or more, that's like, maybe sourcow. Yeah, Kambucha some sauces, you know. It's Yeah, very

Deja:

it's wonderful.

Kara:

low. And a lot of the people who voted for this thing, especially in the public and even some members of Congress thought that you could at least have beer and wines like light beer, light wine, they did not expect this half percent. Yeah, so just to complicate it further, when people ask how this thing passed, that that miscommunication there or the surprise half a percent was a surprise. So this meant this month, that beer, light wines fell under this law, something that many weren't expecting any establishment found to be in violation of those terms were faced with civil or criminal penalties, including property of porphyry or heavy fines, the act also gave the federal government some power to use prohibition agents to aid in enforcement of the law. There were some exceptions to this rule that the act included at the time it was passed. Alcohol sold for medicinal or religious purposes were permitted as well as a sale of alcohol for manufacturing processes. This act also does not prohibit drinking alcohol as long as the alcohol was obtained in a legal manner. So exceptions to the rule, medicine, religion, manufacturing, and you can drink it as long as you got it legally, which is interesting. The 18th Amendment and the Bolsonaro act would be put into the test as soon as prohibition would go into effect at midnight on January 17th, 1920, and that's where I'm going to end this episode until we get some parts to where we're really going to get into the dirty. Yeah, this is where the dumpster fire really starts to take That's right.

Deja:

Yeah. Oh, goodness. You know, want to kind of bleed off of that very last part with the percentage of alcohol and listing, you know, you're saying sourcrown kombucha. You can't even to this day, EBT like. Food stamps. they won't cover kombucha because it can be Yeah. categorized

Kara:

Yeah,

Deja:

as an alcoholic beverage, which it like for me when I had my first son, I had food stamps and I was trying to be healthy thinking, you know, like this is one way to like help after I had my son. And I wasn't able to get it covered and it's like six bucks like, oh, wow. But yeah, I mean, even to this day, I understand to a certain point, but can really you'd have drink to 20 of them to equal like a half a I beer. mean, I would be ill from like stomach ulcers, probably before I actually would get drunk from drinking 20 kombucha. Yeah, the acidity alone would be acidity alone will burn my esophagus all developed like all kinds of issues with, you know, acid reflex or something. So it's, it's just so interesting that even now little things like that. So I, you

Kara:

always see the echo of prohibition and oh, yeah. Yeah, especially like the crime elements are still around now. I got an American literature question for The great Gatsby, Jay, Jim Gatsby. What did he do to make his millions? I haven't read it since high school. He was probably a bootlegger. Yep, but how did he get away with it legally? Probably paid off the cops like everybody else. Not necessarily. He made his money by running drug stores. Oh, so he based him off of remiss George remiss. Yeah, that's what George remiss did. Huh? So Gatsby because he was the clean cut handsome guy who wore that with a metal. Like the mob put Gatsby as like the poster child. And he's like, Gatsby made all of his millions by owning a bunch of drug stores, but those drug stores were actually transporting large volumes of alcohol, but the police couldn't touch it because it's a drug store chain. And so he could sell alcohol to like the chief of police of New York because it's coming from a medicinal purpose. That's how the cannabis movement got started. It's like there's there should be research in terms of like the medical benefits of this. And that's why a lot of states changed like Arizona, Colorado, California. They said like, okay, well, if it's for a medical purpose, then yeah, you can go buy it. And then you could just go to like, literally any doctor.

Deja:

A little Yeah, store. I remember taking my mom to a cannabis doctor in Tempe and for$300 a year, he would disp, okay, here you go for migraines. Mm hmm. So like I feel like the whole medicinal part of this, like now you see it in literature and then you see it in recent history. And it's that perfect argument that you cannot separate the literature from the culture. It is, yeah, I and I find that fascinating. My grandfather grew up in Elgin, Illinois. And Elgin, Illinois today isn't really a religious place, but my grandfather remembers as a kid because he grew up in the 20s. He remembered that like every house was a church. Every house would fill out the documentation saying that there were a church. One that made him tax exempt.

