The Temperance Movement began in the 1840s and gained significant momentum through the rest of the century. Women were major leaders in the movement, with many pledging to never let the lips that touch liquor touch theirs. Unfortunately, this seemed to have little effect.

In the second half of the 19th century, an influx of immigrants from beer-loving countries, including Germany and Ireland, dramatically increased the consumption of beer in the United States. German brewers arrived to meet the demand. The most successful among these brewers was Adolphus Busch. As owner of Anheuser-Busch, he built a massive, vertically integrated operation that controlled every aspect of beer production and distribution, from mining the coal that fueled the brewery to building the refrigerated railcars to deliver the beer to Anheuser-Busch owned saloons.

Saloons were more than watering holes. They were hubs for the entire community and played important roles in the lives of patrons, especially when those patrons were recent immigrants.

Pictured here is a saloon in Wisconsin. Notice the little boy sitting at the table with his own beer glass. Boys often accompanied their fathers to saloons. Women and girls, however, were not welcome, and a woman who stepped in a saloon ruined her reputation.

Here's another saloon, this one from Michigan. In a saloon, men could meet friends, participate in local politics, eat a free lunch, take a bath, find a job, get his mail and pawn his watch.

By 1900, most saloons were "tied houses." That is, they were tied to, if not actually owned by, breweries. In exchange for agreeing to sell only one brand of beer, a barkeeper would receive cash for his licensing fees, an inventory of glassware, and the furnishings for the saloon, including the pool tables and the mirrors on the walls.

This photo shows a Miller bar in Chicago.

Temperance activists believed saloons were evil through and through. This cartoon, probably from the mid- to late-19th century, shows children desperately calling for the father, who stands in his natty coat and top hat at the bar. The bartender is a grinning skull, and another skull atop crossed bottles decorates in the bar. In the background, a brawl has broken out. Clearly, nothing good happens at a saloon!

Women's rights activists in particular believed that alcohol was the cause of domestic violence. In this illustration, a drunken man takes a swing at his wife as his children cling to his legs. Many woman suffragists believed that prohibition would stop violence in the home.

The Anti-Saloon League became a force to be reckoned with by organizing all of the anti-alcohol groups. The League was led by Wayne Wheeler, a genial midwesterner that author Daniel Okrent noted resembled Ned Flanders. In fact, Wheeler was a passionate, focused organizer with a backbone of steel who could make or break political careers.

Breweries tried reframe beer as a health-giving, nourishing beverage. The Saskatoon Brewing Company tried to sell their beer as "liquid bread."

Knickerbocker Beer ran ads declaring "Beer is Food" and claiming that beer was not only "a wonderful aid to digestion" and a "valuable source of energy" but also "a mainstay of practical temperance."

An Anti-Prohibition coalition produced this ad, showing a fat and happy baby drinking a stein of beer. No one was convinced by any of these campaigns.

Once the United States entered World War I, a new argument began to be made against the alcohol industry: it wasted food and fuel. Americans were called upon to save food for the military, as well as for the British, French and Belgians. The Anti-Saloon League argued that the alcohol industry wasted tons of food and fuel.

In this cartoon, Uncle Sam puts up posters calling to save food and fuel while the saloon tosses out barrels not only of goods but also of "wasted manhood."

"Non-essential" was an insult during the war--anything non-essential to winning the war was useless and to be despised. Here a woman clad in an American flag hurls the word at a fat man identified as "Booze."

In late 1917, riding the wave of anti-alcohol sentiment, the Dry alliance pushed the 18th Amendment through Congress. It went to the states for ratification.

The Anti-Saloon League coordinated the ratification fight with an attack on the United States Brewers Association and an immigrant association it had long backed, the German American Alliance. The League convinced the Senate, and the American people, that the Alliance and the Brewers were under the control of the Kaiser and enemies of America.

A Senate sub-committee investigated the charges and seemed to prove all sorts of underhanded dealings. It's true that the Brewers had played dirty by bribing politicians and and paying off newspapers, but their aim had been to stop Prohibition, not lost the war to Germany.

No charges ever came out of the subcommittee, but it didn't matter. Americans had found the Alliance and the Brewers guilty in the court of public opinion.

In this heady atmosphere, the 18th Amendment was rapidly ratified by all but two states on January 17, 1919. In one year, the amendment would go into effect.

The most important job for Congress was to pass legislation defining the terms of the 18th Amendment (what constituted an "intoxicating beverage"?) and creating enforcement mechanisms. The man responsible for the bill was Andrew John Volstead, a man so strait-laced he did yardwork in a coat and tie.

Volstead's bill passed in October, but then Wilson vetoed it. Americans were shocked. Wilson had never even committed on Prohibition. Congress, fed up with the president after the long and ugly League of Nations fight, overturned the veto two hours later.

The Volstead Act called for the creation of a new Prohibition Unit to stamp out illegal alcohol. But the agents were to be paid measly salaries and the majority lacked any law enforcement training or experience. They were, inevitably, corrupt.

Criminals also spent 1919 getting ready for Prohibition. Arnold Rothstein, who providing the funds to throw the 1919 World Series, organized a comprehensive smuggling operation to bring liquor from Europe to the United States. He was only one of many crooks and bootleggers getting their ducks in a row for the following year.

