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One snowy evening in
January of 1826,

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the Reverend Lyman Beecher,

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pastor of
the First Congregational Church

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of Litchfield, Connecticut,
rode out to visit

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a parishioner in need.

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The young man had been among his
very first converts to Christ,

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Beecher remembered,
"always most affectionate

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and kind."

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but something was wrong.

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His wife was weeping.

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"What is the matter?"
Beecher asked her.

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She said that her husband's
fondness for drink had

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overcome his love
for her... and for God.

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Beecher had heard the same sad
story from parishioners again

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and again: Jobs lost,
life savings swallowed up, wives

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and children beaten and abused,
all because of alcohol.

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Now he resolved
to do something about it.

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Like slavery, the traffic
in ardent spirits must come to

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be regarded as sinful...

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let the temperate part of
the nation awake and reform.

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The impassioned
sermons Lyman Beecher wrote

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and delivered on successive
Sundays echoed sentiments

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that had been heard for at least
half a century in America.

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But Beecher was so eloquent,
and the scourge of alcohol had

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become so pervasive, that when
those sermons were published,

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it set in motion events even
he could not have imagined.

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For the next 100 years,
Americans would argue fiercely

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over what to do about the
age-old problem of drunkenness.

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The battle would eventually
result in an amendment

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to the Constitution of
the United States... prohibition.

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It was meant
to eradicate an evil.

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Instead, it would turn millions
of law-abiding Americans

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into law-breakers.

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It's this question of how
much can we tell other people

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about how to live their lives.

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How much can we
regulate society?

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Can we really fix
all the problems

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that we see around us?

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It's the great example of what
happens when different groups

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have different ideas
about what kind of behavior

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is acceptable.

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Prohibition would pit

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the countryside
against the cities,

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natives against newcomers,

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Protestants against Catholics.

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It would raise questions about
the proper role of government,

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about individual
rights and responsibilities,

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about means and ends
and unintended consequences,

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and who is... and who is not...
a real American.

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How the hell did that happen?

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How does a freedom-loving
people, a nation that's built

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on individual rights and
liberties, decide in one kind

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of crazed moment, it almost
seems, that we can tell people

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how to live their lives?

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Virtually every part
of the Constitution is

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about expanding human freedom
except prohibition, in which

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human freedom was being limited.

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When people cross the
line between our essential

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character as Americans and
some other superseding vision

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of what we should be, then
we get in trouble.

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They say that the British
cannot fix anything properly

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without a dinner.

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But I am sure
the Americans can fix nothing

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without a drink.

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If you meet, you drink; If you
make acquaintance, you drink;

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If you close a bargain,
you drink.

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They drink because it is hot;
They drink because it is cold.

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If successful in elections,
they drink and rejoice;

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If not, they drink and swear.

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They begin to drink
early in the morning;

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They leave off late at night;

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They commence
it early in life, and they

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continue it, until they
soon drop into the grave.

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Captain Frederick Marryat.

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For most of
the nation's history, alcohol

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was at least as American
as apple pie.

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The hold of the "Mayflower,"
the ship that carried

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the first Puritans to
Massachusetts, was filled

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with barrels of beer.

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At Valley Forge,
George Washington did his best

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to make sure his men had half
a cup of rum every day...

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and half a cup of whiskey
when the rum ran out.

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John Adams began each day
with a tankard of hard cider.

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Thomas Jefferson collected
fine French wines and dreamed

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of a day when American
vineyards could match them.

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After Andrew Jackson's
inauguration, so many drunken

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admirers crowded into
the White House, the celebration

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had to be moved out onto
the lawn to save the furniture.

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Young Abraham Lincoln sold
whiskey by the barrel

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from his grocery store
in New Salem, Illinois.

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"Intoxicating liquor,"
he later remembered,

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was "used by everybody,
repudiated by nobody."

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A young Maryland slave named
Frederick Douglass said

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whiskey made him feel
"like a president,"

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self-assured "and independent."

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Physicians recommended whiskey...
and cider and brandy and rum

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and beer... as far better for
their patients than water

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hauled from muddy rivers
and stagnant pools.

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Clergymen drank.

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So did craftsmen
and canal-diggers,

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and the crowds of men

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who turned out
for barn-raisings and baptisms,

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funerals and elections
and public hangings.

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It's part
of ritual celebrations.

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It's part of being social.

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It's part of the gathering.

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And it's always been there.

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It just tells you something.
Maybe we'll never really have

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an answer for why we need it.

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But if you look at
the history, it's clear we do.

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Americans routinely
drank at every meal...

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including breakfast.

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In many towns a bell rang
twice a day to signal what was

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called "grog-time" so that men
could stop whatever they were

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doing in factories and
offices, mills and farm fields

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to raise a jug.

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In farm families,
in New England particularly,

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there was a barrel of cider
by the door, and you came

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in and you would have
your ladle of cider.

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Now this wasn't as powerful
as whiskey, but, you know,

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it wasn't the kind
of cider that we have

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with doughnuts today.

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For thousands of
years, human beings had been

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fermenting fruits
and grains to create

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mildly intoxicating beverages.

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But by the 1800s, rum, whiskey,
and other distilled spirits...

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with significantly higher
alcohol content... had become

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increasingly available.

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All of a sudden,
you have all of these people

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growing grain... growing corn,
growing oats, growing wheat...

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that can be distilled
into whiskey.

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And so all of these
rituals that had been part

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of the human experience where
farmers would get up and you

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would have beer with breakfast
and beer with lunch

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and beer with your afternoon
break and beer with dinner.

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But you're talking
about 2% beer.

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But now all of a sudden,
people are drinking

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whiskey instead.

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And it took a while for
the culture to recognize that,

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"Wait a minute. There's
something really wrong here."

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By 1830, the average
American over 15 years of age

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drank the equivalent of 88
bottles of whiskey every year,

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3 times as much as their
21st-century descendants drink.

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Americans spent more money
on alcohol each year

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than the total expenditures of
the Federal Government.

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Inebriates filled
the nation's poorhouses

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and workhouses and prisons.

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More and more, people began
to worry that the country was

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becoming a nation of drunkards.

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And as the wages of many
husbands and fathers and sons

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went to the grog shop,
women and children became

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victims... mistreated, abandoned,

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deprived of food and shelter.

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Alcohol consumption

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at that point was

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a sign of masculinity
that took away masculinity.

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So that you drank to show
that you were a man, but you get

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drunk, and all of a sudden you
can't provide for your family,

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you can't do your job.

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You become violent.

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There are so many references
to the degradation

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of Saturday night.

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Implicit that a man would
go out, first of all,

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he would leave the home.

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He would go to a saloon.
He would get drunk,

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and he would come home
and do whatever he wanted.

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This is a time when there is
no divorce; When the concept

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of police protection for
domestic violence doesn't exist;

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The concept of marital rape
can't be discussed.

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But you can discuss it through
alcoholism and what alcohol

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does to men.

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On April 5, 1840,
6 hard-drinking friends met

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in a tavern in Baltimore
and pledged to one another

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that they would never
take another drink.

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They established
what they proudly called

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a "society of
reformed drunkards"

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and named it after the first
president of the Republic.

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Word spread.

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Soon Washingtonian societies
sprang up in every state.

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At meetings across the country,

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thousands of alcoholics, many in
tears, came forward to confess

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their own weaknesses
to each other

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and sign
the Washingtonian pledge.

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Eventually more than half
a million men would add

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their names to the rolls.

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There was
a way that the Washingtonians,

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by telling their
own stories to each other

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and to people that
they wished to recruit,

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there was
a great deal of power to that.

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It was very personal.
It wasn't some

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authoritative or
authoritarian figure from

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on high telling you what to do.

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It was one-to-one.

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But clergymen
denounced the Washingtonians

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as ungodly because they
dared claim drunkards could be

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reformed by their fellow
sufferers

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without joining any church.

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The young country was in the
midst of a new era of reform,

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fueled by a Protestant great
awakening, that called upon

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00:12:50,623 --> 00:12:53,959
every believer to help
cleanse the country

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of every sort of sin.

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00:12:56,629 --> 00:12:59,531
The same reformers who were
leading the crusade to abolish

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slavery saw drinking and the
damage it did to individuals,

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families, and communities
as no less sinful,

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00:13:08,174 --> 00:13:10,709
no less corrupting.

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00:13:10,710 --> 00:13:13,512
They called
their movement temperance.

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00:13:13,513 --> 00:13:16,782
At first, advocates preached
mere moderation...

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00:13:16,783 --> 00:13:21,787
only ardent spirits like
rum and whiskey were off-limits.

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00:13:21,788 --> 00:13:25,691
But soon, many began demanding
total abstinence

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00:13:25,692 --> 00:13:29,061
from all forms of alcohol...
insisting

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00:13:29,062 --> 00:13:32,932
on capital "T"...
Total... abstinence.

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00:13:34,234 --> 00:13:36,568
New church-based organizations
sprang up:

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00:13:36,569 --> 00:13:39,104
The Sons of Temperance,

214
00:13:39,105 --> 00:13:43,475
Knights of Jericho, Templars
of Honor and Temperance;

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00:13:43,476 --> 00:13:47,112
Independent
Order of Good Templars.

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00:13:47,113 --> 00:13:50,949
Some temperance societies
sponsored separate branches

217
00:13:50,950 --> 00:13:52,918
for African Americans.

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00:13:52,919 --> 00:13:55,454
Frederick Douglass, who had
escaped slavery,

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00:13:55,455 --> 00:13:58,090
took the pledge
of total abstinence,

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00:13:58,091 --> 00:13:59,758
saying, "If we could but make"

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00:13:59,759 --> 00:14:03,362
"the world sober, we
would have no slavery...

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00:14:03,363 --> 00:14:07,432
"all great reforms,"
he said, "go together."

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00:14:07,433 --> 00:14:11,570
Tens of thousands of boys
and girls pledged never to touch

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00:14:11,571 --> 00:14:14,807
alcohol and enlisted
in what was called

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00:14:14,808 --> 00:14:17,910
the Cold Water Army.

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00:14:17,911 --> 00:14:20,078
Women were very
big in these things.

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00:14:20,079 --> 00:14:23,882
The first expressive life of
women in America was in these

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00:14:23,883 --> 00:14:25,184
reform movements.

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00:14:25,185 --> 00:14:29,922
They were almost always
what were called auxiliaries.

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00:14:29,923 --> 00:14:32,524
An auxiliary was to be
something that was to be

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00:14:32,525 --> 00:14:33,926
of help along the way.

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00:14:33,927 --> 00:14:36,161
But while the men are off
working or drinking

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00:14:36,162 --> 00:14:40,699
or goofing off, the women
more and more organized.

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00:14:40,700 --> 00:14:43,502
Although it was
thought unseemly for women

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00:14:43,503 --> 00:14:47,906
to work alongside men, even
in the cause of moral reform,

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00:14:47,907 --> 00:14:52,544
they would soon put themselves
at the center of the struggle

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00:14:52,545 --> 00:14:53,879
against alcohol.

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00:14:53,880 --> 00:14:57,883
When Susan B. Anthony was
refused permission even to

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00:14:57,884 --> 00:15:01,520
speak at a Sons of Temperance
meeting, she walked out

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00:15:01,521 --> 00:15:05,824
and formed the nation's first
women's temperance society

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00:15:05,825 --> 00:15:10,562
in which men could neither
vote nor hold office.

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00:15:10,563 --> 00:15:13,599
Her friend
Elizabeth Cady Stanton became

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00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:16,870
the organization's
first president.

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00:15:19,339 --> 00:15:21,273
For the next 50 years,
temperance

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00:15:21,274 --> 00:15:26,578
and a far more radical cause,
women's suffrage, would be

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00:15:26,579 --> 00:15:28,715
inextricably linked.

247
00:15:30,116 --> 00:15:33,218
The early temperance
movement was not about getting

248
00:15:33,219 --> 00:15:35,287
everyone else to
give up alcohol.

249
00:15:35,288 --> 00:15:36,054
I mean, it was voluntary.

250
00:15:36,055 --> 00:15:39,691
You never would have suggested
that you force people to do it

251
00:15:39,692 --> 00:15:42,227
because then it wasn't
sincere, it wasn't

252
00:15:42,228 --> 00:15:42,695
real reform.

253
00:15:42,696 --> 00:15:46,632
You had to really have
this come from within.

254
00:15:46,633 --> 00:15:48,533
Then you start to get
the argument that, well, maybe

255
00:15:48,534 --> 00:15:51,603
we do need to regulate this
because maybe we have a lot

256
00:15:51,604 --> 00:15:55,073
of people in our society who
don't have the strength

257
00:15:55,074 --> 00:15:59,845
or the moral fortitude to
do this themselves.

258
00:15:59,846 --> 00:16:04,349
There is a belief
in human perfectibility,

259
00:16:04,350 --> 00:16:07,085
that humans can be perfect.

260
00:16:07,086 --> 00:16:10,489
And alcohol is the fly
in the ointment.

261
00:16:10,490 --> 00:16:12,391
You could have
a perfect marriage

262
00:16:12,392 --> 00:16:13,492
if it weren't for alcohol.

263
00:16:13,493 --> 00:16:15,827
You could have a perfect husband
if it weren't for alcohol.

264
00:16:15,828 --> 00:16:17,562
You could have
a perfect community

265
00:16:17,563 --> 00:16:19,564
if it weren't for alcohol.

266
00:16:19,565 --> 00:16:23,235
And alcohol, in a way,
becomes the scapegoat

267
00:16:23,236 --> 00:16:26,905
for all of the failures
in society.

268
00:16:26,906 --> 00:16:29,308
If you didn't have alcohol
you wouldn't have poverty,

269
00:16:29,309 --> 00:16:31,043
you wouldn't have
domestic violence.

270
00:16:31,044 --> 00:16:33,545
You certainly wouldn't
have prostitution.

271
00:16:33,546 --> 00:16:36,848
And the solution that the people
in the temperance movement

272
00:16:36,849 --> 00:16:39,952
came up with is
that the only moral solution

273
00:16:39,953 --> 00:16:45,924
to this problem is
to get rid of the drink.

274
00:16:45,925 --> 00:16:49,328
Reformers petitioned
state and local governments,

275
00:16:49,329 --> 00:16:53,065
demanding that taverns
and hotels, groceries

276
00:16:53,066 --> 00:16:54,533
and apothecary shops

277
00:16:54,534 --> 00:16:57,736
be barred from selling alcohol.

278
00:16:57,737 --> 00:17:01,106
Moderates warned
they were going too far.

279
00:17:01,107 --> 00:17:04,076
"Very little good,"
one clergyman wrote,

280
00:17:04,077 --> 00:17:08,081
"has ever been done
by the absolute shall."

281
00:17:09,515 --> 00:17:11,650
It's not that sin is
so terrible, it's that sin

282
00:17:11,651 --> 00:17:12,651
is very attractive.

283
00:17:12,652 --> 00:17:14,720
And that's why we're
always tempted to do it.

284
00:17:14,721 --> 00:17:17,856
So what you need, then,
is to help people to overcome

285
00:17:17,857 --> 00:17:18,390
this temptation.

286
00:17:18,391 --> 00:17:21,293
And if necessary, sometimes,
you have to make sin illegal.

287
00:17:21,294 --> 00:17:23,662
There was a sense of
the extraordinary difficulty

288
00:17:23,663 --> 00:17:26,031
of overcoming the hurdle,
the idea that the temptation

289
00:17:26,032 --> 00:17:28,433
was so powerful
that some people, at least,

290
00:17:28,434 --> 00:17:31,269
perhaps the least-advantaged
people in society, just couldn't

291
00:17:31,270 --> 00:17:35,207
be trusted and that therefore
someone needed to do something

292
00:17:35,208 --> 00:17:37,609
about it from the outside,
not so much for the sake

293
00:17:37,610 --> 00:17:38,710
of those people as for the sake

294
00:17:38,711 --> 00:17:41,714
of their families and for
the sake of their children.

295
00:17:43,583 --> 00:17:48,053
In 1851, Neal Dow,
the wealthy mayor of Portland,

296
00:17:48,054 --> 00:17:52,124
Maine, gathered thousands
of signatures on a petition

297
00:17:52,125 --> 00:17:56,361
demanding the state
legislature enact a law to ban

298
00:17:56,362 --> 00:17:58,764
the sale of alcohol.