Kara:

Every father was a rabbi priest. Yeah, yeah. And so like every house was like some sort of a church and everybody put in for the rabbi or priest license from the state. And there was obviously no qualifications for you just pencil whipped out a document and like, okay, cool, I cannot marry people.

Deja:

or a So like, yeah, like everybody was was doing that.

Kara:

Yep, we're going to get into all of that next episode. Yeah.

Deja:

Yeah, I was going to

Kara:

see details. But yeah, this is fascinating. I hope we're learning. Yeah, you put some work into this. I thought I had a good idea of like how it all started turns out I had no idea. I knew Susan B. Anthony.

Deja:

Yeah. Uh, Woodward Wilson. Nation. And yeah, that I've heard of her. Why I'm going to be doing a love reading. Why in the hell was that never taught in high school? I took AP US history, never brought up

Kara:

Really?

Deja:

100. Well, I didn't take AP history, but yeah, 100% yeah. I took I took for US history classes in college between community college and university. Never brought up. I had a horrible history teacher who personality wise, he sucked as an individual. I don't like him. I still think about him, but he I went to a small school where he taught multiple classes. So he was like my history teacher, my government teacher. So I am he he was the guy that had I've probably talked about it, but he had like the old siren alarms for the gas bombs. So he had like 30 seconds once it's sick. Yeah. People would fall asleep in class and he'd crank them in their next to their desk and it's like the whole the whole neighborhood's awake, bro. Yeah, all the dogs are barking now everyone's down on their knees. Ready to read me hands and knees like duck and cover but yeah, but I'm just shocked that like I never I love you know, just throughout history and my own history, adventure, I've never heard of her and I think I might put her on my wall in my room.

Kara:

Yeah, you can all send

Deja:

a

Kara:

you

Deja:

picture of her. Yeah,

Kara:

she's

Deja:

Oh,

Kara:

pretty

Deja:

the great. Yeah. possibilities Kara there's a lot of drawings like comics of her and stuff like that. But I think you could do your own Cara to us on it. Okay.

Kara:

All right, and there we have it. That is how prohibition came into effect. Next time we're going to talk about the early days of prohibition. What happened?

Deja:

We're going to talk in transatlantic accents the whole time. We're going to be talking like this star.

Kara:

I'll let you do that.

Deja:

I'm not very good at it. Put some like murder mystery sound in the background, just the whole time or just.

Kara:

Oh, yes.

Deja:

I'll

Kara:

let you read my little narratives. So every time there's not a bullet point to

Deja:

Yeah,

Kara:

narrative, you can read those.

Deja:

I'll try, I'll try,

Kara:

I'll try. Excellent.

Deja:

I'll try,

Kara:

Alright, so that's it. That's all we have. Join us next time for port 2 of Prohibition. I'm very Yep. excited for it. Should be fun. We probably, for those of you who are wondering 'cause I know there's going to be some, we probably won't hit Al Capone until later. Just hold onto your bridges. Look at there. But that's all I have. Otherwise, usually we ask what you guys have going on, but considering I'm hogging the next two or three episodes, I'll just skip that for now. However, please follow us, give us a like, give us a subscribe, leave a review. It helped us out a lot. Share the show with your friends or people you know. That would be good as well. If you have any questions, you can email us at the day's dumpsterfire@gimo.com. We have a website, thedaysdumpsgefier.com, or you can hit us up on Instagram at the days, dumpsterfire, all the things. I'm sure you see it patterned. Otherwise. Yep, and don't be don't be afraid to check out the show notes. I'll be putting links to some are our other episodes that are kind of related to this. Like this is right around the same time as the 1919 Boston molasses flood. So that would be direct correlation of the Prohibition. Yep. Because that whole thing started because of this and some poor engineering. Yep. So yeah, be sure to check out the show notes because I'll have links in there for some relatable episodes while you're waiting for the next one to come out. Cool. Keep it a hot mess guys. right.

Deja:

All Peace out. Bye.[Music][Music]