Brewers had to find a way to make do. Anheuser-Busch sold malt extract, brewer's yeast, and Bevo, a soft drink. It was not a success.

Companies also found creative ways to exploit loopholes in the Volstead Act. It was perfectly legal, for example, for wineries to condense grape juice down to semi-solid block known as a "grape brick." These bricks were sold along with careful instructions on how not to mix the juice with water to make wine. You wouldn't want people to accidentally break the law, now would you? Homebrew kits came with similar instructions.

Moonshine operations sprang up across the country, with different regions developing their own recipes and reputations for quality or lack thereof. Pictured here are stills seized from moonshiners in Colorado. The metal was sold for scrap. It's likely by the time this photo was taken, the moonshiners had already begun their next batch.

As the clock wound down to January 17, liquor stores began selling out their inventory. People stockpiled as much as they could afford--since, as far as they knew, alcohol would be illegal forever in the United States.

Here a line extends out of the store as men line up to buy a last few bottles. It was going to be a long, dry time.

Music from this Episode

• "The Lips that Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine," by Sam Booth and George T. Evans, sung by the Women's Choir at Concordia College on February 2016 as part of the exhibit "Wet and Dry" at the Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County.
• "Under the Anheuser-Busch,", music by Harry von Tilzer, words by Andrew B. Serling, sung by Billy Murray. Charted at #2 in 1904.
• "Close Up the Booze Shop," music by Charles H. Gabriel, words by Harry Edwards, sung by the Rose Ensemble on their 2014 album "A Toast to Prohibition: All-American Songs of Temperance & Temptation.
• "Molly and the Baby, Don't You Know," by H.S. Taylor and J.B. Herbert, sung by Homer Rodeheaver. Recorded in 1916.
• "Alcoholic Blues," by Edward Laska and Albert von Tilzer, sung by Billy Murray. Recorded in 1919.
• "How Are You Goin' to Wet Your Whistle? (When the Whole Darn World Goes Dry)" by Francis Byrne, Frank McIntyre and Percy Wenrich, sung by Billy Murray. Recorded in 1919.
• "You Cannot Make Your Shimmy Shake on Tea," music by Irving Berlin, words by Irving Berlin and Rennold Wolf. Sung by Ann Wilson with piano by Frederick Hodges at the Annual West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento, California, 2008.
• "I'll See You in C-U-B-A," by Irving Berlin, sung by Jack Kaufman. Recorded in 1920.
• "A Toast to Prohibition," by Irving Berlin, sung by the Rose Ensemble on their 2014 album "A Toast to Prohibition: All-American Songs of Temperance & Temptation.

Support The Year That Was

Links:

• "Revelry Masks Grief at Rum's Death Throes," The New York Herald. January 17, 1920, PART TWO, Image 11 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress — I quote extensively from this article, which begins at the top right and goes on to another page. The whole thing is hilarious and worth a read.
• "Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition" by Daniel Okrent
• "Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City" by Michael A. Lerner
• "Prohibition Gangsters: The Rise and Fall of a Bad Generation" by Marc Mappen
• Prohibition: A Film by Ken Burns | PBS — Video excerpts are available on the PBS website. You can also rent the entire documentary through YouTube, and possibly through other streaming services--check availability online.
• "Booze Close Ally of German Kaiser." The American issue. Chronicling America « Library of Congress — Be aware that The American Issue was a publication of the Anti-Saloon League, and therefore its articles have a definite anti-alcohol, Dry slant.
• "Menace of the Reptile Beer Fund," New-York Tribune. November 01, 1918, Page 5, Image 5 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress
• "Wide Scope Given to Probe Brewers." Evening Star (Washington, D.C.). October 08, 1918, Page 16, Image 16 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress — Note that the headline about the investigation into the Brewers Association is next to a headline about nurses needed for the influenza pandemic.
• "Liquor's Hand Exposed; Huge Plot Shown to Rule Country," The Bemidji Daily Pioneer, September 21, 1918, Image 1 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress
• "Seek Relief from Drastic Dry Plans," The Sun (New York), July 10, 1919, Page 5, Image 5 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress
• "Dry Bill So Dry it Shocks Dry Leader," The Sun (New York), July 09, 1919, Page 3, Image 3 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress
• "World War I played key role in passage of Prohibition", The Mob Museum
• "1,500 Agents Begin Dry Enforcement," New-York Tribune, January 17, 1920, Page 3, Image 3 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress
• Opinion | "Why Americans Supported Prohibition 100 Years Ago" - The New York Times, January 17, 2020

Dora Lewis was the member of prominent Philadelphia family. She was dedicated fighter for the right of women to vote.

In 1919, Lewis participated in the Watchfires protests, in which suffragists burned the speeches of Woodrow Wilson to reject his hypocricy of speaking about democracy and justice without protecting them for women at home.

The woman suffrage movement in the United States is usually said to have begun at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. The Convention, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and several friends and colleagues, produced a Declaration of Sentiments that called for women to "secure for themselves their right to the elective franchise."