299
00:17:58,765 --> 00:18:02,634
Few Americans drank more than
the fishermen and lumbermen,

300
00:18:02,635 --> 00:18:06,171
mill-workers and
hardscrabble farmers of Maine.

301
00:18:06,172 --> 00:18:10,876
In Portland alone, home to
fewer than 10,000 people,

302
00:18:10,877 --> 00:18:14,046
there were 200 licensed
liquor dealers

303
00:18:14,047 --> 00:18:18,050
and perhaps 400 unlicensed ones.

304
00:18:18,051 --> 00:18:21,053
But through Neal Dow's
tireless efforts, the bill

305
00:18:21,054 --> 00:18:26,091
passed on June 2, 1851,
and for the first time,

306
00:18:26,092 --> 00:18:30,128
the legislature of an American
state voted to prohibit

307
00:18:30,129 --> 00:18:35,700
the sale and manufacture
of intoxicating beverages.

308
00:18:35,701 --> 00:18:39,704
A remarkable spectacle
can be seen in Portland.

309
00:18:39,705 --> 00:18:43,575
Temperate men, and nothing
but temperate men,

310
00:18:43,576 --> 00:18:45,177
walk her streets.

311
00:18:45,178 --> 00:18:47,646
A strange quiet prevails.

312
00:18:47,647 --> 00:18:51,049
The clamor and rioting
and fierce turbulence

313
00:18:51,050 --> 00:18:54,921
of drunkenness
are nowhere to be seen.

314
00:18:55,588 --> 00:18:59,191
With the law now
on his side, Dow personally led

315
00:18:59,192 --> 00:19:02,127
raids on liquor sellers,
and when an angry crowd

316
00:19:02,128 --> 00:19:05,630
of 3,000 men,
most of them Irish immigrants

317
00:19:05,631 --> 00:19:09,234
who saw nothing wrong with
alcohol, turned out to protest

318
00:19:09,235 --> 00:19:13,905
his actions, Dow called out
the state militia and ordered

319
00:19:13,906 --> 00:19:15,407
them to fire.

320
00:19:17,043 --> 00:19:19,010
7 men were wounded.

321
00:19:19,011 --> 00:19:20,245
One was killed.

322
00:19:20,246 --> 00:19:25,183
Mayor Dow's critics denounced
him as "the sublime fanatic."

323
00:19:25,184 --> 00:19:30,857
His admirers insisted he was
America's "moral Columbus."

324
00:19:31,824 --> 00:19:36,361
Meanwhile, many of his state's
more enterprising citizens

325
00:19:36,362 --> 00:19:41,199
quickly found ways to profit
from loopholes in his law.

326
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:45,237
Fishermen up and down Maine's
long, rocky coast smuggled

327
00:19:45,238 --> 00:19:49,508
alcohol ashore in coffins,
and barrels marked

328
00:19:49,509 --> 00:19:51,576
"sugar" and "flour."

329
00:19:51,577 --> 00:19:55,347
Forbidden to sell liquor,
bartenders began charging

330
00:19:55,348 --> 00:19:58,049
handsome fees for
salted crackers...

331
00:19:58,050 --> 00:20:00,919
then threw in a drink for free.

332
00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:04,923
Alcohol for medicinal purposes
was permitted... so Maine

333
00:20:04,924 --> 00:20:09,394
physicians wrote prescriptions
to boost their incomes.

334
00:20:09,395 --> 00:20:12,497
Itinerant liquor-sellers
roamed the streets selling

335
00:20:12,498 --> 00:20:16,668
swigs from pint bottles hidden
beneath their pant-legs.

336
00:20:16,669 --> 00:20:21,007
Their customers called
them boot-leggers.

337
00:20:23,276 --> 00:20:25,710
Over time the law decayed.

338
00:20:25,711 --> 00:20:26,678
It didn't hold up.

339
00:20:26,679 --> 00:20:28,547
And, in fact, many other states
passed similar laws as

340
00:20:28,548 --> 00:20:34,719
the Maine law, but by 1860 every
one of them is off the books.

341
00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:37,556
By 1860,
the temperance movement,

342
00:20:37,557 --> 00:20:40,959
like women's suffrage
and other reforms of the day,

343
00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:45,030
found itself overshadowed...
first by the mounting struggle

344
00:20:45,031 --> 00:20:51,736
over slavery and then by the
Civil War fought to settle it.

345
00:20:58,878 --> 00:21:03,048
Membership in temperance
societies dwindled.

346
00:21:03,049 --> 00:21:07,552
Soldiers and civilians alike
continued to drink, in part

347
00:21:07,553 --> 00:21:12,692
to mask the grief and horror
of the war raging around them.

348
00:21:13,593 --> 00:21:17,796
And in 1862, the Federal
Government itself,

349
00:21:17,797 --> 00:21:21,833
hungry for revenues to pay for
the war, helped to legitimize

350
00:21:21,834 --> 00:21:26,738
the liquor trade by charging
retailers a $20 license fee

351
00:21:26,739 --> 00:21:30,942
and taxing manufacturers
20 cents for every gallon

352
00:21:30,943 --> 00:21:32,978
of distilled spirits
they produced

353
00:21:32,979 --> 00:21:36,715
and a dollar
for every keg of beer.

354
00:21:36,716 --> 00:21:41,353
Within a few years, fully
1/3 of the federal budget

355
00:21:41,354 --> 00:21:43,923
would come from taxing alcohol.

356
00:21:47,793 --> 00:21:51,363
After the Civil War ended,
hundreds of thousands

357
00:21:51,364 --> 00:21:55,267
of immigrants... Irish
and Germans and Bohemians

358
00:21:55,268 --> 00:21:58,103
and others from central
and northern Europe... began

359
00:21:58,104 --> 00:22:02,574
pouring into America's growing
cities and spread out across

360
00:22:02,575 --> 00:22:03,341
the countryside.

361
00:22:03,342 --> 00:22:07,812
They were eager to create new
lives but unwilling to give up

362
00:22:07,813 --> 00:22:12,917
old ways, increasing tensions
with native-born citizens,

363
00:22:12,918 --> 00:22:16,588
who thought they knew best
how Americans should behave.

364
00:22:16,589 --> 00:22:18,156
New immigrants came

365
00:22:18,157 --> 00:22:19,491
with not only
a different culture,

366
00:22:19,492 --> 00:22:23,194
but also with a different
set of drinking habits.

367
00:22:23,195 --> 00:22:25,630
And that immediately became
part of the American debate

368
00:22:25,631 --> 00:22:28,800
about whether certain people
were drinking the wrong kind

369
00:22:28,801 --> 00:22:31,336
of alcohol and too much of it.

370
00:22:31,337 --> 00:22:36,241
Eberhard Anheuser,
Valentin Blatz,

371
00:22:36,242 --> 00:22:42,347
Adolphus Busch, Bernhard Stroh,
Frederick Miller,

372
00:22:42,348 --> 00:22:47,085
Frederick Pabst, Frederick
and Maximilian Schaefer,

373
00:22:47,086 --> 00:22:51,923
Joseph Schlitz... a host
of German-American entrepreneurs

374
00:22:51,924 --> 00:22:56,494
made themselves rich satisfying
the new immigrants'

375
00:22:56,495 --> 00:22:58,530
thirst for beer.

376
00:22:58,531 --> 00:23:02,901
In 1850, they had brewed
just 36 million gallons.

377
00:23:02,902 --> 00:23:09,741
By 1870, their output had soared
to more than 550 million.

378
00:23:09,742 --> 00:23:13,378
To protect their business
interests, they formed

379
00:23:13,379 --> 00:23:14,579
a lobbying organization...

380
00:23:14,580 --> 00:23:17,048
the United States Brewers'
Association,

381
00:23:17,049 --> 00:23:21,052
conducting their meetings
and their communications

382
00:23:21,053 --> 00:23:22,955
in German.

383
00:23:24,957 --> 00:23:28,360
Alarmed at the growing
power of the brewers' lobby,

384
00:23:28,361 --> 00:23:31,162
and the steady increase
in beer drinking all across

385
00:23:31,163 --> 00:23:35,500
the country, the forces of
temperance, dormant since

386
00:23:35,501 --> 00:23:40,072
before the Civil War,
began to stir again.

387
00:23:46,278 --> 00:23:50,949
Every whirlwind has
its first leaf, for the laws

388
00:23:50,950 --> 00:23:55,820
of motion oblige it to begin
somewhere in particular.

389
00:23:55,821 --> 00:23:59,424
The whirlwind of the Lord
began in the little town

390
00:23:59,425 --> 00:24:05,231
of Hillsboro on
the 23rd of December, 1873.

391
00:24:07,099 --> 00:24:11,169
Hillsboro, Ohio,
was the home of a frail wife

392
00:24:11,170 --> 00:24:13,972
and mother named
Eliza Jane Thompson,

393
00:24:13,973 --> 00:24:17,175
the daughter of an Ohio
governor.

394
00:24:17,176 --> 00:24:20,044
Like so many temperance
workers, she had experienced

395
00:24:20,045 --> 00:24:25,049
the impact of alcoholism
first-hand: Her eldest son,

396
00:24:25,050 --> 00:24:26,751
a clergyman, had become addicted

397
00:24:26,752 --> 00:24:31,890
through a doctor's prescription
and then died in what was called

398
00:24:31,891 --> 00:24:33,425
an inebriate asylum.

399
00:24:33,426 --> 00:24:38,062
All she had been able to do
was grieve until the evening

400
00:24:38,063 --> 00:24:43,535
of December 23, 1873, when
a visiting temperance lecturer

401
00:24:43,536 --> 00:24:48,540
urged the town's wives and
mothers to take to the streets

402
00:24:48,541 --> 00:24:49,574
in protest.

403
00:24:49,575 --> 00:24:52,544
If they did that, he said,
they could destroy

404
00:24:52,545 --> 00:24:55,513
the liquor business forever.

405
00:24:55,514 --> 00:24:59,250
Thompson's husband, a local
judge, thought the idea

406
00:24:59,251 --> 00:25:03,087
of women marching in public
sheer tomfoolery.

407
00:25:03,088 --> 00:25:05,623
I ventured to remind him

408
00:25:05,624 --> 00:25:08,226
that the men had been in
the tomfoolery business

409
00:25:08,227 --> 00:25:13,865
a long time, and suggested
that it might be God's will that

410
00:25:13,866 --> 00:25:16,635
the women should now take part.

411
00:25:17,803 --> 00:25:21,573
On Christmas Eve,
Eliza Jane Thompson joined

412
00:25:21,574 --> 00:25:27,045
nearly 200 other women at
the First Presbyterian Church.

413
00:25:27,046 --> 00:25:31,916
After prayers, she led them
outside, lined up two by two,

414
00:25:31,917 --> 00:25:36,354
all dressed in black
and singing her favorite hymn,

415
00:25:36,355 --> 00:25:39,090
"Give to the winds thy fears."

416
00:25:39,091 --> 00:25:43,161
The women's first stop was
William Smith's drug store

417
00:25:43,162 --> 00:25:45,063
on East Main Street.

418
00:25:45,064 --> 00:25:48,433
He was a licensed physician,
so they asked him to sign

419
00:25:48,434 --> 00:25:51,169
a pledge, promising never
again to fulfill

420
00:25:51,170 --> 00:25:55,340
any other doctor's prescription
for alcohol.

421
00:25:55,341 --> 00:25:56,074
He signed.

422
00:25:56,075 --> 00:26:00,078
Two other druggists assured
the ladies of their good

423
00:26:00,079 --> 00:26:05,951
wishes and agreed to stop
selling alcohol entirely.

424
00:26:06,418 --> 00:26:10,622
What you see in one
community in Ohio is that

425
00:26:10,623 --> 00:26:12,524
the women snap.

426
00:26:12,525 --> 00:26:16,528
They go out and they gather
in front of a saloon and they

427
00:26:16,529 --> 00:26:20,164
go down on their knees
and they start praying, blocking

428
00:26:20,165 --> 00:26:24,168
the entrance praying,
which is this act

429
00:26:24,169 --> 00:26:28,172
of radical civil disobedience
but that is also completely

430
00:26:28,173 --> 00:26:33,845
within the parameters
of accepted female behavior.

431
00:26:33,846 --> 00:26:38,449
And the movement takes off
like wildfire.

432
00:26:38,450 --> 00:26:41,252
Within days,
what came to be called

433
00:26:41,253 --> 00:26:47,792
the woman's crusade seemed to be
erupting everywhere in Ohio.

434
00:26:47,793 --> 00:26:50,528
From London, Ohio, comes
the news that an absolute

435
00:26:50,529 --> 00:26:54,566
stagnation of all business
exists, that the schools have

436
00:26:54,567 --> 00:26:58,069
closed, and everybody's
mind is wholly absorbed

437
00:26:58,070 --> 00:26:58,703
with the war.

438
00:26:58,704 --> 00:27:02,774
Portable tabernacles in which
the women pray and sing are

439
00:27:02,775 --> 00:27:07,079
transferred from the front
of one saloon to another.

440
00:27:07,713 --> 00:27:09,581
Coshocton, Ohio.

441
00:27:09,582 --> 00:27:14,085
It is easy enough to conquer
a man, if you only know how.

442
00:27:14,086 --> 00:27:15,653
I wish you could see me
talking to some

443
00:27:15,654 --> 00:27:20,358
of these saloon men that I would
never have spoken to before.

444
00:27:20,359 --> 00:27:25,330
I employ my sweetest accents;
I exhaust all the arguments

445
00:27:25,331 --> 00:27:31,669
I am possessed of; I look into
their eyes and grow pathetic;

446
00:27:31,670 --> 00:27:35,640
I shed tears, and I joke
with them... but all

447
00:27:35,641 --> 00:27:38,109
in terrible earnest.

448
00:27:38,110 --> 00:27:40,545
And they surrender.

449
00:27:40,546 --> 00:27:42,381
Eliza Hackett.

450
00:27:44,583 --> 00:27:47,785
But bigger towns,
like Dayton, with their large

451
00:27:47,786 --> 00:27:53,057
immigrant populations,
presented bigger challenges.

452
00:27:53,058 --> 00:27:55,793
A large, turbulent
rabble followed them

453
00:27:55,794 --> 00:27:57,595
from place to place.

454
00:27:57,596 --> 00:27:59,197
Swearing crowds
of beer-drinkers pressed

455
00:27:59,198 --> 00:28:03,868
into the saloons and drank
as fast as they could, mocking

456
00:28:03,869 --> 00:28:07,572
the praying women
with loud blasphemy.

457
00:28:07,573 --> 00:28:09,073
The "New York Times."

458
00:28:09,074 --> 00:28:12,176
In Cincinnati,
fire companies sprayed

459
00:28:12,177 --> 00:28:15,013
the praying women
with freezing water.

460
00:28:15,014 --> 00:28:18,850
Bartenders pretended
to welcome them inside, drenched

461
00:28:18,851 --> 00:28:22,620
them with buckets of beer,
then drove them back out

462
00:28:22,621 --> 00:28:24,722
into the snow.

463
00:28:24,723 --> 00:28:28,026
The owner of a German beer
garden hauled a cannon up

464
00:28:28,027 --> 00:28:32,864
to the entrance and threatened
to blow away the first crusader

465
00:28:32,865 --> 00:28:35,299
who tried to get past him.

466
00:28:35,300 --> 00:28:38,436
One woman climbed onto
the cannon and led

467
00:28:38,437 --> 00:28:40,838
her sisters in song.

468
00:28:40,839 --> 00:28:45,343
After an hour or so,
the owner surrendered.

469
00:28:45,344 --> 00:28:49,681
The crusade soon spread beyond
Ohio's borders... all the way

470
00:28:49,682 --> 00:28:52,583
west to San Francisco,
where an angry mob,

471
00:28:52,584 --> 00:28:56,754
spurred on by the San Francisco
Saloon-Keeper's Society,

472
00:28:56,755 --> 00:29:01,493
hurled stones at a band
of peaceful, praying women.

473
00:29:05,798 --> 00:29:12,136
Women eventually marched in
911 communities in 31 states

474
00:29:12,137 --> 00:29:13,304
and territories.

475
00:29:13,305 --> 00:29:18,076
They closed down
some 1,300 liquor sellers.

