A TOAST TO THE END OF PROHIBITION

Danville

DEC. 5 is the anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition --- once known As
"the Noble Experiment" and one of the most alarming examples of the law of
unintended consequences in U.S. history. As we continue our war on drugs,
the saga of our earlier war on alcohol is a reminder of what can go wrong
when good intentions become matters of legislation.

Alcohol has been part of America since the Puritans. "Dramshops" and taverns
are among the earliest businesses on record, and 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. "whiskey
breaks" were common in all 13 colonies.

Attempts to curtail consumption also are nothing new. Dr. Benjamin Rush, one
of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the first great voice
for sobriety, wrote of a man who progressed from "toddies to grog to slings
to raw rum" --- a progression echoed in the marijuana-to-everything else
argument of today. While Rush and some of the earliest drys were against
hard liquor only, others called for complete abstinence from alcohol,
signing the "T" pledge --- "T" for "total" --- and thus introducing in 1834
the word "teetotaler" to the vocabulary.

Alcohol abuse was not something the "drys" (a term they embraced) invented
out of thin air. Alcoholism in the early 19th century is estimated to have
afflicted 8 percent of the population --- today's figure is 10 percent ---
and after the Civil War, the percentage rose even higher.

Moreover, to raise money for the Union, Lincoln levied high taxes on
liquor --- a measure which, although meant to be temporary, raked in so much
money so fast that the federal government soon grew addicted to this new
stream of revenue and had no desire to lose it.

The early temperance societies --- and the later ones, for that matter ---
were not, as the common stereotype has it, a bunch of smalltown,
small-minded prudes. Far from it --- almost all of them supported such
progressive causes as the abolition of slavery, women's rights, prison
reform, child labor laws and, later, universal free education. Nor were they
all convinced that government could or should be involved in an individual's
decision to drink or abstain; many felt this choice had to come from the
heart, not the government, and vigorously opposed legislation.

All this changed in the 1890s, with the founding of the Anti-Saloon League,
an extremely well-organized grassroots group whose only cause was legalized
national prohibition. No more progressivism or debates over law vs.
individual choice; they demanded a constitutional amendment.

Just after World War I, on Oct. 28, 1919, they received it: the 18th
Amendment, making the "manufacture, sale or transportation" of alcohol ---
except within the home or for medical, religious or industrial purposes ---
illegal.

Prohibition became official in America in 1920, at 12.01 a.m. on Jan. 17. In
the hours before dawn that day, there were three whiskey heists in Chicago
alone. By the time Prohibition was repealed 13 years later New York City was
arraigning 50,000 violators annually; one out of 12 government revenue
agents had been fired "for cause"; Al Capone pulled off the St. Valentines
Day Massacre, and one of California's giant redwoods was, raided and found
to contain a still. The chance to make money off a banned substance proved
irresistible. Speakeasies bloomed, selling "bathtub gin" right under the
eyes of bribed policemen.

Death rates soared: 500 gang --- land killings in Chicago, 12,000 deaths
from drinking denatured industrial alcohol. Alcohol-related crime affected
every level of society, as revenue agents gunned down petty suspects as
casually as crime lords gunned down each other.

Socially destructive as all this violence was, the accompanying corruption
was even worse; as New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia pointed out, it would
take 250,000 policemen to enforce Prohibition and 250,000 more to police the
police.

By the late 20s, only the most diehard "drys" still supported the 18th
Amendment, and on Dec. 5, 1933 --- "the happiest day of this Great
Depression," as one, newspaper said --- the 21st Amendment repealed the
18th. Prohibition was finished. The 18th Amendment remains the only one ever
revoked.

Was the 18th Amendment a good idea?

Alcohol consumption did go down during Prohibition --- although mostly it
just went underground. But crime shot way up, as America as a whole
discovered within itself an unexpectedly widespread willingness to place
personal freedom (not to mention profit) above the law. More important yet
was our discovery of just how difficult it is to legislate human behavior,
even when that behavior is self-destructive.

Our current war on drugs may be noble, but perhaps the early temperance
workers were right: The decision of what goes into our bodies must be made
in our hearts, not jammed down our throats.

Cynthia Bass is an Examiner columnist.