Most people today regard America’s experiment with alcohol prohibition as a national embarrassment, rightly repealed in 1933. So it will be with the

The Respected Scientists Who Pushed for Alcohol Prohibition in 1920

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2021-08-15 01:30:05

Most people today regard America’s experiment with alcohol prohibition as a national embarrassment, rightly repealed in 1933. So it will be with the closures and lockdowns of 2020-21, someday.

In 1920, however, to be against the rising tide of prohibition took courage. People assume that the main lobbyists were religious folk who denounce “demon rum,” or perhaps the would-be bootleggers who imagined huge profits in black markets. In fact, what pushed the Constitutional amendment over the top, and swung so many lawmakers in the direction of a complete prohibition of production, was in fact the science at the time.

In those days, when you were arguing against prohibition, you were opposing opinion backed by celebratory scientists and exalted social thinkers. What you were saying flew in the face of “expert consensus.”

My first inkling of this prohibition history came in reading transcripts of the then-famous Radio Priest James Gillis from the 1920s. He was against prohibiting alcohol production and sale on grounds that the social costs far outweighed the supposed benefits.