476
00:29:18,077 --> 00:29:21,546
For the thousands of women
who took part in the crusade

477
00:29:21,547 --> 00:29:24,515
and who had never before felt
they could act on their own

478
00:29:24,516 --> 00:29:29,020
outside their homes, it had
been what one temperance worker

479
00:29:29,021 --> 00:29:34,025
called a "baptism
of power and liberty."

480
00:29:34,026 --> 00:29:37,895
It can scarcely be
possible that these women can

481
00:29:37,896 --> 00:29:42,033
again settle back in the old
ruts and betake themselves

482
00:29:42,034 --> 00:29:46,571
once more to hemming flounces,
as if the issue of life

483
00:29:46,572 --> 00:29:49,474
depended on the amount of
stitches they stowed

484
00:29:49,475 --> 00:29:51,442
into each garment.

485
00:29:51,443 --> 00:29:55,646
They can hardly ever again
persuade themselves or others

486
00:29:55,647 --> 00:29:58,783
that they are content to let
the men attend to the politics

487
00:29:58,784 --> 00:30:04,256
of the country, while they
play pretty Polly or Bridget.

488
00:30:06,225 --> 00:30:10,728
But all of a sudden, it
sort of hits you how much work

489
00:30:10,729 --> 00:30:12,230
civil protest is.

490
00:30:12,231 --> 00:30:14,499
And if you're out there praying,
you're not feeding

491
00:30:14,500 --> 00:30:17,935
your family, you're not doing
all of your housework.

492
00:30:17,936 --> 00:30:21,105
And the momentum of
the movement breaks down,

493
00:30:21,106 --> 00:30:24,810
and gradually these
saloons start reopening.

494
00:30:25,310 --> 00:30:28,246
No laws had been changed.

495
00:30:28,247 --> 00:30:30,581
Men still wanted a drink.

496
00:30:30,582 --> 00:30:32,917
Within a year or two,
most liquor dealers were

497
00:30:32,918 --> 00:30:37,855
back in business, alongside
a steadily growing number

498
00:30:37,856 --> 00:30:39,524
of competitors.

499
00:30:39,525 --> 00:30:42,627
Everything that they
had worked so hard for

500
00:30:42,628 --> 00:30:43,961
sort of falls apart.

501
00:30:43,962 --> 00:30:46,798
And it becomes increasingly
clear to them that this model

502
00:30:46,799 --> 00:30:51,402
of moral suasion, of setting
a good example,

503
00:30:51,403 --> 00:30:53,371
isn't going to cut it.

504
00:30:53,372 --> 00:30:57,241
It has come and
it has gone... this whirlwind

505
00:30:57,242 --> 00:31:02,146
of the Lord... but it has set
forces in motion which each day

506
00:31:02,147 --> 00:31:05,216
become more potent, and it will
sweep on

507
00:31:05,217 --> 00:31:10,922
until the rum power in America
is overthrown.

508
00:31:10,923 --> 00:31:13,724
Frances Willard.

509
00:31:13,725 --> 00:31:17,628
Frances Elizabeth
Caroline Willard was

510
00:31:17,629 --> 00:31:18,963
herself a whirlwind.

511
00:31:18,964 --> 00:31:23,301
Called Saint Frances by her
most ardent admirers, she was

512
00:31:23,302 --> 00:31:25,903
a master strategist who would
come to command

513
00:31:25,904 --> 00:31:31,509
a nonviolent national army...
250,000 strong...

514
00:31:31,510 --> 00:31:33,477
against alcohol,

515
00:31:33,478 --> 00:31:36,648
the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union.

516
00:31:38,350 --> 00:31:41,986
Frances Willard is
one of the great unsung heroes

517
00:31:41,987 --> 00:31:43,087
of American history.

518
00:31:43,088 --> 00:31:46,290
There was a time when every
schoolchild in America knew

519
00:31:46,291 --> 00:31:49,994
her, and she was sort of
on par with Betsy Ross.

520
00:31:49,995 --> 00:31:53,931
She was that important
to American history.

521
00:31:53,932 --> 00:31:57,201
A pioneer in women's
education and a champion

522
00:31:57,202 --> 00:32:01,472
of women's rights, Willard
took the reins of the WCTU

523
00:32:01,473 --> 00:32:06,911
in 1879 and did not relinquish
them until her death

524
00:32:06,912 --> 00:32:08,112
19 years later.

525
00:32:08,113 --> 00:32:12,884
At Rest Cottage, her home in
Evanston, Illinois, she rose

526
00:32:12,885 --> 00:32:17,121
at 6:00 each day and for
8 hours straight dictated

527
00:32:17,122 --> 00:32:21,926
letters, speeches, articles,
and books to her secretary

528
00:32:21,927 --> 00:32:25,696
and longtime companion,
Anna Gordon.

529
00:32:25,697 --> 00:32:28,833
But the two women
were rarely at home.

530
00:32:28,834 --> 00:32:32,103
During the first 9 years
of her presidency, Willard

531
00:32:32,104 --> 00:32:33,237
claimed she had spoken

532
00:32:33,238 --> 00:32:36,340
in more than 1,000
American towns,

533
00:32:36,341 --> 00:32:41,145
including every single city with
more than 10,000 citizens...

534
00:32:41,146 --> 00:32:45,983
and most of those
with only 5,000.

535
00:32:45,984 --> 00:32:49,186
She took her struggle abroad
as well, founding

536
00:32:49,187 --> 00:32:53,691
a world's WCTU that gathered
nearly a million signatures

537
00:32:53,692 --> 00:32:58,663
on a canvas petition addressed
to all the rulers of the world,

538
00:32:58,664 --> 00:33:04,969
imploring them to join hands in
a global ban on alcohol.

539
00:33:04,970 --> 00:33:06,971
There is a war about this

540
00:33:06,972 --> 00:33:10,975
in America, a war of mothers
and daughters, sisters

541
00:33:10,976 --> 00:33:16,047
and wives, a war between
the rum shops and religion,

542
00:33:16,048 --> 00:33:19,750
a war to the knife
and the knife to the hilt.

543
00:33:19,751 --> 00:33:21,953
Only one can win.

544
00:33:21,954 --> 00:33:26,491
The question is which one
is it going to be?

545
00:33:27,259 --> 00:33:31,095
Willard forged
an alliance between the WCTU

546
00:33:31,096 --> 00:33:34,365
and the women's suffrage
movement, bringing thousands

547
00:33:34,366 --> 00:33:37,435
of women into the struggle
for the ballot.

548
00:33:37,436 --> 00:33:41,439
To appeal to women still
too timid to assert themselves,

549
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:44,542
Willard coined
a consciously conservative

550
00:33:44,543 --> 00:33:46,644
slogan... "home protection."

551
00:33:46,645 --> 00:33:50,381
A woman who found it unseemly
to demand the vote solely

552
00:33:50,382 --> 00:33:55,086
as a right could justify calling
for the ballot as what Willard

553
00:33:55,087 --> 00:34:00,391
called "a weapon of protection
from the tyranny of drink."

554
00:34:00,392 --> 00:34:03,928
And concerned that a growing
number of housewives were

555
00:34:03,929 --> 00:34:07,832
becoming addicted to popular
patent medicines that often

556
00:34:07,833 --> 00:34:12,503
contained as much alcohol
as whiskey, she established

557
00:34:12,504 --> 00:34:15,207
homes for inebriate women.

558
00:34:15,941 --> 00:34:19,710
As a pure and wholesome
alternative to alcohol,

559
00:34:19,711 --> 00:34:23,180
the WCTU installed
public water fountains

560
00:34:23,181 --> 00:34:29,587
in village squares
and city parks across America.

561
00:34:29,588 --> 00:34:33,858
But getting rid of alcohol
was not Frances Willard's

562
00:34:33,859 --> 00:34:34,525
only cause.

563
00:34:34,526 --> 00:34:39,130
The WCTU eventually had
more than 45 departments

564
00:34:39,131 --> 00:34:43,968
organized on behalf of a host
of causes... street children

565
00:34:43,969 --> 00:34:48,205
and fallen women, female
matrons for women's prisons,

566
00:34:48,206 --> 00:34:51,075
and free kindergarten
for every child,

567
00:34:51,076 --> 00:34:53,110
equal pay for equal work,

568
00:34:53,111 --> 00:34:58,883
and raising the age
of sexual consent from 10 to 16.

569
00:34:58,884 --> 00:35:01,685
And she would
move from alcohol to votes

570
00:35:01,686 --> 00:35:06,390
for women to orphanages to
asylums to what she called.

571
00:35:06,391 --> 00:35:08,726
Christian socialism... all
these things put together.

572
00:35:08,727 --> 00:35:11,796
It was sort of promising
a heaven on Earth, an idealized

573
00:35:11,797 --> 00:35:15,332
society at a time when
utopian wishes were

574
00:35:15,333 --> 00:35:18,236
not at all uncommon
in American society.

575
00:35:19,171 --> 00:35:22,706
But no single
program had more impact than

576
00:35:22,707 --> 00:35:26,610
the Department of Scientific
Temperance Instruction,

577
00:35:26,611 --> 00:35:31,048
meant to train generations of
boys and girls dedicated

578
00:35:31,049 --> 00:35:34,452
to eradicating alcohol...
and to do it

579
00:35:34,453 --> 00:35:37,855
through the public
school system.

580
00:35:37,856 --> 00:35:41,926
Childhood saved today
from a saloon and the nation

581
00:35:41,927 --> 00:35:45,496
thus saved tomorrow is
the stake played for

582
00:35:45,497 --> 00:35:47,798
in this desperate game.

583
00:35:47,799 --> 00:35:52,069
All that is holiest in
mother love, all that is purest

584
00:35:52,070 --> 00:35:56,674
in patriotism that would save
the country from the saloon,

585
00:35:56,675 --> 00:36:01,078
enters into our support
of these textbooks.

586
00:36:01,079 --> 00:36:02,546
Mary Hanchett Hunt.

587
00:36:02,547 --> 00:36:06,951
Frances Willard
placed Mary Hanchett Hunt

588
00:36:06,952 --> 00:36:08,886
in charge of the department.

589
00:36:08,887 --> 00:36:12,156
Hunt lobbied state
legislatures and the Congress

590
00:36:12,157 --> 00:36:16,393
to require anti-alcohol
indoctrination in the schools,

591
00:36:16,394 --> 00:36:22,032
forced textbook publishers to
conform to the WCTU's message,

592
00:36:22,033 --> 00:36:26,103
and sometimes demanded
kickbacks in exchange

593
00:36:26,104 --> 00:36:27,905
for her stamp of approval.

594
00:36:27,906 --> 00:36:32,843
She also directed women from
chapters all over the country

595
00:36:32,844 --> 00:36:36,147
to pressure local school boards.

596
00:36:36,148 --> 00:36:40,117
Before long, public school
children in every state...

597
00:36:40,118 --> 00:36:44,922
22 million of them... were sitting
through temperance classes

598
00:36:44,923 --> 00:36:47,191
3 times a week.

599
00:36:47,192 --> 00:36:52,596
Kindergartners were taught to
chant, "Tremble, king alcohol",

600
00:36:52,597 --> 00:36:54,498
We shall grow up."

601
00:36:54,499 --> 00:36:56,967
Older children studied
texts filled with

602
00:36:56,968 --> 00:37:02,139
lurid misinformation calculated
to terrify: Just one drink,

603
00:37:02,140 --> 00:37:05,809
some books alleged, could burn
away the lining of the throat

604
00:37:05,810 --> 00:37:11,081
and stomach and begin eating
away at the liver and kidneys.

605
00:37:11,082 --> 00:37:13,150
You know, little
Johnny has one drink,

606
00:37:13,151 --> 00:37:15,052
and the next picture he's lying

607
00:37:15,053 --> 00:37:16,253
in the gutter unconscious.

608
00:37:16,254 --> 00:37:19,690
One of their most notorious
things is they had diagrams

609
00:37:19,691 --> 00:37:20,724
of body parts.

610
00:37:20,725 --> 00:37:22,726
You would have a diagram
of a stomach.

611
00:37:22,727 --> 00:37:26,063
And then they had a diagram
of an inebriate's stomach

612
00:37:26,064 --> 00:37:26,730
and what happens to you.

613
00:37:26,731 --> 00:37:29,768
Well, the inebriate's
stomach was full color.

614
00:37:30,101 --> 00:37:34,038
Alcohol caused
deafness, dropsy, lunacy,

615
00:37:34,039 --> 00:37:37,541
they claimed... not only in
those who swallowed it,

616
00:37:37,542 --> 00:37:41,612
but in their children
and their children's children.

617
00:37:41,613 --> 00:37:45,649
And always, some textbooks
warned, there was the fearful

618
00:37:45,650 --> 00:37:47,952
possibility that drinking
could spark

619
00:37:47,953 --> 00:37:49,920
spontaneous combustion...

620
00:37:49,921 --> 00:37:54,258
bursting suddenly
into fatal blue flame.

621
00:37:54,259 --> 00:37:58,128
Millions of children came to
believe it all, and it would

622
00:37:58,129 --> 00:38:02,967
not be too long, Willard
prayed, before they all were

623
00:38:02,968 --> 00:38:04,970
old enough to vote.

624
00:38:05,437 --> 00:38:09,873
In
America, ballots are bayonets.

625
00:38:09,874 --> 00:38:13,978
You think maybe the crusade
is dead and its banner trailing

626
00:38:13,979 --> 00:38:16,013
in the dust?

627
00:38:16,014 --> 00:38:18,216
I tell you no.

628
00:38:26,925 --> 00:38:30,828
In the saloons,
life was different.

629
00:38:30,829 --> 00:38:35,499
Men talked with great voices,
laughed great laughs,

630
00:38:35,500 --> 00:38:39,069
and there was
an atmosphere of greatness.

631
00:38:39,070 --> 00:38:41,105
Here was something more
than the common everyday

632
00:38:41,106 --> 00:38:43,073
where nothing happened.

633
00:38:43,074 --> 00:38:49,079
Here life was always very live,
and sometimes even lurid.

634
00:38:49,080 --> 00:38:53,550
Terrible saloons might be,
but then that only meant

635
00:38:53,551 --> 00:38:57,087
they were terribly wonderful.

636
00:38:57,088 --> 00:38:59,090
Jack London.

637
00:39:04,296 --> 00:39:07,097
Despite
the Washingtonians, despite

638
00:39:07,098 --> 00:39:11,302
the woman's crusade
and the WCTU,

639
00:39:11,303 --> 00:39:14,905
despite legions of clergymen
and temperance lecturers

640
00:39:14,906 --> 00:39:17,141
and school books
meant to terrify,

641
00:39:17,142 --> 00:39:23,347
more and more saloons were
opening every day in America.

642
00:39:23,348 --> 00:39:27,017
By the turn of the new
20th century, there would be

643
00:39:27,018 --> 00:39:32,524
some 300,000, as varied as
the people who patronized them.

644
00:39:34,025 --> 00:39:38,028
For millions of working men,
saloons were a refuge...

645
00:39:38,029 --> 00:39:40,698
from long hours
at a clerk's desk

646
00:39:40,699 --> 00:39:44,068
or on a factory floor
or deep in a coal mine...

647
00:39:44,069 --> 00:39:47,037
and from the responsibilities
represented

648
00:39:47,038 --> 00:39:49,440
by the family waiting at home.

649
00:39:49,441 --> 00:39:52,409
"The brass rail was
more than a footrest,"

650
00:39:52,410 --> 00:39:53,444
one man remembered.

651
00:39:53,445 --> 00:39:57,081
"It was a symbol of
masculinity emancipate,

652
00:39:57,082 --> 00:40:02,354
of manhood free to put
its feet on something."

653
00:40:03,955 --> 00:40:05,389
They were places

654
00:40:05,390 --> 00:40:06,557
where people got up
and sang songs.

655
00:40:06,558 --> 00:40:10,260
They were places where
the laughter went on and on.

656
00:40:10,261 --> 00:40:13,063
And the assumption was,
they worked so hard

657
00:40:13,064 --> 00:40:17,601
during the week if they thought
Friday night belonged to them

658
00:40:17,602 --> 00:40:19,670
and the boys, why not?

659
00:40:19,671 --> 00:40:22,406
You know, that was
part of the deal.

