PROHIBITION – A COUNTER PRODUCTIVE EXPERIMENT

The story of alcohol in America began as early as Mayflower, the British ship, reached the American coast. Mayflower and the following ships carried plenty of beer – far more than water. One reason was that the water was often contaminated, therefore the beer was safer to drink, and the other one related to passengers´ preference to spend the long and exhausting nine-week voyage in a pleasant alcoholic stupor. Soon after landing, the settlers began making wine out of wild grapes. Rum, whiskey and hard cider were also popular drinks that time. Many American farms had a sizable apple orchard not to make apple pies, but to make hard cider. Cider was drunk daily by both young and old. Culinary historian Michael Pollan stated that “In rural areas, cider took the place not only of wine and beer but of coffee and tea, juice and even water. Indeed, in many places cider was consumed more freely than water, even by children" (qtd. in Carlson par. 18).
In the 19th century alcohol consumption rocketed and Americans drank “more than five gallons of pure alcohol per person per year“ (Carlson par. 20). Historian W.J. Rorabaugh in his 1979 book, The Alcoholic Republic, wrote “Americans drank at home and abroad, alone and together, at work and at play. They drank before meals, with meals and after meals. They drank while working in the fields and while traveling across half a continent." (qtd. in Carlson par. 20).
Meanwhile, the American drinkers were joined by waves of European immigrants, who drank no less. Europeans brought the alcoholic crafts of their native countries, so the American melting pot was enriched with Scots-Irish distillers, German brewers and Italian winemakers. Liquor was sold in Saloons, which often served also as the only pla...

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... and press for temperance. Their ultimate goal – a prohibition amendment to the Constitution – was reached only after The Anti-Saloon League (ASL) was established.
The ASL, under the shrewd and ruthless leadership of Wayne Wheeler, became the most successful single issue lobbying organization in American history, willing to form alliances with any and all constituencies that shared its sole goal: a constitutional amendment that would ban the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol. They united with Democrats and Republicans, Progressives, Populists, and suffragists, the Ku Klux Klan and the NAACP, the International Workers of the World, and many of America's most powerful industrialists including Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and Andrew Carnegie – all of whom lent support to the ASL's increasingly effective campaign (“Roots of Prohibition” par. 6).