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (left) and Susan B. Anthony (right) met in 1851 and become close friends and dedicated fighters for votes for women.

The "New Woman" of the turn of the 19th century was educated, independent, and career-minded. These women were more demanding than previous generations and less concerned about upsetting gender norms.

I joked in this episode about New Women and their bicycles, but this was actually an enormous breakthrough for women. For the first time, women had freedom of movement that opened up a world that been narrowly restricted for previous generations.

Alice Paul was charismatic, magnetic, and impossible to refuse. She was willing to work herself into the hospital and expected the same level of effort from her friends. (She is also, in this photo, wearing an awesome hat.)

Alice Paul spent the years between 1907 and 1909 in the United Kingdom, where she joined the radical suffragette movement. She learned the power of protest in England, as well as the power of her own will.

In 1909, Paul went on a hunger strike in prison and was force fed. This was a horrifying, traumatic experience--a fact that the suffragettes didn't hesitate to leverage in their promotional material.

Paul's first major action back in the United States was the Woman Suffrage Procession of 1913. Scheduled the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, it achieved maximum publicity for the cause. This image was used as the cover of the official procession program.

This photo shows the start of the procession, with attorney Inez Mulholland on horseback.

Paul and other organizers intended to segregate African-American marchers to the end of the parade, but Ida B. Wells-Barnett had no intention of being segregated. She joined the Illinois delegation halfway along the route.

Massive crowds viewed the parade. Without adequate police monitoring, the crowd got out of control, spilled into the street, and began harassing the marchers.

In 1917, the Silent Sentinels began protesting daily at the White House. They carried banners demanding the president take action on women's right to vote.

For several months, the protests were peaceful. But Paul began cranking up the tension in the summer, and D.C. police began arresting and detaining the protesters.

Eventually, suffragists were sentenced to time at Occoquan Workhouse a grim, remote facility. Here several suffragists, including Dora Lewis, pose in their prison uniforms.

Suffragist prisoners began protests in prison, refusing to wear uniforms or do assigned work. Some, including Alice Paul, went on hunger strikes. Prison guards reacted with increasing violence. Here one of the suffragists has to be helped to a car after a harrowing stay at Occoquan.

At the same time the members of the NWP were protesting daily at the White House, members of the rival organization NAWSA were conducting a massive campaign for suffrage in New York. They won the vote for 2 million women and reinforced the nationwide conviction that the time had come for a federal amendment.

The New York campaign was one of the most inclusive in suffrage history. NAWSA partnered with both the Wage Earner's Suffrage League and the New York City Colored Woman Suffrage Club. African-American suffrage clubs were popular in northern states; this image is of such a group. (I was unable to figure out exactly where these women were from.)

After the House of Representatives passed the federal woman suffrage amendment in 1918, the NWP and NAWSA set aside their differences and worked together to lobby Senators for votes for women. They developed an early form of a database in an index card system that tracked each Senator's friends, memberships, and donors. They also logged notes of each meeting with a Senator, as you can see in this card.

When the amendment failed to pass the Senate in 1918, the NWP began its Watchfires protests burning the president's speeches and even an effigy of the man himself. Crowds inevitably gathered, as seen in this photos, and often the women were arrested.

In the summer of 1919, Wilson finally took decisive action, and the House and Senate passed the woman suffrage amendment. The fight moved to the states for ratification. Eventually it all came down to Tennessee the vote of one man, Harry Burn. This is a photo of the letter from Burn's mother that was delivered to him the morning of the vote that made him decide to vote "aye" for suffrage, knowing his constituency would not approve.

Women across the country celebrated the passage of the 19th Amendment.

NAWSA evolved into the League of Women Voters and devoted itself to the education of new voters. It continues in this role today.

Alice Paul kept the National Woman's Party in operation and began advocating for the Equal Rights Amendment to remove all legal descrimination against woman. Here she is seen in 1969 with one of the original banners from the suffrage fight.

Support The Year That Was

Links:

• "Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote," by Tina Cassidy
• "Suffrage: Women's Long Battle for the Vote," by Ellen Carol DuBois
• "Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote," by Susan Ware
• Declaration of Sentiments - Wikipedia
• "The Woman's Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote," by Elaine Weiss
• "Woodrow Wilson and Woman Suffrage: A New Look," by Christine Lunardini and Thomas J. Knock (paywalled)
• The 1913 Women's Suffrage Parade - The Atlantic
• Arrests and Violence - Voices of History: The Woman's Suffrage Movement
• "Occoquan Guards Show Marks of Picket Battle," Richmond Times-Dispatch, Chronicling America « Library of Congress
• "How the Spanish Flu Almost Upended Women's Suffrage," by Alisha Haridasani Gupta, The New York Times
• "How the Spanish flu nearly derailed women's right to vote," by Ellen Carol DuBois, National Geographic
• American Women's Suffrage Came Down to One Man's Vote - HISTORY
• Why the Fight Over the Equal Rights Amendment Has Lasted Nearly a Century - HISTORY
• Sufferin' til Suffrage -- Schoolhouse Rock
• American Experience: The Vote, premieres July 6, 2020