660
00:40:22,407 --> 00:40:26,877
It was essential to their
survival, that to get through

661
00:40:26,878 --> 00:40:29,213
a tough life and hard times,
particularly

662
00:40:29,214 --> 00:40:32,416
for the immigrants in
a strange country, you know,

663
00:40:32,417 --> 00:40:37,354
that's not quite yours,
I think it was essential

664
00:40:37,355 --> 00:40:40,058
to them that they had this.

665
00:40:43,928 --> 00:40:46,263
The saloon is
so many different things

666
00:40:46,264 --> 00:40:47,798
to different people.

667
00:40:47,799 --> 00:40:51,368
If you lived in a squalid
tenement house, it was

668
00:40:51,369 --> 00:40:53,270
your living room.

669
00:40:53,271 --> 00:40:55,272
It was your social club.

670
00:40:55,273 --> 00:40:57,775
It was maybe where
your translator was.

671
00:40:57,776 --> 00:41:00,144
Your bartender was there
to watch out for you.

672
00:41:00,145 --> 00:41:02,646
Your bartender might have done
a lot more for you

673
00:41:02,647 --> 00:41:07,050
than the local priest did
or the local cop.

674
00:41:07,051 --> 00:41:09,720
Beer and whiskey were
not the saloon's

675
00:41:09,721 --> 00:41:10,487
sole attraction.

676
00:41:10,488 --> 00:41:14,158
A man could cash his paycheck,
pick up his mail if he didn't

677
00:41:14,159 --> 00:41:17,094
yet have an address
of his own, read the paper,

678
00:41:17,095 --> 00:41:21,432
learn English, play cards
or billiards, find out who was

679
00:41:21,433 --> 00:41:24,835
hiring, even get
himself a city job.

680
00:41:24,836 --> 00:41:29,406
Big-city saloon-keepers often
doubled as politicians,

681
00:41:29,407 --> 00:41:32,676
doling out patronage positions.

682
00:41:32,677 --> 00:41:39,583
In 1890, 11 of
New York's 24 aldermen ran bars.

683
00:41:39,584 --> 00:41:44,321
In East Boston's ward two,
an Irish immigrant's son named.

684
00:41:44,322 --> 00:41:46,623
Patrick J. Kennedy used profits

685
00:41:46,624 --> 00:41:50,594
from two saloons and a wine
and spirits import business

686
00:41:50,595 --> 00:41:53,597
to begin to
build the political machine

687
00:41:53,598 --> 00:41:56,733
that would one day
help put his grandson

688
00:41:56,734 --> 00:41:59,503
into the White House.

689
00:41:59,504 --> 00:42:01,905
Unions met in saloons.

690
00:42:01,906 --> 00:42:05,676
So did veterans' groups,
fraternal organizations,

691
00:42:05,677 --> 00:42:08,111
and immigrant associations.

692
00:42:08,112 --> 00:42:13,116
Ballots were cast in them;
Wakes were held, and so were

693
00:42:13,117 --> 00:42:14,251
christening parties.

694
00:42:14,252 --> 00:42:17,354
They were
the working-class private clubs.

695
00:42:17,355 --> 00:42:21,758
The uptown white Anglo-Saxon
Protestants had their clubs

696
00:42:21,759 --> 00:42:23,794
for the same reasons,
you know, except that they

697
00:42:23,795 --> 00:42:27,965
were talking about, how would
you like to buy Venezuela?

698
00:42:27,966 --> 00:42:31,134
But it was the same essential
thing... that there were

699
00:42:31,135 --> 00:42:37,407
contacts going on in these
rough places, and the majority

700
00:42:37,408 --> 00:42:40,444
of them were not buckets of
blood, as they called them.

701
00:42:40,445 --> 00:42:43,547
They were not places where you
walked in and you were

702
00:42:43,548 --> 00:42:45,849
hauled out by an ambulance.

703
00:42:45,850 --> 00:42:49,086
They were much more clubs.

704
00:42:49,087 --> 00:42:50,721
Most of them had basic rules:

705
00:42:50,722 --> 00:42:54,124
Pay your debts,
vote the straight ticket,

706
00:42:54,125 --> 00:42:56,527
that sort of thing.

707
00:42:56,528 --> 00:42:59,563
Regulars may have
seen their corner taverns

708
00:42:59,564 --> 00:43:03,267
as familiar neighborhood
businesses, but more often

709
00:43:03,268 --> 00:43:07,437
than not they actually
belonged to one or another

710
00:43:07,438 --> 00:43:09,206
of the big brewers.

711
00:43:09,207 --> 00:43:12,242
Brewing companies
owned the saloons, and if.

712
00:43:12,243 --> 00:43:15,279
Pabst opened a saloon on
this corner, Busch was going to

713
00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:17,381
have one on this corner,
and somebody was going to have

714
00:43:17,382 --> 00:43:19,316
one on this corner and this
corner, and the cities were

715
00:43:19,317 --> 00:43:22,819
overwhelmed by
the brewery-owned saloons.

716
00:43:22,820 --> 00:43:26,757
By agreeing to sell
just one brand of beer,

717
00:43:26,758 --> 00:43:29,693
almost anyone could go
into the saloon business.

718
00:43:29,694 --> 00:43:32,062
The brewery paid
for his license,

719
00:43:32,063 --> 00:43:34,498
provided the pool table
and artwork,

720
00:43:34,499 --> 00:43:39,069
the bar and barstools,
even the spittoons...

721
00:43:39,070 --> 00:43:42,839
everything needed
to keep its beer flowing.

722
00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:44,174
They would do
anything to sell beer.

723
00:43:44,175 --> 00:43:46,710
The free lunch... you say there's
no such thing as a free lunch?

724
00:43:46,711 --> 00:43:49,413
Well, in the 1890s and the
couple of decades thereafter,

725
00:43:49,414 --> 00:43:51,181
the free lunch was something
that was served

726
00:43:51,182 --> 00:43:52,849
in nearly every saloon.

727
00:43:52,850 --> 00:43:53,951
You would go in, and you would
get your cheese

728
00:43:53,952 --> 00:43:56,353
and your salami and your
sardines and your saltines,

729
00:43:56,354 --> 00:43:58,889
and what did these things
have in common?

730
00:43:58,890 --> 00:44:01,858
They're incredibly salty,
and so you would drink

731
00:44:01,859 --> 00:44:03,894
a lot of beer.

732
00:44:03,895 --> 00:44:06,830
It was a wonderful
marketing device.

733
00:44:06,831 --> 00:44:10,667
Decent citizens were
appalled that most big cities

734
00:44:10,668 --> 00:44:14,504
had a carefully delineated
district in which vice,

735
00:44:14,505 --> 00:44:18,842
although technically illegal,
was tolerated, a place where

736
00:44:18,843 --> 00:44:23,246
pimps and thugs and strong-arm
men worked hand-in-hand

737
00:44:23,247 --> 00:44:27,951
with corrupt cops
and accommodating politicians.

738
00:44:27,952 --> 00:44:32,289
And all of them were
centered around saloons.

739
00:44:32,290 --> 00:44:35,759
In Manhattan, it was
the midtown tenderloin,

740
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:39,696
denounced by reformers
as Satan's Circus.

741
00:44:39,697 --> 00:44:43,233
New Orleans had its Storyville.

742
00:44:43,234 --> 00:44:46,536
San Francisco...
the Barbary Coast.

743
00:44:46,537 --> 00:44:49,072
In Seattle, it was named
for the street

744
00:44:49,073 --> 00:44:53,777
along which lumbermen skidded
logs to the docks before looking

745
00:44:53,778 --> 00:44:56,947
for a place to have
a drink... skid road.

746
00:44:56,948 --> 00:45:02,085
In Chicago's notorious
levee district... 20 square blocks

747
00:45:02,086 --> 00:45:06,456
on the South side... there
were said to be 500 saloons,

748
00:45:06,457 --> 00:45:11,895
500 whorehouses, 56 poolrooms,
15 gambling halls,

749
00:45:11,896 --> 00:45:16,033
and too many peep shows
and cocaine parlors

750
00:45:16,034 --> 00:45:18,902
and bawdy theaters to count.

751
00:45:18,903 --> 00:45:22,806
All of it was overseen by
a flamboyant saloon-keeper

752
00:45:22,807 --> 00:45:29,046
and Democratic committeeman,
Mike "Hinky-Dink" Kenna.

753
00:45:29,047 --> 00:45:32,382
He had a tavern,
and he was the alderman

754
00:45:32,383 --> 00:45:33,283
of the first ward.

755
00:45:33,284 --> 00:45:35,819
Of course if you don't think
that's a conflict... to own

756
00:45:35,820 --> 00:45:38,321
a tavern and be the alderman
at the same time.

757
00:45:38,322 --> 00:45:43,927
But he controlled the levee,
and, of course, if you control

758
00:45:43,928 --> 00:45:45,362
the levee you
controlled all, the votes.

759
00:45:45,363 --> 00:45:49,900
They could elect Mickey Mouse
because they'd tell you who to

760
00:45:49,901 --> 00:45:52,836
vote for, and they did.

761
00:45:52,837 --> 00:45:55,205
It fostered a lot of corruption.

762
00:45:55,206 --> 00:45:57,908
The bar became completely
intertwined with politics

763
00:45:57,909 --> 00:46:01,945
in a lot of cities, so you
could buy votes with a whiskey

764
00:46:01,946 --> 00:46:03,280
and a cigar.

765
00:46:03,281 --> 00:46:07,184
You could always make
the argument that the saloon was

766
00:46:07,185 --> 00:46:11,521
a place where morals were
loose, where prostitution was

767
00:46:11,522 --> 00:46:16,126
a danger, where people
were taken advantage of.

768
00:46:16,127 --> 00:46:18,662
My great-grandmother
remembers as a child walking

769
00:46:18,663 --> 00:46:21,198
the streets of Philadelphia
and crossing the street so she

770
00:46:21,199 --> 00:46:23,867
would not have to cross in
front of a saloon because it

771
00:46:23,868 --> 00:46:28,205
was so scary... the noises that
were coming out of it, the men

772
00:46:28,206 --> 00:46:31,708
lying in the gutter
drunk in front of it.

773
00:46:31,709 --> 00:46:34,946
That was the face of
alcohol consumption.

774
00:46:36,047 --> 00:46:40,817
One of the terrifying
stories of my childhood was

775
00:46:40,818 --> 00:46:44,154
my mother telling me
what it was like.

776
00:46:44,155 --> 00:46:49,159
She was an Irish immigrant
growing up in Hell's Kitchen

777
00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:52,496
on the West side of Manhattan.

778
00:46:52,497 --> 00:46:57,067
Of the men who would be
paid on Saturday afternoon,

779
00:46:57,068 --> 00:47:03,073
and taking it directly to
the saloon, coming home drunken,

780
00:47:03,074 --> 00:47:06,777
abusive, with all the money
gone and the mother trying

781
00:47:06,778 --> 00:47:10,781
to figure out how she was going
to hold the family together,

782
00:47:10,782 --> 00:47:15,218
how the children
were going to be fed.

783
00:47:15,219 --> 00:47:17,921
And as a little boy,
identifying myself

784
00:47:17,922 --> 00:47:22,193
with those children, I wondered
how I was going to be fed.

785
00:47:24,662 --> 00:47:26,363
The only way
to solve the problem

786
00:47:26,364 --> 00:47:32,270
of drunkenness, many believed,
was to get rid of the saloon.

787
00:47:38,442 --> 00:47:42,245
When I went to Medicine
Lodge, Kansas, there were

788
00:47:42,246 --> 00:47:44,948
7 dives where drinks were sold.

789
00:47:44,949 --> 00:47:48,819
I began to ask, Why should we
have the saloon, when Kansas

790
00:47:48,820 --> 00:47:52,322
was a prohibition state
and our Constitution made it

791
00:47:52,323 --> 00:47:57,093
a crime to manufacture,
barter, sell or give away

792
00:47:57,094 --> 00:47:59,229
intoxicating drinks?

793
00:47:59,230 --> 00:48:01,431
These dive-keepers really were
not as much to blame

794
00:48:01,432 --> 00:48:03,700
as the city officials
who were in league

795
00:48:03,701 --> 00:48:09,072
with this lawless element
and could see the wicked walking

796
00:48:09,073 --> 00:48:14,544
on every side
and the vilest men exalted.

797
00:48:14,545 --> 00:48:16,580
Carry Nation.

798
00:48:16,581 --> 00:48:20,483
Carry Nation's
life was filled with tragedy.

799
00:48:20,484 --> 00:48:24,754
Her mother died in an insane
asylum, convinced she was.

800
00:48:24,755 --> 00:48:26,323
Queen Victoria.

801
00:48:26,324 --> 00:48:29,226
Her first husband
drank himself to death.

802
00:48:29,227 --> 00:48:33,830
A second unhappy marriage
would end in divorce.

803
00:48:33,831 --> 00:48:37,200
She determined to give herself
over to the struggle

804
00:48:37,201 --> 00:48:41,304
against what she called "the
place where the serpent drink"

805
00:48:41,305 --> 00:48:45,508
crushed the hopes of my
early years"... the saloon.

806
00:48:45,509 --> 00:48:50,447
Kansas had already banned
the sale of alcohol in every one

807
00:48:50,448 --> 00:48:55,418
of its 105 counties,
but the state's dusty cow towns

808
00:48:55,419 --> 00:48:59,456
and large cities alike were
filled with thirsty men,

809
00:48:59,457 --> 00:49:04,060
and no one paid
much attention to the law.

810
00:49:04,061 --> 00:49:08,331
As president of the Barber
County WCTU, Carry Nation had

811
00:49:08,332 --> 00:49:11,534
led peaceful marches that
had had little effect,

812
00:49:11,535 --> 00:49:15,338
wrote letters to legislators
and lawmen that were never even

813
00:49:15,339 --> 00:49:20,343
answered, and eventually
became convinced God wished

814
00:49:20,344 --> 00:49:22,679
her to do more.

815
00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:25,548
On the 6th of June, 1900, before

816
00:49:25,549 --> 00:49:29,486
retiring, I threw myself
downward at the foot of my bed

817
00:49:29,487 --> 00:49:33,456
and told the Lord to use me
in any way to suppress

818
00:49:33,457 --> 00:49:35,659
the dreadful curse of liquor.

819
00:49:35,660 --> 00:49:39,629
I told him I wished I had
a thousand lives that I would

820
00:49:39,630 --> 00:49:44,234
give him all of them, and I
wanted him to make it known

821
00:49:44,235 --> 00:49:46,770
to me some way.

822
00:49:46,771 --> 00:49:51,675
The next morning, before
I awoke, I heard these words

823
00:49:51,676 --> 00:49:53,043
very distinctly.

824
00:49:53,044 --> 00:49:58,115
"Go to Kiowa,
and I'll stand by you."

825
00:50:00,451 --> 00:50:03,687
The next morning,
with an armload of what she

826
00:50:03,688 --> 00:50:07,958
called "smashers"... rocks
and bottles wrapped in paper

827
00:50:07,959 --> 00:50:11,127
to look like harmless
packages... she strode

828
00:50:11,128 --> 00:50:15,065
into a saloon in Kiowa.

829
00:50:15,066 --> 00:50:18,301
I told
the owner, Mr. Dobson,

830
00:50:18,302 --> 00:50:18,935
"Get out of the way.

831
00:50:18,936 --> 00:50:21,838
"I don't want to strike you,
but I am going to break up

832
00:50:21,839 --> 00:50:23,373
this den of vice."

833
00:50:24,608 --> 00:50:27,377
I began to throw at
the mirror and the bottles

834
00:50:27,378 --> 00:50:28,378
below the mirror.

835
00:50:28,379 --> 00:50:32,515
Mr. Dobson and his companion
jumped into a corner, seemed

836
00:50:32,516 --> 00:50:34,217
very much terrified.

837
00:50:34,218 --> 00:50:37,887
From that I went to
another saloon, until I had

838
00:50:37,888 --> 00:50:39,389
destroyed 3.

839
00:50:39,390 --> 00:50:41,624
The other dive-keepers closed
up, stood in front

840
00:50:41,625 --> 00:50:45,829
of their places and would
not let me in.

841
00:50:45,830 --> 00:50:48,865
By this time the streets were
crowded with people.

