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ALCOHOL PROBLEMS: THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT AND PROHIBITION.

The traditional American temperance movement did not begin as a prohibition movement. The temperance movement coincided with the rise of social consciousness, a belief in the efficacy of law to resolve human problems. It was part and parcel of the humanitarian movement, which included child labor and prison reform, women's rights, abolition, and social welfare and poverty legislation. Originally it condemned only excessive drinking and the drinking of distilled liquor, not all liquor or all drinking. It was believed that the evils connected with the abuse of alcohol could be remedied through proper legislation. The aims of the original temperance movement were largely moral, uplifting, rehabilitative. Passions grow, however, and before long those who had condemned only the excess use of distilled liquor were condemning all liquor. Those genial, well-meaning physicians, businessmen, and farmers began to organize their social life around their crusade. Fraternal orders, such as the Independent Order of Good Templars of 1850, grew and proliferated. In a short span of time it had branches all over the United States with churches, missions, and hospitals—all dedicated to the idea that society's evils were caused by liquor. This particular group influenced the growth of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Anti-Saloon League. By 1869 it had become The National Prohibition Party, the spearhead of political action, which advocated complete suppression of liquor by law.

People who had no experience at all with drinking got involved in the crusade. In 1874 Frances Willard founded the WCTU in Cleveland. Women became interested in the movement, which simultaneously advocated social reform, prayer, prevention, education, and legislation in the field of alcohol. Mass meetings were organized to which thousands came. Journals were published; children's programs taught fear and hatred of alcohol; libraries developed. The WCTU was responsible for the first laws requiring alcohol education in the schools, some of which remain on the books. All alcohol use—moderate, light, heavy, excessive—was condemned. All users were one and the same. Bacon, in describing the classic temperance movement, says there was "one word for the action—DRINK. One word for the category of people—DRINKER."

By 1895, many smaller local groups had joined the Anti-Saloon League, which had become the most influential of the temperance groups. It was nonpartisan politically and supported any prohibitionist candidate. It pressured Congress, state legislatures, and was backed by church groups in "action against the saloon." Political pressure mounted. The major thrust of all these activities was that the only real problem was alcohol, the only real solution, prohibition.

In 1919 Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment, making it illegal to manufacture or sell alcoholic beverages. The Volstead Act had sixty provisions to implement Prohibition. The act was messy and complicated. There was no precedent to force the public cooperation required to make the act work. From 1920 to 1933 Prohibition remained in effect. Prohibition shaped much of our economic, social, and underground life. The repeal under the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933 did not remedy the situation. While there was a decline in alcoholism under Prohibition, as indicated by a decline in deaths from cirrhosis, nonetheless, Prohibition had failed. The real problems created by alcohol were obscured or ignored by the false wet-dry controversy. The quarrel raged between the manufacturers, retailers, and consumers on one side and the temperance people, many churches, and women on the other. Alcoholics and those with alcohol problems were ignored in the furor. When Prohibition was repealed the problem of abuse was still there, and the alcoholics were still there along with the stigma of alcoholism.

Another approach to alcohol problems is that of the "ostrich." The ostrich stance became popular after the failure of Prohibition and is still not totally out of fashion. Problems are often handled with euphemisms, humor, ridicule, and delegation of responsibility, arising from conflicting values and beliefs.

Our inconsistent attitudes toward alcohol are reinforced in subtle ways. For example, consider the hard-drinking movie heroes. There's the guy who drinks and drinks and then calls for more, never gets drunk, outdrinks the bad guys, kills off the rustlers, and gets the girl in the end. Then there's Humphrey Bogart, who is a drunken mess wallowing in the suffering of humankind until the pure and beautiful heroine appears, at which point he washes up, shaves, gets a new suit, and they live happily ever after.

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