Prohibitionism

PROHIBITIONISM. - In its modern meaning, it designates legislation tending to prohibit the consumption of alcoholic beverages by means of bans on sale and, at times, on production and transport, for the purpose of addressing the many individual and social problems created by intemperance.

Australia, Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, New Zealand, Russia, South Africa, Sweden and Turkey resorted to this method with more or less radical forms of prohibition. The most complete and important application of this method was, however, the one carried out by the United States of America, which for 14 years adopted it on a national (federal) scale, after nearly a century of local and individual-state prohibition.

The history of American prohibition goes back to the beginning of the 19th century. Initially it was a temperance movement, led by numerous associations that, having arisen especially in New England, drew attention to the often irreparable disasters caused by the abuse of alcohol. The movement had a predominantly religious inspiration and leadership: in this first phase, it intended to solve the problem of alcoholism through personal regeneration. But the scant practical results obtained led it in another direction: that of consolidating its organization within the individual states and then creating, in the brief span of twenty years, 1826-44, three federations of a national character, using the resulting political influence to obtain legal limitations and controls on production and sale. To the weight and action of the temperance movement, in this new phase of its activity, must be attributed a first wave of prohibitionist laws, adopted in various states around the middle of the century; but within a few years they were largely repealed, both because they were not supported by a united public opinion, and because the leaders of the movement were then engaged in the struggle against slavery; and finally because producers and retailers had managed to organize an opposition.

A prohibitionist party (1869) which, as such, had no influence, and a women's temperance union (1874), after the Civil War, fostered, in the penultimate decade of the century, a second wave of prohibitionist laws in about half of the states of the Union, though only in five states could prohibition be incorporated into the respective constitutions, and in only three of them was it maintained after 1903.

The movement changed tactics and, seeing in the saloons the primary cause of alcoholism, set out to obtain their suppression. In 1893 the Anti-Saloon League arose, which obtained the adoption on a vast scale of local prohibitionist laws and the closing of saloons throughout a large part of the national territory. The initiative, however, proved ineffective, inasmuch as a prohibitionist community could not exclude beverages banned by law if other centers around it tolerated them. Consequently, recourse was again had to state prohibition, which was applied on a vast scale, particularly in the states of the South and West. Moreover, since even state prohibition proved insufficient, interstate commerce falling under the jurisdiction of the federal government and the prohibitionist state being therefore unable to exercise any control over shipments made from a non-prohibitionist state directly to the consumer, the movement strove to obtain the intervention of the federal government and to have a prohibitionist provision incorporated into the country's constitution. Thus it came about, after a series of increasingly restrictive measures, that on Jan. 5, 1920, the XVIII amendment to the Constitution was reached, by which total prohibition became law of the Union.

The battle over prohibition deeply divided the country, before and after the approval of the XVIII amendment: the rural element showed itself inclined to adopt prohibition voluntarily, while the urban element opposed it, even when it was imposed by law; employers were strong supporters of it, seeing in it a factor of productivity, whereas the working classes opposed it. It proved extremely difficult, from the very beginning, to enforce respect for the law, especially in the cities. The strong hostility to the measure favored the work of the bootleggers (smugglers), pioneers of "gangsterism," and created clandestine outlets and saloons (speakeasies). People resorted to distillation or direct fermentation, and with veritable clandestine industries the constant demand for alcohol was met. Even the authorities, finding themselves grappling with a task too vast, proved willing to accept corruption and very often ended up allying themselves with the violators. Prohibition did not achieve the hoped-for effects: it reduced the consumption of alcohol among the less well-off, but did not appear to modify appreciably the consumption among the other classes. The opposition to the XVIII amendment for a decade led to no result, inasmuch as the country's economic prosperity in that period redounded to the advantage of the prohibitionist forces, which attributed part of the credit to their initiative, citing as proof the increase in savings, the large sums channeled toward purchases of other kinds, the improvement of public health, the decrease in accidents, etc. But the advent of the economic crisis marked a decisive shift of public opinion in favor of the anti-prohibitionist current. It was maintained, among other things, that the alcohol industry would constitute a rich source of revenue for the State. The presidential campaign of 1932 settled the question with the defeat of prohibition, which was repealed on Dec. 5, 1933. The American attempt demonstrated that the problem of intemperance, even on a collective or national scale, remains a problem of a moral and psychological order and therefore one to be solved by methods of persuasion and personal therapy rather than by sharp bans imposed by law.

Gabriele Musatti