842
00:50:48,866 --> 00:50:54,838
One boy about 15 years old
seemed perfectly wild with joy.

843
00:50:54,839 --> 00:50:58,875
I have since thought of that
being a significant sign.

844
00:50:58,876 --> 00:51:03,580
For to smash saloons
will save the boy.

845
00:51:03,581 --> 00:51:07,250
She dared
the sheriff to arrest her.

846
00:51:07,251 --> 00:51:08,284
He did not.

847
00:51:08,285 --> 00:51:12,589
She moved on to Wichita to
attack the most opulent saloon

848
00:51:12,590 --> 00:51:16,192
in town, the bar in
the Hotel Carey.

849
00:51:18,062 --> 00:51:21,698
When a policeman arrested her
there for defacing property,

850
00:51:21,699 --> 00:51:25,835
she shouted at him,
"I am defacing nothing!

851
00:51:25,836 --> 00:51:28,071
I am destroying!"

852
00:51:28,072 --> 00:51:32,075
"You put me in here a cub,"
she said from behind bars,

853
00:51:32,076 --> 00:51:36,346
"but I will go out a roaring
lion, and I will make

854
00:51:36,347 --> 00:51:38,782
all hell howl!"

855
00:51:38,783 --> 00:51:41,484
Her exploits were
front-page news.

856
00:51:41,485 --> 00:51:44,721
Hundreds of congratulatory
telegrams arrived

857
00:51:44,722 --> 00:51:46,289
from all over the country.

858
00:51:46,290 --> 00:51:50,627
As soon as she got out,
she attacked another saloon,

859
00:51:50,628 --> 00:51:53,096
this time with the weapon
that would become

860
00:51:53,097 --> 00:51:56,333
her symbol... a hatchet.

861
00:51:56,934 --> 00:52:00,537
Jailed and released once more,
she moved on to the town

862
00:52:00,538 --> 00:52:04,841
of Enterprise, did further
damage there, and then appeared

863
00:52:04,842 --> 00:52:08,678
in Topeka, the state capital
and home to dozens

864
00:52:08,679 --> 00:52:13,917
of flourishing saloons,
all of them illegal.

865
00:52:13,918 --> 00:52:18,288
The leaders of the Topeka WCTU
declared themselves

866
00:52:18,289 --> 00:52:21,057
"not in accord
with her methods."

867
00:52:21,058 --> 00:52:23,126
"I tell you ladies,"
she answered, "you don't

868
00:52:23,127 --> 00:52:28,231
"know how much joy you will
have until you begin to smash,

869
00:52:28,232 --> 00:52:30,533
smash, smash."

870
00:52:30,534 --> 00:52:34,104
The governor implored her
not to do any more damage.

871
00:52:34,105 --> 00:52:38,074
She told him that
if he didn't enforce the law,

872
00:52:38,075 --> 00:52:39,542
she had no choice.

873
00:52:39,543 --> 00:52:43,246
"You are a woman," he said,
and "a woman must know

874
00:52:43,247 --> 00:52:45,348
a woman's place."

875
00:52:45,349 --> 00:52:47,684
She walked out of his
office and called

876
00:52:47,685 --> 00:52:50,420
for a "hatchetation."

877
00:52:50,421 --> 00:52:54,657
Many Kansans believed Nation
was at least half-mad,

878
00:52:54,658 --> 00:52:58,094
but hundreds of women
and a smaller number of men

879
00:52:58,095 --> 00:53:00,697
rallied to her,
bringing their own stones

880
00:53:00,698 --> 00:53:04,300
and bricks, sticks
and hatchets, and calling

881
00:53:04,301 --> 00:53:08,304
themselves
the home defenders' army.

882
00:53:08,305 --> 00:53:12,509
Proprietors of the local
saloons tried and failed

883
00:53:12,510 --> 00:53:14,244
to stop them.

884
00:53:14,245 --> 00:53:18,047
She and her followers tore
apart a joint favored

885
00:53:18,048 --> 00:53:20,116
by state legislators
called the Senate,

886
00:53:20,117 --> 00:53:23,186
then went on to smash
a second bar,

887
00:53:23,187 --> 00:53:27,123
a barn filled with saloon
fixtures and a warehouse

888
00:53:27,124 --> 00:53:30,527
stacked high
with barrels of beer.

889
00:53:30,528 --> 00:53:37,200
That day Carry Nation was
jailed and released 4 times.

890
00:53:37,201 --> 00:53:39,502
Within the month, her admirers
would attack

891
00:53:39,503 --> 00:53:44,440
more than 100 saloons in at
least 50 Kansas towns.

892
00:53:44,441 --> 00:53:47,310
Anxious state legislators
rushed through a bill

893
00:53:47,311 --> 00:53:51,080
to strengthen enforcement of
the law and pacify her

894
00:53:51,081 --> 00:53:54,817
and her home-defenders' army.

895
00:53:54,818 --> 00:53:57,288
It was a remarkable victory.

896
00:53:59,256 --> 00:54:02,091
Carry Nation hoped her
movement would spread across

897
00:54:02,092 --> 00:54:06,963
the country and sweep away
all of the nation's saloons.

898
00:54:06,964 --> 00:54:10,967
But once again, like the
woman's crusade, it died

899
00:54:10,968 --> 00:54:14,638
almost as quickly
as it had arisen.

900
00:54:16,140 --> 00:54:19,642
Carry Nation never stopped
crusading... in saloons

901
00:54:19,643 --> 00:54:25,315
and churches, lecture halls,
even on the vaudeville stage.

902
00:54:25,316 --> 00:54:30,286
For many, she became a figure
of fun, even ridicule.

903
00:54:30,287 --> 00:54:34,157
But so long as she lived,
bartenders never stopped

904
00:54:34,158 --> 00:54:39,964
keeping a wary eye out for
her and her dreaded hatchet.

905
00:54:41,131 --> 00:54:43,099
Every movement
needs some people to call

906
00:54:43,100 --> 00:54:46,803
attention to itself
by bold action.

907
00:54:46,804 --> 00:54:50,873
She knew that you had to
draw attention and you needed

908
00:54:50,874 --> 00:54:52,375
the press following you.

909
00:54:52,376 --> 00:54:54,711
You had to make
the right enemies.

910
00:54:54,712 --> 00:54:57,347
I don't think she's at all
representative of the movement.

911
00:54:57,348 --> 00:55:01,818
She's simply the one who
called attention to it.

912
00:55:01,819 --> 00:55:06,690
And then patient, hardworking
people followed through.

913
00:55:10,794 --> 00:55:15,632
In 1893, in Oberlin,
Ohio, a new organization had

914
00:55:15,633 --> 00:55:19,335
been established to fight
the evils of alcohol:

915
00:55:19,336 --> 00:55:21,771
The Anti-Saloon League.

916
00:55:21,772 --> 00:55:24,240
It would turn out to be
the most effective

917
00:55:24,241 --> 00:55:28,745
political pressure group
in American history.

918
00:55:28,746 --> 00:55:30,079
The founder of the League was

919
00:55:30,080 --> 00:55:32,482
the Reverend
Howard Hyde Russell.

920
00:55:32,483 --> 00:55:36,919
Unlike Frances Willard and
the WCTU, Russell was determined

921
00:55:36,920 --> 00:55:41,124
that his organization would
focus on a single goal:

922
00:55:41,125 --> 00:55:44,727
To get rid of alcohol, period.

923
00:55:44,728 --> 00:55:49,365
Town by town, county by
county, state by state,

924
00:55:49,366 --> 00:55:53,303
they would force
America to go dry.

925
00:55:53,304 --> 00:55:57,540
"The Anti-Saloon League is
not in politics as a party,"

926
00:55:57,541 --> 00:55:58,274
one leader said,

927
00:55:58,275 --> 00:56:03,346
"nor are we trying to abolish
vice, gambling, horse-racing,

928
00:56:03,347 --> 00:56:05,114
"murder, theft or arson.

929
00:56:05,115 --> 00:56:07,884
"The gold standard,
the unlimited coinage

930
00:56:07,885 --> 00:56:13,189
"of silver, free trade and
currency reform do not concern

931
00:56:13,190 --> 00:56:14,390
us in the least."

932
00:56:14,391 --> 00:56:19,362
The League liked to call
itself "the church in action"

933
00:56:19,363 --> 00:56:20,330
against the saloon."

934
00:56:20,331 --> 00:56:24,567
Baptists and Methodists
formed its heart, but every.

935
00:56:24,568 --> 00:56:30,073
Protestant denomination signed
on, except the Episcopalians

936
00:56:30,074 --> 00:56:31,874
and the Lutherans.

937
00:56:31,875 --> 00:56:34,310
I am of Lutheran
heritage, German Lutheran.

938
00:56:34,311 --> 00:56:37,313
It wouldn't have occurred
to them to oppose beer, and they

939
00:56:37,314 --> 00:56:40,783
really resented the Methodists
and the Baptists who imposed

940
00:56:40,784 --> 00:56:42,452
prohibition on them.

941
00:56:42,453 --> 00:56:44,187
So a lot of smart cracks
came from both sides.

942
00:56:44,188 --> 00:56:48,524
And one of them was that
Lutherans drank openly

943
00:56:48,525 --> 00:56:50,059
and praised God secretly.

944
00:56:50,060 --> 00:56:54,263
And the Baptists praised God
openly and drank secretly.

945
00:56:54,264 --> 00:56:56,666
The Anti-Saloon
League was more or less

946
00:56:56,667 --> 00:57:00,436
modeled on the modern
corporation that was already

947
00:57:00,437 --> 00:57:02,271
transforming American business.

948
00:57:02,272 --> 00:57:06,442
It had a national headquarters
to direct its campaigns;

949
00:57:06,443 --> 00:57:09,912
A salaried full-time
staff to oversee

950
00:57:09,913 --> 00:57:11,381
thousands of volunteers;

951
00:57:11,382 --> 00:57:15,151
Ample financing
from millions in annual dues,

952
00:57:15,152 --> 00:57:18,855
as well as church collections;
And a printing plant

953
00:57:18,856 --> 00:57:23,693
at Westerville, Ohio,
that churned out 300 tons

954
00:57:23,694 --> 00:57:26,563
of propaganda every month.

955
00:57:32,936 --> 00:57:35,271
The Anti-Saloon
League was one of the first

956
00:57:35,272 --> 00:57:38,274
modern political movements
in the United States.

957
00:57:38,275 --> 00:57:39,575
Like the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union,

958
00:57:39,576 --> 00:57:43,379
like most suffragists, they
truly believed that alcohol was

959
00:57:43,380 --> 00:57:48,584
a drug that was being pushed
on consumers, that once you

960
00:57:48,585 --> 00:57:52,655
eliminated the pusher that
people would stop drinking

961
00:57:52,656 --> 00:57:56,526
because temperance was
the natural state of humans.

962
00:57:56,527 --> 00:57:59,729
Any politician
who dared oppose the League,

963
00:57:59,730 --> 00:58:03,633
Howard Russell promised,
would live to regret it.

964
00:58:03,634 --> 00:58:05,668
"The Anti-Saloon League,"
he said,

965
00:58:05,669 --> 00:58:09,338
"was formed for the purpose
of administering

966
00:58:09,339 --> 00:58:12,475
political retribution."

967
00:58:12,476 --> 00:58:15,244
Because they had
such a devoted following,

968
00:58:15,245 --> 00:58:18,381
a following that was moved by
religion, and there's no more

969
00:58:18,382 --> 00:58:20,349
powerful force
to get people to act,

970
00:58:20,350 --> 00:58:22,552
they were able to say
to politicians,

971
00:58:22,553 --> 00:58:23,786
"Are you with us,
or are you against us?

972
00:58:23,787 --> 00:58:25,788
"And if you are against us,
we will defeat you.

973
00:58:25,789 --> 00:58:27,123
And if you are with us,
we will elect you."

974
00:58:27,124 --> 00:58:31,260
and they were able to do it in
state after state after state.

975
00:58:31,261 --> 00:58:33,529
What a wedge issue
that's effective does is it

976
00:58:33,530 --> 00:58:37,266
forces you to stand up and say,
"I'm for this, or I'm for that."

977
00:58:37,267 --> 00:58:39,669
"I'm for alcohol," or
"I'm against alcohol."

978
00:58:39,670 --> 00:58:42,205
and this kind of a position
that you were required to take

979
00:58:42,206 --> 00:58:45,074
can be a tremendously powerful
political tool, but it's also

980
00:58:45,075 --> 00:58:47,777
profoundly divisive because
that's the whole point of it.

981
00:58:47,778 --> 00:58:49,946
The whole reason you have
a wedge issue is to drive

982
00:58:49,947 --> 00:58:51,714
a wedge between people
and make them stand up

983
00:58:51,715 --> 00:58:53,583
and take a stand
on one particular issue.

984
00:58:53,584 --> 00:58:55,585
And this elevates
that issue in importance

985
00:58:55,586 --> 00:58:57,053
above everything else,

986
00:58:57,054 --> 00:58:59,823
no matter how important
the other issues really are.

987
00:59:01,058 --> 00:59:04,527
The man
who made it all work was.

988
00:59:04,528 --> 00:59:05,595
Wayne Bidwell Wheeler,

989
00:59:05,596 --> 00:59:08,698
the Anti-Saloon League's
ablest commander...

990
00:59:08,699 --> 00:59:12,201
the person, one associate said,
"who can make the Senate

991
00:59:12,202 --> 00:59:16,005
of the United States
sit up and beg."

992
00:59:16,006 --> 00:59:18,708
He looked like a bank
teller, Wayne B. Wheeler,

993
00:59:18,709 --> 00:59:21,177
a name that, at his death in
the twenties, people said,

994
00:59:21,178 --> 00:59:24,146
"he will be remembered forever
as one of the most important

995
00:59:24,147 --> 00:59:25,181
people of our time."

996
00:59:25,182 --> 00:59:27,617
He was the one who figured out
that if you stick to an issue

997
00:59:27,618 --> 00:59:30,753
and you really sell
that issue, you can get

998
00:59:30,754 --> 00:59:32,321
what you want.

999
00:59:32,322 --> 00:59:36,025
Wheeler was an Ohio
farm boy who had lost an uncle

1000
00:59:36,026 --> 00:59:38,227
to alcohol and had
himself been injured

1001
00:59:38,228 --> 00:59:42,532
by a drunken farmhand
wielding a pitchfork.

1002
00:59:42,533 --> 00:59:46,769
He liked to say that "God
made the country, but man made"

1003
00:59:46,770 --> 00:59:47,470
the town."

1004
00:59:47,471 --> 00:59:52,275
He was ideally suited to lead
what became, at least in part,

1005
00:59:52,276 --> 00:59:57,881
a crusade by rural Americans
against the big cities.

1006
00:59:58,448 --> 01:00:02,518
Recruited by Howard Russell
at Oberlin, he began his work

1007
01:00:02,519 --> 01:00:06,289
on a bicycle, spinning
from door to door to defeat

1008
01:00:06,290 --> 01:00:11,060
an anti-prohibition candidate
for the state senate.

1009
01:00:11,061 --> 01:00:14,797
As the organization grew,
Wheeler quickly moved up

1010
01:00:14,798 --> 01:00:15,665
in the ranks.

1011
01:00:15,666 --> 01:00:18,434
He was a skilled lawyer
and a shrewd,

1012
01:00:18,435 --> 01:00:20,036
calculating political operative,

1013
01:00:20,037 --> 01:00:23,239
willing to work even
with politicians who drank,

1014
01:00:23,240 --> 01:00:28,077
so long as they were
willing to vote to keep others

1015
01:00:28,078 --> 01:00:29,779
from doing so.

1016
01:00:29,780 --> 01:00:32,982
Some old-time temperance
crusaders were horrified

1017
01:00:32,983 --> 01:00:37,820
at the tactics he used
and the company he kept.

1018
01:00:37,821 --> 01:00:39,255
He didn't care.

1019
01:00:39,256 --> 01:00:42,959
He didn't need to win
majorities; He needed to win

1020
01:00:42,960 --> 01:00:44,093
at the margin.

1021
01:00:44,094 --> 01:00:45,995
So if Wheeler could get
for the Anti-Saloon League

1022
01:00:45,996 --> 01:00:49,098
10% of the voters in that state
to vote wherever he told them

1023
01:00:49,099 --> 01:00:51,767
to vote, he could
control the state.

