Fun Facts:
The "Noble Experiment" of Prohibition

While temperance really refers to moderation, the temperance movement came to advocate the imposition of mandatory or enforced abstinence (prohibition).1








Although the temperance movement claimed Dr. Benjamin Rush (1745/46-1813) as one of its primary inspirations, he actually promoted moderation rather than prohibition.2







Early temperance writers often insisted that because of their high blood alcohol content, "habitual drunkards" could spontaneously combust and burn to death from inside.3


A temperance publication wrote of drinking parents who gave birth to small children with a “yen for alcohol so strong that the mere sight of a bottle shaped like a whiskey flask brought them whining for a nip.”4


One temperance “scientific authority” implied that inhaling alcohol vapors might lead to defective offspring for at least three generations.5


In this Currier and Ives print of 1848, George Washinton bids farewell
to his officers with a toast in his hand and a supply of liquor on the table.


Reflecting the power of the temperance movement, a re-engraved version in 1876
removes all evidence of alcohol. Gone is the glass from Washington's hand
and the liquor supply is replaced with a hat.


Because the temperance movement taught that alcohol was a poison, it insisted that school books never mention the contradictory fact that alcohol was commonly prescribed by physicians for medicinal and health purposes.6


Similarly, because the movement taught that drinking alcohol was sinful, it was forced to confront the fact that Jesus drank wine. Its solution was to insist that Jesus drank grape juice rather than wine.7


Prohibitionists often advocated strong measures against those who did not comply with Prohibition (1920-1933). One suggested that the government distribute poisoned alcohol beverages through bootleggers (sellers of illegal alcohol) and acknowledged that several hundred thousand Americans would die as a result, but thought the cost well worth the enforcement of Prohibition. Others suggested that those who drank should be

- hung by the tongue beneath an airplane and flown over the country
- exiled to concentration camps in the Aleutian Islands
- excluded from any and all churches
- forbidden to marry
- tortured
- branded
- whipped
- sterilized
- tattooed
- placed in bottle-shaped cages in public squares
- forced to swallow two ounces of caster oil
- executed, as well as their progeny to the fourth generation. 8

Bill McCoy was a bootlegger well known for selling quality imported goods: the original “real McCoy.” 9


A major prohibitionist group, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) taught as “scientific fact” that the majority of beer drinkers die from dropsie.10


The WCTU suggested that school teachers put half of a calf’s brain in an empty jar into which alcohol should be poured. As the color of the brain turned from pink to gray, pupils were to be warned that a drink of alcohol would do the same to their brains.11


The president of the WCTU, upon learning that government agents had clubbed a suspected bootlegger then shot down his unarmed wife as she ran to his aid, responded “Well, she was evading the law, wasn’t she?”12


The WCTU is far from dead or inactive; it currently boasts a membership of 25,000 and is very active politically.13


The Anti-Saloon League still exists; it is now (combined with the American Temperance League) known as the American Council on Alcohol Problems and actively attempts to influence public policy.14



“Bathtub gin” got its name from the fact that alcohol, glycerine and juniper juice was mixed in bottles or jugs too tall to be filled with water from a sink tap so they were commonly filled under a bathtub tap.15







National Prohibition not only failed to prevent the consumption of alcohol, but led to the extensive production of dangerous unregulated and untaxed alcohol, the development of organized crime, increased violence, massive political corruption, and widespread disrespect for law.16

See more "Fun Facts"

2.Lender, Mark E. and Martin, James K. Drinking in America. New York: Free Press, 1982, pp. 36-39.

3.Hanson, David J. Alcohol Education: What we Must Do. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996, p. 13.

4.Furnas, J. C. The Life and Times of the Late Demon Rum. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1965, p. 194.

5.Ploetz, Alfred J. The Influence of Alcohol Upon the Race. Westerville, OH: American Issue Press, 1915, p. 29.

6.Hanson, David J. Preventing Alcohol Abuse: Alcohol, Culture, and Control Westport, Ct: Praeger, 1995, Chapter Three.

7.Ibid. p. 6.

8.Sinclair, Andrew. Prohibition: The Era of Excess. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1962, p. 26; for other suggestions see Tietsort, Francis J. (ed.) Temperance - or Prohibition? New York: New York American, 1929, ch. 8.

9.Lender, Mark E. and Martin, James K. Drinking in America. New York: Free Press, 1982, p. 144.

10.Kobler, John E. Ardent Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1973, 143.

11.Ibid, p. 140.

12.Lender, Mark E. and Martin, James K. Drinking in America. New York: Free Press, 1982, pp. 160-161.

13.Fischer, Carolyn A., and Schwertz, Carol A. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Associations. New York: Gale Research, 30th ed., 1996, p. 1621.

14.Hanson, David J. Preventing Alcohol Abuse: Alcohol, Culture, and Control. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995, p. 88.

15.Lender, Mark E. and Martin, James K. Drinking in America. New York: Free Press, 1982.

16.Engelmann, Larry. Intemperance: The Lost War Against Liquor. New York: Free Press, 1979; Asbury, Herbert. The Great Illusion: An Informal History of Prohibition. New York: Doubleday & Co., 1950, ch. 9-14; Kobler, John. Ardent Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1973, ch. 10-13; Sinclair, Andrew. Prohibition: The Era of Excess. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1962, ch. 9-15; Nelli, Hubert S. American Syndicate Crime: A Legacy of Prohibition. In: Kyvig, David E. (ed.) Law, Alcohol, and Order: Perspectives on National Prohibition. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985; Grant, Marcus, and Ritson, Bruce. Alcohol: The Prevention Debate. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983, p. 21; Everest, Allan S. Rum Across the Border. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1978.

For comment or more information, contact David Hanson
Sociology Department, State Univerisity of New York, Potsdam, NY 13676.

Web Design and Graphic Art by...