1024
01:00:51,768 --> 01:00:52,802
He didn't need 51%.

1025
01:00:52,803 --> 01:00:56,639
He only needed the margin
that one party needed to control

1026
01:00:56,640 --> 01:00:58,407
the legislature.

1027
01:00:58,408 --> 01:01:02,411
Wheeler targeted
70 state legislators in Ohio who

1028
01:01:02,412 --> 01:01:08,150
opposed the league and by 1903
had driven every one of them

1029
01:01:08,151 --> 01:01:09,719
from office.

1030
01:01:09,720 --> 01:01:13,522
In 1905, when Ohio's
popular Republican governor,

1031
01:01:13,523 --> 01:01:17,693
Myron T. Herrick,
himself a reformer, dared try

1032
01:01:17,694 --> 01:01:21,664
to weaken a so-called
local option law that allowed

1033
01:01:21,665 --> 01:01:25,635
each community to decide
for itself whether to prevent

1034
01:01:25,636 --> 01:01:28,771
alcohol from being sold,
Wheeler denounced him

1035
01:01:28,772 --> 01:01:31,407
as "the champion
of the murder mills,"

1036
01:01:31,408 --> 01:01:34,577
unleashed the full fury
of the League,

1037
01:01:34,578 --> 01:01:37,781
and crushed him at the polls.

1038
01:01:38,515 --> 01:01:41,317
Throughout the country,
anxious politicians

1039
01:01:41,318 --> 01:01:44,987
in both parties began warning
one another,

1040
01:01:44,988 --> 01:01:48,190
"Remember what
happened to Herrick."

1041
01:01:48,191 --> 01:01:51,627
"The lessons that have been
taught by this contest are

1042
01:01:51,628 --> 01:01:53,996
"important," Wayne Wheeler said.

1043
01:01:53,997 --> 01:01:57,099
"Never again will any
political party ignore

1044
01:01:57,100 --> 01:02:04,106
the protests of the church and
the moral forces of the state."

1045
01:02:04,107 --> 01:02:08,110
The league's power spread
steadily, eventually reaching

1046
01:02:08,111 --> 01:02:09,378
into all 46 states...

1047
01:02:09,379 --> 01:02:12,415
overshadowing the women's groups

1048
01:02:12,416 --> 01:02:16,585
that had been working
for temperance for decades.

1049
01:02:16,586 --> 01:02:19,555
The old prohibition
weepers and gurglers were

1050
01:02:19,556 --> 01:02:21,524
quite incapable of
this enterprise,

1051
01:02:21,525 --> 01:02:25,428
but the new janissaries
of the Anti-Saloon League...

1052
01:02:25,429 --> 01:02:29,065
they understood the soul
of the American politician.

1053
01:02:29,066 --> 01:02:32,268
They knew that his whole
politics, his whole philosophy,

1054
01:02:32,269 --> 01:02:35,538
his whole
concept of honesty and honor,

1055
01:02:35,539 --> 01:02:39,341
was embraced in his single
and insatiable yearning

1056
01:02:39,342 --> 01:02:40,142
for a job,

1057
01:02:40,143 --> 01:02:43,079
and they showed him how,
by playing with them, he could

1058
01:02:43,080 --> 01:02:47,583
get it and keep it, and how,
by standing against them,

1059
01:02:47,584 --> 01:02:49,919
he could lose it.

1060
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:51,621
H.L. Mencken.

1061
01:02:53,690 --> 01:02:56,158
In 1909, Wheeler had help

1062
01:02:56,159 --> 01:02:58,294
from an unexpected quarter.

1063
01:02:58,295 --> 01:03:01,564
City dwellers with a nickel to
spare could see

1064
01:03:01,565 --> 01:03:03,099
something new in the world,

1065
01:03:03,100 --> 01:03:07,369
a motion picture version of
"Ten Nights in a Bar Room,"

1066
01:03:07,370 --> 01:03:09,305
an old
stage melodrama that had been

1067
01:03:09,306 --> 01:03:12,541
the "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
of the temperance movement

1068
01:03:12,542 --> 01:03:16,045
and a staple of small-town
entertainment

1069
01:03:16,046 --> 01:03:18,115
since before the Civil War.

1070
01:03:19,216 --> 01:03:22,251
The film embodied every
temperance fear:

1071
01:03:22,252 --> 01:03:27,189
A drunken husband squandering
his pay, the tragic injury

1072
01:03:27,190 --> 01:03:34,230
of the daughter sent to bring
him home, the last

1073
01:03:34,231 --> 01:03:39,736
ghastly stage of alcoholism...
the agony of delirium tremens.

1074
01:03:45,175 --> 01:03:48,077
The film helped to reinforce
the belief that

1075
01:03:48,078 --> 01:03:54,350
even one drop of alcohol could
destroy not just individuals,

1076
01:03:54,351 --> 01:03:56,620
but whole families.

1077
01:04:24,181 --> 01:04:27,650
When Lyman Beecher first
began to preach against drink,

1078
01:04:27,651 --> 01:04:32,421
fewer than one in 10 Americans
had lived in a city.

1079
01:04:32,422 --> 01:04:35,291
Now almost half of them did.

1080
01:04:35,292 --> 01:04:39,061
The country's population had
grown more than 10 times

1081
01:04:39,062 --> 01:04:42,631
as millions of immigrants
continued to crowd

1082
01:04:42,632 --> 01:04:44,066
into cities.

1083
01:04:44,067 --> 01:04:46,869
They went to work in
steel mills and slaughterhouses

1084
01:04:46,870 --> 01:04:50,840
and on assembly lines,
transforming America

1085
01:04:50,841 --> 01:04:53,810
into an industrial powerhouse.

1086
01:04:57,080 --> 01:05:01,383
New circumstances and a new
century seemed to demand a new

1087
01:05:01,384 --> 01:05:05,554
kind of reform, progressive
reform, righting wrongs

1088
01:05:05,555 --> 01:05:08,791
through legislation
rather than persuasion:

1089
01:05:08,792 --> 01:05:10,092
To stop child labor

1090
01:05:10,093 --> 01:05:14,463
and win votes for women;
To end sweatshop conditions;

1091
01:05:14,464 --> 01:05:18,500
Break up monopolies,
combat political corruption;

1092
01:05:18,501 --> 01:05:23,039
And do something about
the crowded, squalid slums.

1093
01:05:26,042 --> 01:05:29,545
People
commonly think of prohibition

1094
01:05:29,546 --> 01:05:31,914
as being a conservative
movement.

1095
01:05:31,915 --> 01:05:32,715
Not at all.

1096
01:05:32,716 --> 01:05:37,052
It was a movement that was
embraced by progressives

1097
01:05:37,053 --> 01:05:41,657
who thought of this as
a fundamental kind of reform,

1098
01:05:41,658 --> 01:05:46,395
in part because alcoholism
was such a terrible problem

1099
01:05:46,396 --> 01:05:51,300
and particularly a terrible
problem for the working class,

1100
01:05:51,301 --> 01:05:53,770
for the immigrant poor.

1101
01:05:54,471 --> 01:05:55,738
There really is
a genuine concern for

1102
01:05:55,739 --> 01:05:58,807
the well-being of the immigrant,
the immigrant family,

1103
01:05:58,808 --> 01:06:01,244
the immigrant worker.

1104
01:06:02,279 --> 01:06:04,680
It's just kind of funny that
the way that they wanted

1105
01:06:04,681 --> 01:06:08,984
to improve their lives
didn't include asking them

1106
01:06:08,985 --> 01:06:10,085
what they wanted done.

1107
01:06:10,086 --> 01:06:11,186
And they went after one of
the things

1108
01:06:11,187 --> 01:06:13,122
that actually meant
a great deal to them.

1109
01:06:13,123 --> 01:06:15,424
And that's what you hear over
and over again from immigrants

1110
01:06:15,425 --> 01:06:19,028
during Prohibition, that
this is important to them.

1111
01:06:19,029 --> 01:06:21,697
This is not just some vice.

1112
01:06:21,698 --> 01:06:24,434
This is part of their life.

1113
01:06:26,469 --> 01:06:30,172
People found it
necessary to believe that this

1114
01:06:30,173 --> 01:06:33,509
was an Anglo-Saxon
white country.

1115
01:06:33,510 --> 01:06:37,513
And suddenly here were all
these Catholics, these Irish

1116
01:06:37,514 --> 01:06:42,584
and Italians, here were
all these Eastern Europeans

1117
01:06:42,585 --> 01:06:47,756
including large numbers of
Jews, who were not like them.

1118
01:06:47,757 --> 01:06:52,528
And they were changing
the nature of the country.

1119
01:06:52,529 --> 01:06:58,300
They made an alloy, a mixture
of metals that was tougher

1120
01:06:58,301 --> 01:07:00,970
than any individual metal.

1121
01:07:00,971 --> 01:07:06,475
Obviously they made
a better country out of it.

1122
01:07:06,476 --> 01:07:09,378
But they didn't want
to believe that.

1123
01:07:09,379 --> 01:07:12,481
And in the small towns...
particularly the Midwest...

1124
01:07:12,482 --> 01:07:15,017
where native-born Protestants
lived a very...

1125
01:07:15,018 --> 01:07:18,087
relatively speaking...
a stable life, they saw the city

1126
01:07:18,088 --> 01:07:21,156
as these cauldrons of sin
and debauchery

1127
01:07:21,157 --> 01:07:24,360
and of large numbers of
votes that were going to change

1128
01:07:24,361 --> 01:07:27,396
the nature of the country.

1129
01:07:27,397 --> 01:07:29,031
The Anti-Saloon
League, for all its talk

1130
01:07:29,032 --> 01:07:31,867
about getting rid of
the saloon, really was thinking

1131
01:07:31,868 --> 01:07:34,436
mostly about the immigrant.

1132
01:07:34,437 --> 01:07:37,906
It was a concern about,
Who does the saloon cater to?

1133
01:07:37,907 --> 01:07:40,376
"Those are the people
we're worried about."

1134
01:07:40,377 --> 01:07:42,811
There's a sense that
they're not real Americans.

1135
01:07:42,812 --> 01:07:46,749
That's always a very strong part
of the Anti-Saloon League's

1136
01:07:46,750 --> 01:07:50,452
message, that real
Americans don't need a saloon.

1137
01:07:50,453 --> 01:07:52,788
They're better than that.

1138
01:07:52,789 --> 01:07:55,391
The Anti-Saloon
League was perfectly poised

1139
01:07:55,392 --> 01:07:59,795
to exploit small-town concerns,
and their opponents seemed

1140
01:07:59,796 --> 01:08:04,100
incapable of seeing
how serious they were.

1141
01:08:05,635 --> 01:08:07,770
It's very hard for
people on the other side...

1142
01:08:07,771 --> 01:08:09,671
the Wets... to organize
around anything.

1143
01:08:09,672 --> 01:08:10,372
What was the common cause?

1144
01:08:10,373 --> 01:08:13,175
"I'm going to go march in the
street so I can keep my gin?"

1145
01:08:13,176 --> 01:08:17,046
It doesn't have quite the same
ring as the morally inspired

1146
01:08:17,047 --> 01:08:21,050
movement that many of
the people on the Dry side had.

1147
01:08:21,051 --> 01:08:24,453
For nearly half
a century, the brewers had been

1148
01:08:24,454 --> 01:08:27,890
holding their own
against temperance forces.

1149
01:08:27,891 --> 01:08:30,025
Their industry was now one of
the largest

1150
01:08:30,026 --> 01:08:31,260
in the United States,

1151
01:08:31,261 --> 01:08:36,432
producing 900 million
barrels of beer a year.

1152
01:08:36,433 --> 01:08:41,036
In some years, taxes on alcohol
comprised 70%

1153
01:08:41,037 --> 01:08:43,172
of federal internal revenue.

1154
01:08:43,173 --> 01:08:49,578
One brewer's letterhead boasted,
"Uncle Sam is our partner."

1155
01:08:49,579 --> 01:08:53,182
The best-known and most
powerful brewer was.

1156
01:08:53,183 --> 01:08:54,450
Adolphus Busch.

1157
01:08:54,451 --> 01:08:59,721
If you were to imagine
an emperor of beer, that was.

1158
01:08:59,722 --> 01:09:00,756
Adolphus Busch.

1159
01:09:00,757 --> 01:09:03,058
He built the family firm
into the largest brewery

1160
01:09:03,059 --> 01:09:03,725
in the Western hemisphere.

1161
01:09:03,726 --> 01:09:10,232
And he was the leader of the
wet movement, such as it was.

1162
01:09:10,233 --> 01:09:12,801
An immigrant from
the Rhineland, the youngest

1163
01:09:12,802 --> 01:09:16,538
of 21 children, he entered
the brewery supply business

1164
01:09:16,539 --> 01:09:19,741
in St. Louis in 1857,
went into partnership

1165
01:09:19,742 --> 01:09:21,577
with his father-in-law,

1166
01:09:21,578 --> 01:09:25,614
Eberhard Anheuser, and soon
became the first brewer

1167
01:09:25,615 --> 01:09:28,917
to succeed at
bottling beer for shipment.

1168
01:09:28,918 --> 01:09:33,088
His brewery on the
St. Louis riverfront sprawled

1169
01:09:33,089 --> 01:09:34,223
across 70 acres.

1170
01:09:34,224 --> 01:09:38,193
He owned railroads,
ice factories, bottling plants.

1171
01:09:38,194 --> 01:09:42,364
Busch had 5 lavish homes
on two continents.

1172
01:09:42,365 --> 01:09:45,134
His children's
playhouse had 3 floors.

1173
01:09:45,135 --> 01:09:48,070
Tiffany designed
the stained-glass windows

1174
01:09:48,071 --> 01:09:49,671
in his stable.

1175
01:09:49,672 --> 01:09:54,209
On the occasion of his 50th
wedding anniversary, customers

1176
01:09:54,210 --> 01:09:58,814
in 35 cities raised a glass
to the happy couple.

1177
01:09:58,815 --> 01:10:01,750
Politicians sought his support.

1178
01:10:01,751 --> 01:10:03,185
Presidents befriended him.

1179
01:10:03,186 --> 01:10:06,755
He liked to wear medals
and awards, including

1180
01:10:06,756 --> 01:10:08,423
the Order of the Red Eagle,

1181
01:10:08,424 --> 01:10:13,595
personally presented to him by
Kaiser Wilhelm II.

1182
01:10:13,596 --> 01:10:16,865
As the Anti-Saloon League
steadily gained ground,

1183
01:10:16,866 --> 01:10:20,068
other members of the brewers'
association looked

1184
01:10:20,069 --> 01:10:23,305
to Adolphus Busch
for leadership.

1185
01:10:23,306 --> 01:10:27,009
When one side of
a movement is people inspired

1186
01:10:27,010 --> 01:10:32,214
by passion and the other is
people inspired by commerce,

1187
01:10:32,215 --> 01:10:34,650
passion is likely going to win.

1188
01:10:34,651 --> 01:10:37,653
However, commerce, in the
form of Adolphus Busch

1189
01:10:37,654 --> 01:10:40,589
and the other brewers and
the distillers, can hold off

1190
01:10:40,590 --> 01:10:41,790
passion for many, many years.

1191
01:10:41,791 --> 01:10:42,858
And that's what he did.

1192
01:10:42,859 --> 01:10:45,394
He threw himself in front
of the prohibition movement,

1193
01:10:45,395 --> 01:10:48,864
and he was going to stop it
single-handedly, he thought.

1194
01:10:48,865 --> 01:10:51,967
Busch and his
allies fought back, buying

1195
01:10:51,968 --> 01:10:54,336
legislators and election
officials

1196
01:10:54,337 --> 01:10:55,904
whenever and wherever
they could.

1197
01:10:55,905 --> 01:11:00,075
They bribed newspaper editors
to write editorials favoring

1198
01:11:00,076 --> 01:11:03,412
their cause... even paid
the poll-tax for Mexican

1199
01:11:03,413 --> 01:11:06,949
and African American voters
in Texas because they were

1200
01:11:06,950 --> 01:11:10,986
thought likely to favor
the sale of beer.

1201
01:11:10,987 --> 01:11:14,323
But the brewers were painfully
slow to understand

1202
01:11:14,324 --> 01:11:18,727
the revulsion many Americans
felt at the worst excesses

1203
01:11:18,728 --> 01:11:20,495
of the saloons they owned.

1204
01:11:20,496 --> 01:11:22,831
And they engaged in
pointless quarrels

1205
01:11:22,832 --> 01:11:24,833
with whiskey distillers.

1206
01:11:24,834 --> 01:11:26,969
One of the things
that weakened the wet side

1207
01:11:26,970 --> 01:11:29,271
of the debate is that
the brewers, trying to preserve

1208
01:11:29,272 --> 01:11:32,241
their right to sell beer,
they turned on the distillers

1209
01:11:32,242 --> 01:11:34,843
and said, "The distillers are
doing really horrible things."

1210
01:11:34,844 --> 01:11:36,078
"It's terrible for
the American family.

1211
01:11:36,079 --> 01:11:39,181
"This is a poison that's being
poured into people, where

1212
01:11:39,182 --> 01:11:42,451
beer that's liquid bread"...
was actually a term that

1213
01:11:42,452 --> 01:11:43,418
they used to define it...

1214
01:11:43,419 --> 01:11:44,886
it was a healthy beverage.

1215
01:11:44,887 --> 01:11:47,522
They published pictures of
little babies with steins,

1216
01:11:47,523 --> 01:11:49,958
you know, and mothers who
drink beer are gonna build

1217
01:11:49,959 --> 01:11:50,492
better babies.

1218
01:11:50,493 --> 01:11:52,094
Babies should sip
some beer, as well.

1219
01:11:52,095 --> 01:11:56,298
They tried to turn it into
a health beverage.

1220
01:11:56,299 --> 01:11:58,166
The brewers also poured money

1221
01:11:58,167 --> 01:12:00,335
into a national
organization called

1222
01:12:00,336 --> 01:12:03,005
the German-American Alliance.

1223
01:12:03,006 --> 01:12:06,575
It had been founded simply
to encourage German culture,

1224
01:12:06,576 --> 01:12:10,746
but the brewers turned it
into an anti-prohibition army,

1225
01:12:10,747 --> 01:12:12,981
pledged to defeat what it called

1226
01:12:12,982 --> 01:12:14,683
the prohibitionists' assault

1227
01:12:14,684 --> 01:12:17,352
on "German manners and customs"

1228
01:12:17,353 --> 01:12:21,056
and the joviality
of the German people."

1229
01:12:21,057 --> 01:12:23,191
Nearly two million
German-Americans would

1230
01:12:23,192 --> 01:12:27,296
eventually join the Alliance,
helping to ensure that states

1231
01:12:27,297 --> 01:12:28,897
with large German populations

1232
01:12:28,898 --> 01:12:31,600
like Pennsylvania and New York,

1233
01:12:31,601 --> 01:12:38,407
Illinois and lowa, would
not vote themselves dry.

1234
01:12:38,408 --> 01:12:42,377
But it also deepened
small-town America's suspicion

1235
01:12:42,378 --> 01:12:46,915
of brewers and
the saloons they controlled.

1236
01:12:46,916 --> 01:12:50,085
If you really don't
want people to drink, it's not

1237
01:12:50,086 --> 01:12:52,087
enough just to ban
alcohol in this town.

1238
01:12:52,088 --> 01:12:54,856
You have to ban it at least in
the next town over, or people

1239
01:12:54,857 --> 01:12:57,559
will cross the town line
and go and drink there.

1240
01:12:57,560 --> 01:12:59,761
The same problem is true,
of course, at the state level.

1241
01:12:59,762 --> 01:13:01,830
It became increasingly
clear that you needed

1242
01:13:01,831 --> 01:13:02,764
national regulation,

1243
01:13:02,765 --> 01:13:05,167
that something needed to
cover the whole country

1244
01:13:05,168 --> 01:13:06,868
if it was going
to prohibit alcohol

1245
01:13:06,869 --> 01:13:08,170
in a general way.

1246
01:13:08,171 --> 01:13:11,940
To outlaw alcohol nationally,
then, what you needed was

1247
01:13:11,941 --> 01:13:14,176
a law that would reach
everybody, and that had

1248
01:13:14,177 --> 01:13:16,446
to come from the Constitution.

1249
01:13:21,684 --> 01:13:26,054
By 1913, thanks
largely to the tireless efforts

1250
01:13:26,055 --> 01:13:29,925
of the Anti-Saloon
League and the WCTU, Georgia

1251
01:13:29,926 --> 01:13:34,363
and Oklahoma had joined Maine
and North Dakota and passed

1252
01:13:34,364 --> 01:13:37,499
laws restricting
liquor state-wide.

1253
01:13:37,500 --> 01:13:42,471
So had Kansas, Mississippi,
North Carolina, Tennessee,

1254
01:13:42,472 --> 01:13:44,539
and West Virginia.

1255
01:13:44,540 --> 01:13:47,309
The brewers
and distillers were suffering.

1256
01:13:47,310 --> 01:13:51,580
County by county, state by
state, they were being forced

1257
01:13:51,581 --> 01:13:52,781
to close down.

1258
01:13:52,782 --> 01:13:54,116
But they still believed that

1259
01:13:54,117 --> 01:13:58,653
any kind of national restriction
on alcohol was impossible

1260
01:13:58,654 --> 01:14:00,322
because
the United States government

1261
01:14:00,323 --> 01:14:04,327
was so dependent on
the taxes they paid.

1262
01:14:05,728 --> 01:14:10,198
Then for the liquor industry,
the unthinkable happened.

1263
01:14:10,199 --> 01:14:14,836
In early 1913, the 16th
amendment to the Constitution

1264
01:14:14,837 --> 01:14:20,175
was ratified, authorizing
the Federal Government to impose

1265
01:14:20,176 --> 01:14:22,110
an income tax.

1266
01:14:22,111 --> 01:14:25,080
The Anti-Saloon League
had helped bring it about,

1267
01:14:25,081 --> 01:14:29,484
shrewdly allying itself with
progressives and populists who

1268
01:14:29,485 --> 01:14:32,487
favored the redistribution
of wealth.

1269
01:14:32,488 --> 01:14:36,391
The government would no longer
have to rely on alcohol

1270
01:14:36,392 --> 01:14:39,127
to fund its operations.

1271
01:14:39,128 --> 01:14:41,797
The prohibitionists
knew that they could never,

1272
01:14:41,798 --> 01:14:44,332
ever have prohibition until
they could find something

1273
01:14:44,333 --> 01:14:47,068
to substitute for the tax
collections that came through

1274
01:14:47,069 --> 01:14:47,969
the excise tax.

1275
01:14:47,970 --> 01:14:51,973
So therefore they
supported the income tax.

1276
01:14:51,974 --> 01:14:56,178
"Prohibition is no
longer a local issue," warned

1277
01:14:56,179 --> 01:14:58,580
the American Brewers' Review.

1278
01:14:58,581 --> 01:15:03,084
"Prohibition is
now a national danger."

1279
01:15:03,085 --> 01:15:06,354
The Anti-Saloon League pounced.

1280
01:15:06,355 --> 01:15:09,424
"The time is now," it said.

1281
01:15:09,425 --> 01:15:10,592
We therefore declare

1282
01:15:10,593 --> 01:15:12,360
for alcohol's
national annihilation

1283
01:15:12,361 --> 01:15:15,530
by an amendment
to the federal constitution

1284
01:15:15,531 --> 01:15:18,633
which shall forever prohibit
throughout the territory

1285
01:15:18,634 --> 01:15:22,571
of the United States
the manufacture and sale

1286
01:15:22,572 --> 01:15:27,175
and the importation,
exportation, and transportation

1287
01:15:27,176 --> 01:15:32,148
of intoxicating liquor
to be used as a beverage.

1288
01:15:34,317 --> 01:15:37,953
On December 10, 1913,
the citizens

1289
01:15:37,954 --> 01:15:41,122
of Washington, D.C.,
saw something they had rarely

1290
01:15:41,123 --> 01:15:46,161
seen before: A mass march
sweeping toward the Capitol...

1291
01:15:46,162 --> 01:15:50,065
two parallel streams of
Several hundred women,

1292
01:15:50,066 --> 01:15:54,369
representing the WCTU,
and a thousand men,

1293
01:15:54,370 --> 01:15:57,138
members of the Anti-Saloon
League.

1294
01:15:57,139 --> 01:16:00,475
They were there to demand
a prohibition amendment

1295
01:16:00,476 --> 01:16:04,412
to the United States
Constitution.

1296
01:16:04,413 --> 01:16:07,349
A number of other countries
were also considering

1297
01:16:07,350 --> 01:16:10,685
prohibition statutes,
but these marchers wanted

1298
01:16:10,686 --> 01:16:13,989
an amendment rather than
a mere law because if they

1299
01:16:13,990 --> 01:16:17,659
succeeded, the prohibition
of alcohol would be enshrined

1300
01:16:17,660 --> 01:16:21,897
in the Constitution of
the United States forever.

1301
01:16:21,898 --> 01:16:26,034
No amendment had
ever been repealed.

1302
01:16:26,035 --> 01:16:27,769
From the earliest
days the Constitution came

1303
01:16:27,770 --> 01:16:30,071
to be seen by Americans
as something much more

1304
01:16:30,072 --> 01:16:32,908
than what the people who wrote
it imagined it would be.

1305
01:16:32,909 --> 01:16:35,377
It was not just a framework
for government, but it came to

1306
01:16:35,378 --> 01:16:39,414
be seen as capturing
the values and ideals that were

1307
01:16:39,415 --> 01:16:42,817
essential to what made
a person an American.

1308
01:16:42,818 --> 01:16:46,955
The same day
as the march on the Capitol,

1309
01:16:46,956 --> 01:16:48,823
Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas
sponsored

1310
01:16:48,824 --> 01:16:49,658
an 18th amendment

1311
01:16:49,659 --> 01:16:53,528
to the Constitution of
the United States... prohibition.

1312
01:16:53,529 --> 01:16:57,332
Representative
Richmond P. Hobson of Alabama

1313
01:16:57,333 --> 01:17:00,135
introduced it in the House.

1314
01:17:00,136 --> 01:17:02,571
Enacting it would be
a tall order.

1315
01:17:02,572 --> 01:17:06,675
They would need to win 2/3 of
the House and Senate before

1316
01:17:06,676 --> 01:17:09,744
the amendment could be
submitted to the legislatures

1317
01:17:09,745 --> 01:17:14,449
of the 48 states... and then
would need to persuade

1318
01:17:14,450 --> 01:17:17,185
36 of them to ratify it.

1319
01:17:17,186 --> 01:17:19,020
They had to get
it passed before 1920

1320
01:17:19,021 --> 01:17:22,023
because in 1920 there was
going to be a new census,

1321
01:17:22,024 --> 01:17:24,359
and when the census changed,
the cities, which were

1322
01:17:24,360 --> 01:17:27,028
the wet part of the country,
were going to have more

1323
01:17:27,029 --> 01:17:30,332
representation in Congress,
and the small towns were going

1324
01:17:30,333 --> 01:17:34,035
to have less representation
in Congress.

1325
01:17:34,036 --> 01:17:38,373
In 1914, Drys won
a first vote in the House,

1326
01:17:38,374 --> 01:17:43,812
197 to 190, nowhere
near the 2/3 they needed,

1327
01:17:43,813 --> 01:17:49,150
but a serious sign of which way
the wind was blowing.

1328
01:17:49,151 --> 01:17:52,320
It was clear that millions
of Americans had now come

1329
01:17:52,321 --> 01:17:57,859
to support prohibition for all
sorts of reasons... Democrats as

1330
01:17:57,860 --> 01:17:58,693
well as Republicans,

1331
01:17:58,694 --> 01:18:01,896
progressives
as well as conservatives,

1332
01:18:01,897 --> 01:18:04,833
freethinkers
as well as churchgoers.

1333
01:18:04,834 --> 01:18:08,169
Some of the richest
industrialists in the country,

1334
01:18:08,170 --> 01:18:11,840
including Andrew Carnegie
and Henry Ford,

1335
01:18:11,841 --> 01:18:12,440
backed prohibition

1336
01:18:12,441 --> 01:18:16,277
because they believed
alcohol undercut the output

1337
01:18:16,278 --> 01:18:18,246
of their workers.

1338
01:18:18,247 --> 01:18:21,583
The radical industrial workers
of the world were for it,

1339
01:18:21,584 --> 01:18:24,019
too, because they thought
alcohol was part

1340
01:18:24,020 --> 01:18:27,889
of a capitalist plot to
weaken the workingman.

1341
01:18:27,890 --> 01:18:32,027
So was Booker T. Washington
because he believed alcohol

1342
01:18:32,028 --> 01:18:35,897
undermined black progress,
while hundreds of thousands

1343
01:18:35,898 --> 01:18:39,034
of southern whites supported
it, as well, in part

1344
01:18:39,035 --> 01:18:43,238
because they believed
alcohol turned black people

1345
01:18:43,239 --> 01:18:44,372
into brutes.

1346
01:18:44,373 --> 01:18:46,408
There was a lot
in the temperance movement

1347
01:18:46,409 --> 01:18:49,377
and the prohibition movement
that was really temperance

1348
01:18:49,378 --> 01:18:51,613
and prohibition
for somebody else.

1349
01:18:51,614 --> 01:18:55,917
It was the peak of Jim Crow,
and the prohibition movement

1350
01:18:55,918 --> 01:19:00,121
in the South... much of it was
fear of this double combination,

1351
01:19:00,122 --> 01:19:02,357
the scariest thing
to a white southern racist:

1352
01:19:02,358 --> 01:19:05,794
A black man with
a ballot in one hand

1353
01:19:05,795 --> 01:19:08,263
and a bottle in the other
hand, and they would do

1354
01:19:08,264 --> 01:19:12,368
anything to keep the black
man from having either one.

1355
01:19:13,836 --> 01:19:17,005
Meanwhile, the
Anti-Saloon League intensified

1356
01:19:17,006 --> 01:19:20,742
its efforts, sending some 50,000
trained speakers

1357
01:19:20,743 --> 01:19:24,713
into the field, collecting
tens of thousands of signatures

1358
01:19:24,714 --> 01:19:28,116
on petitions, working
to defeat any senator

1359
01:19:28,117 --> 01:19:32,353
or congressman unwilling to
offer unqualified support

1360
01:19:32,354 --> 01:19:35,790
for the amendment, and
dispatching secret operatives

1361
01:19:35,791 --> 01:19:39,728
to infiltrate
the opposition and ferret out

1362
01:19:39,729 --> 01:19:41,496
its plans.

1363
01:19:41,497 --> 01:19:48,103
8 more states passed dry laws:
Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama,

1364
01:19:48,104 --> 01:19:54,709
Nebraska, Oregon, Washington,
Colorado, and Arizona.

1365
01:19:54,710 --> 01:19:58,379
Because of local option laws
already on the books,

1366
01:19:58,380 --> 01:20:02,217
more than half the American
people now found themselves

1367
01:20:02,218 --> 01:20:06,055
living under some
version of prohibition.

1368
01:20:07,356 --> 01:20:10,725
Many of the state laws still
permitted package stores

1369
01:20:10,726 --> 01:20:13,194
to sell liquor for
home consumption.

1370
01:20:13,195 --> 01:20:17,232
It was the saloon the Drys
were after, and most Americans

1371
01:20:17,233 --> 01:20:20,468
went along, certain
any national law

1372
01:20:20,469 --> 01:20:22,805
wouldn't really affect them.

1373
01:20:23,339 --> 01:20:26,474
President Woodrow Wilson found
himself trapped between

1374
01:20:26,475 --> 01:20:30,912
the two wings of his Democratic
party... the wet cities

1375
01:20:30,913 --> 01:20:32,413
of the East and Midwest,

1376
01:20:32,414 --> 01:20:36,351
and the very dry South and West.

1377
01:20:36,352 --> 01:20:39,254
In part to placate the Drys,
he had appointed.

1378
01:20:39,255 --> 01:20:44,259
Josephus Daniels, a tee-totaling
North Carolina newspaperman,

1379
01:20:44,260 --> 01:20:46,060
as secretary of the Navy.

1380
01:20:46,061 --> 01:20:51,166
Daniels promptly banished
alcohol from the entire fleet.

1381
01:20:51,167 --> 01:20:54,669
Wilson's secretary of state
was a far more celebrated

1382
01:20:54,670 --> 01:20:58,039
champion of prohibition,
William Jennings Bryan

1383
01:20:58,040 --> 01:21:03,378
of Nebraska, 3 times a failed
candidate for president.

1384
01:21:03,379 --> 01:21:07,115
He was a progressive populist.

1385
01:21:07,116 --> 01:21:09,818
His enemies called him
"the fundamentalist pope."

1386
01:21:09,819 --> 01:21:13,354
He at first was a temperance
guy but not a prohibitionist,

1387
01:21:13,355 --> 01:21:17,258
and I think that it's fair
to say that he saw which way

1388
01:21:17,259 --> 01:21:19,727
the movement was going,
and when he saw that there was

1389
01:21:19,728 --> 01:21:21,830
a possibility of a prohibition
amendment, he jumped

1390
01:21:21,831 --> 01:21:25,600
into the front of it because
he was this major, major figure

1391
01:21:25,601 --> 01:21:27,336
in the United States.

1392
01:21:30,105 --> 01:21:34,676
On April 2, 1917,
President Wilson traveled

1393
01:21:34,677 --> 01:21:40,114
to Capitol Hill to ask Congress
for a declaration of war

1394
01:21:40,115 --> 01:21:42,116
against Germany.

1395
01:21:42,117 --> 01:21:46,354
The Great War had begun in
Europe almost 3 years earlier,

1396
01:21:46,355 --> 01:21:50,191
and over the intervening
months, German submarines had

1397
01:21:50,192 --> 01:21:52,695
sunk American vessels...

1398
01:21:54,230 --> 01:21:57,466
and enraged the American public.

1399
01:21:59,902 --> 01:22:03,805
The war... and the anti-German
propaganda produced by

1400
01:22:03,806 --> 01:22:06,207
the Wilson administration's
newly created.

1401
01:22:06,208 --> 01:22:08,176
Committee
on Public Information...

1402
01:22:08,177 --> 01:22:13,114
set off a wave
of hysteria about Germans

1403
01:22:13,115 --> 01:22:16,117
and German-Americans.

1404
01:22:16,118 --> 01:22:20,188
Sauerkraut was renamed
"liberty cabbage."

1405
01:22:20,189 --> 01:22:23,224
Dachshunds were stoned to death.

1406
01:22:23,225 --> 01:22:26,294
School children destroyed
their German textbooks,

1407
01:22:26,295 --> 01:22:30,231
and an Illinois mob lynched
an American citizen whose

1408
01:22:30,232 --> 01:22:35,771
only crime had been speaking
German over a neighbor's fence.

1409
01:22:37,606 --> 01:22:40,642
The frenzied atmosphere
was a disaster

1410
01:22:40,643 --> 01:22:43,344
for the German-American
brewers...

1411
01:22:43,345 --> 01:22:45,380
and tailor-made
for Wayne Wheeler

1412
01:22:45,381 --> 01:22:48,117
and the Anti-Saloon League.

1413
01:22:49,985 --> 01:22:52,854
There's an office of
the government that is created

1414
01:22:52,855 --> 01:22:54,822
to propagandize and to
build up hatred

1415
01:22:54,823 --> 01:22:56,257
for all things German.

1416
01:22:56,258 --> 01:22:58,993
Well, to the prohibitionist,
this was the home run.

1417
01:22:58,994 --> 01:23:02,131
This is the thing that
they needed to finally win.

1418
01:23:03,165 --> 01:23:07,101
We have German
enemies across the water.

1419
01:23:07,102 --> 01:23:11,105
But we have German enemies
in this country, too.

1420
01:23:11,106 --> 01:23:13,908
And the worst of all of our
German enemies, the most

1421
01:23:13,909 --> 01:23:21,449
treacherous, the most menacing
are Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz,

1422
01:23:21,450 --> 01:23:23,319
and Miller.

1423
01:23:25,321 --> 01:23:27,455
Wayne Wheeler
persuaded the Senate

1424
01:23:27,456 --> 01:23:29,958
to investigate links
between the brewers

1425
01:23:29,959 --> 01:23:31,960
and the German-American
alliance,

1426
01:23:31,961 --> 01:23:34,829
which had
trumpeted the German cause

1427
01:23:34,830 --> 01:23:38,666
until the moment
America entered the war.

1428
01:23:38,667 --> 01:23:42,637
Wheeler would see to it that
beer and treason were now

1429
01:23:42,638 --> 01:23:45,074
linked in the public mind.

1430
01:23:46,408 --> 01:23:48,543
The Anti-Saloon League
immediately called

1431
01:23:48,544 --> 01:23:52,347
for a temporary wartime ban
on the sale of precious grain

1432
01:23:52,348 --> 01:23:57,151
to brewers and distillers...
and eventually saw it passed

1433
01:23:57,152 --> 01:23:58,820
by both houses.

1434
01:23:58,821 --> 01:24:02,657
For the first time in history,
every American was subject

1435
01:24:02,658 --> 01:24:06,894
to federal
restrictions on alcohol.

1436
01:24:06,895 --> 01:24:09,097
There had been 1,000 American
breweries

1437
01:24:09,098 --> 01:24:12,667
before the United States
entered the war.

1438
01:24:12,668 --> 01:24:17,638
Within months, half would
be out of business.

1439
01:24:17,639 --> 01:24:21,576
Meanwhile, Wayne Wheeler
was at work behind the scenes,

1440
01:24:21,577 --> 01:24:25,046
determined to seize
the moment and win adoption

1441
01:24:25,047 --> 01:24:27,348
of the prohibition amendment.

1442
01:24:27,349 --> 01:24:30,218
Boies Penrose,
the formidable Republican boss

1443
01:24:30,219 --> 01:24:34,322
of Pennsylvania and one of the
Senate's leading Wets, mindful

1444
01:24:34,323 --> 01:24:38,059
that passage of the amendment
in Congress was inevitable,

1445
01:24:38,060 --> 01:24:41,229
threatened to mount
a filibuster unless the Drys

1446
01:24:41,230 --> 01:24:46,067
agreed to a time limit for
ratification by the States.

1447
01:24:46,068 --> 01:24:48,102
They would have 6 years.

1448
01:24:48,103 --> 01:24:48,669
No more.

1449
01:24:48,670 --> 01:24:53,274
Penrose was sure that
36 states would never be able to

1450
01:24:53,275 --> 01:24:56,844
ratify the amendment
in the time allotted.

1451
01:24:56,845 --> 01:25:00,248
But to the surprise of
the Wets, Wheeler agreed

1452
01:25:00,249 --> 01:25:02,183
to the limit.

1453
01:25:02,184 --> 01:25:05,486
The Senate voted in favor
of the amendment

1454
01:25:05,487 --> 01:25:09,424
on August 1, 1917.

1455
01:25:09,425 --> 01:25:12,427
Afterwards, convinced
they had outwitted Wheeler

1456
01:25:12,428 --> 01:25:17,465
and the Drys, the Wets went
out for a celebratory drink.

1457
01:25:17,466 --> 01:25:22,470
The final House version of
the bill allowed the dry forces

1458
01:25:22,471 --> 01:25:25,473
7 years to achieve ratification.

1459
01:25:25,474 --> 01:25:28,676
The Wets still remained
confident that it would

1460
01:25:28,677 --> 01:25:30,044
never happen.

1461
01:25:30,045 --> 01:25:33,347
When the vote in the House
came on December 18th,

1462
01:25:33,348 --> 01:25:36,517
Wayne Wheeler was watching
from the gallery.

1463
01:25:36,518 --> 01:25:38,419
One of his opponents
said, they would look up

1464
01:25:38,420 --> 01:25:40,188
to him as if he were
the Roman consul.

1465
01:25:40,189 --> 01:25:41,522
Was he going thumbs-up
or thumbs-down?

1466
01:25:41,523 --> 01:25:44,425
And they would vote the way
that he told them to vote.

1467
01:25:44,426 --> 01:25:47,361
No matter what your position
was on other issues, if you

1468
01:25:47,362 --> 01:25:51,399
were not OK with Wayne Wheeler,
you were in trouble.

1469
01:25:51,400 --> 01:25:58,172
The amendment passed
the house easily... 282 to 128...

1470
01:25:58,173 --> 01:26:01,709
and was sent to
the States for ratification.

1471
01:26:01,710 --> 01:26:04,545
The Anti-Saloon League
and their allies had

1472
01:26:04,546 --> 01:26:06,747
only 84 months to convince

1473
01:26:06,748 --> 01:26:13,354
more than 5,000 legislators
in 36 states to ratify.

1474
01:26:13,355 --> 01:26:17,459
They would do it
in less than 13.

1475
01:26:18,927 --> 01:26:22,563
On January 16, 1919, Nebraska,

1476
01:26:22,564 --> 01:26:24,565
the home
of William Jennings Bryan,

1477
01:26:24,566 --> 01:26:30,404
became the 36th state
to ratify the 18th amendment.

1478
01:26:30,405 --> 01:26:34,042
It would go
into effect one year later.

1479
01:27:23,025 --> 01:27:25,593
Here were all these
evangelical Christians,

1480
01:27:25,594 --> 01:27:32,300
familiar figures today,
who decided to pass a law

1481
01:27:32,301 --> 01:27:37,205
that would imprison Jesus
if he turned water into wine.

1482
01:27:37,206 --> 01:27:41,476
They'd say, "There he goes.
Lock him up."

1483
01:27:42,844 --> 01:27:47,048
As midnight neared on
the night of January 16, 1920,

1484
01:27:47,049 --> 01:27:51,619
the First Congregational
Church in Washington, D.C.,

1485
01:27:51,620 --> 01:27:55,289
was packed with people eager
to celebrate the moment

1486
01:27:55,290 --> 01:27:59,227
when the 18th amendment
came into effect.

1487
01:27:59,228 --> 01:28:01,062
It's the First
Congregational Church

1488
01:28:01,063 --> 01:28:02,296
in Washington, interestingly
the church

1489
01:28:02,297 --> 01:28:05,633
that Frederick Douglass prayed
at, and gathered there are

1490
01:28:05,634 --> 01:28:07,702
all the leaders of
the prohibition movement.

1491
01:28:07,703 --> 01:28:09,070
Anna Gordon,

1492
01:28:09,071 --> 01:28:11,205
Frances Willard's
long-time companion,

1493
01:28:11,206 --> 01:28:15,276
now the president of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union,

1494
01:28:15,277 --> 01:28:16,210
was there.

1495
01:28:16,211 --> 01:28:20,014
So was Wayne Wheeler of
the Anti-Saloon League.

1496
01:28:20,015 --> 01:28:24,552
Secretary of the Navy Josephus
Daniels told the crowd

1497
01:28:24,553 --> 01:28:27,722
that "no man living
will ever see a Congress"

1498
01:28:27,723 --> 01:28:31,525
"that will lessen
the enforcement of that law.

1499
01:28:31,526 --> 01:28:36,330
"The saloon," he said,
"is as dead as slavery."

1500
01:28:36,331 --> 01:28:37,665
And giving the crowning speech

1501
01:28:37,666 --> 01:28:40,301
after many hours of people
waiting for it, out comes.

1502
01:28:40,302 --> 01:28:43,738
William Jennings Bryan,
his great bald dome gleaming,

1503
01:28:43,739 --> 01:28:45,773
his eyes filled
with the fire that made him

1504
01:28:45,774 --> 01:28:47,875
the greatest orator of his time.

1505
01:28:47,876 --> 01:28:49,277
And he gives the speech

1506
01:28:49,278 --> 01:28:50,745
that ends at the stroke
of midnight,

1507
01:28:50,746 --> 01:28:53,047
and he cries,
"They are dead, they are dead

1508
01:28:53,048 --> 01:28:56,317
"who sought the young child's
life," taken from the book

1509
01:28:56,318 --> 01:28:56,951
of "Matthew."

1510
01:28:56,952 --> 01:29:00,154
"Those who would kill us
and who would destroy us,

1511
01:29:00,155 --> 01:29:01,422
we have killed them."

1512
01:29:01,423 --> 01:29:04,759
And it is this galvanic
moment when absolute triumph

1513
01:29:04,760 --> 01:29:08,897
of working toward
this moment finally arrived.

1514
01:29:11,233 --> 01:29:14,568
Millions of
Americans were jubilant.

1515
01:29:14,569 --> 01:29:16,804
"The slums will
soon be a memory,"

1516
01:29:16,805 --> 01:29:19,273
the evangelist
Billy Sunday said.

1517
01:29:19,274 --> 01:29:22,743
"Men will walk upright,
women will smile

1518
01:29:22,744 --> 01:29:24,845
and the children will laugh."

1519
01:29:24,846 --> 01:29:30,551
Hell, he was sure, would
"forever be for rent."

1520
01:29:30,552 --> 01:29:34,021
There really was this
overly optimistic sense among.

1521
01:29:34,022 --> 01:29:37,024
Drys that through the stroke
of a pen suddenly everyone

1522
01:29:37,025 --> 01:29:39,794
was going to change their
habits and change their ways.

1523
01:29:39,795 --> 01:29:42,396
There were a lot of people who
said, "Let's give this a try."

1524
01:29:42,397 --> 01:29:47,768
But it wasn't going to be the
easy transformation of America

1525
01:29:47,769 --> 01:29:49,938
that the Drys imagined.

1526
01:29:54,476 --> 01:29:56,377
After nearly
a century of hard work

1527
01:29:56,378 --> 01:30:00,514
by clergymen and women's groups,
reformed alcoholics

1528
01:30:00,515 --> 01:30:05,519
and single-issue lobbyists,
the United States of America

1529
01:30:05,520 --> 01:30:07,588
was officially dry.

1530
01:30:07,589 --> 01:30:13,327
Those who had insisted on
the "absolute shall" had won.

1531
01:30:13,328 --> 01:30:15,863
What had been
the fifth-largest industry

1532
01:30:15,864 --> 01:30:18,399
in the country was now illegal.

1533
01:30:18,400 --> 01:30:22,436
Tens of thousands of workers...
mostly immigrants... would lose

1534
01:30:22,437 --> 01:30:25,806
their jobs, and so would
hundreds of thousands

1535
01:30:25,807 --> 01:30:28,709
of others in related
Truckers

1536
01:30:28,710 --> 01:30:33,581
and barrel makers, bottlers
and grain growers, waiters

1537
01:30:33,582 --> 01:30:35,783
and bartenders.

1538
01:30:35,784 --> 01:30:39,520
At first, most Americans,
even many of those who had

1539
01:30:39,521 --> 01:30:44,392
initially opposed prohibition,
would do their best to obey

1540
01:30:44,393 --> 01:30:45,993
the new law.

1541
01:30:45,994 --> 01:30:47,294
There was a lot of
the dry movement that was

1542
01:30:47,295 --> 01:30:50,364
idealist, and one of
the ideals was a belief in law,

1543
01:30:50,365 --> 01:30:51,999
that if we have this in
the Constitution,

1544
01:30:52,000 --> 01:30:53,768
in the organic law
of the nation,

1545
01:30:53,769 --> 01:30:57,171
and if we have an enforcement
law that has been passed

1546
01:30:57,172 --> 01:30:58,839
by Congress
and signed by the president,

1547
01:30:58,840 --> 01:30:59,740
people will obey that law.

1548
01:30:59,741 --> 01:31:03,377
You know, we don't
murder each other, either.

1549
01:31:03,378 --> 01:31:04,445
But in Chicago,

1550
01:31:04,446 --> 01:31:08,048
just a few minutes after
prohibition went into effect,

1551
01:31:08,049 --> 01:31:10,918
6 masked bandits with pistols

1552
01:31:10,919 --> 01:31:15,189
emptied two freight cars full
of whiskey, another gang stole

1553
01:31:15,190 --> 01:31:19,693
4 casks of grain alcohol from
a government bonded warehouse,

1554
01:31:19,694 --> 01:31:25,065
and still another hijacked
a truck loaded with bourbon.

1555
01:31:25,066 --> 01:31:30,271
Making prohibition the law of
the land had been one thing.

1556
01:31:30,272 --> 01:31:33,841
Enforcing it would be another.

1557
01:31:33,842 --> 01:31:38,246
The devil would turn out
to be in the details.