Just days after Prohibition became law in the United States, officials in Harrisburg were getting ready to clean out the library.
Officials at the State Library and Harrisburg Public Library were concerned because there were many volumes that included recipes to make beer and wine. Even chemistry books were being evaluated.
Such books, according to The Patriot on Jan. 20, 1920, had already been removed from some New England libraries.
One hundred years ago, the United States banned the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol.
It did not go over well. Bootlegging and illegal speakeasies abounded.
The 18th Amendment to the Constitution received final approval on Jan. 16, 1919. It went into effect one year later on Jan. 17, 1920.
Prohibition was rooted in an active temperance movement that was primarily advanced by women who saw alcohol as a destructive force for families and society.
From history.com, “In 1906, a new wave of attacks began on the sale of liquor, led by the Anti-Saloon League (established in 1893) and driven by a reaction to urban growth, as well as the rise of evangelical Protestantism and its view of saloon culture as corrupt and ungodly. In addition, many factory owners supported prohibition in their desire to prevent accidents and increase the efficiency of their workers in an era of increased industrial production and extended working hours.”
circa 1920: A man destroying barrels of alcohol during prohibition in America. (Photo by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)Getty Images
During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson had enacted a temporary prohibition in order to save grain for producing food during the war.
According to history.com, federal and local governments “struggled to enforce Prohibition.”
While it did reduce alcohol consumption, illegal bootlegging, speakeasies, moonshine and bathtub gin proliferated.
Enforcement agents routinely found and dumped illegal alcohol.
“In addition, the Prohibition era encouraged the rise of criminal activity associated with bootlegging. The most notorious example was the Chicago gangster Al Capone, who earned a staggering $60 million annually from bootleg operations and speakeasies. Such illegal operations fueled a corresponding rise in gang violence, including the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929, in which several men dressed as policemen (and believed to be have associated with Capone) shot and killed a group of men in an enemy gang.”
As the country languished during the Great Depression, the legalization of liquor was considered one way to create jobs and revenue.
With the election of President Franklin Roosevelt, Prohibition came to an end.
On March 22, 1933, Roosevelt signed the Cullen-Harrison Act, legalizing beer with an alcohol content of 3.2 percent. On Dec. 5, 1933, the 21st amendment repealed the 18th amendment.
In Harrisburg, the first arrest under the new law was just hours after it went into affect.
The Patriot on Jan. 19, 1920, reported, Peter Andruzko was arrested at the railroad station. He was carrying a satchel containing 18 quarts of bitters, “a concoction containing 18 percent alcohol. He also had a gallon jug of what appeared to be apricot wine.”
circa 1925: Barrels lined up by the side of a road in an American town where alcohol was found and confiscated during the Prohibition. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)Getty Images
Story after story in the newspaper documented raids and confiscation of booze.
In Braddock, Pa., prohibition agents confiscated 47 cases of whisky, valued at more than $10,000, from a funeral home.
In Uniontown, agents were searching Fayette County for thieves who took 78 barrels of whisky from four distilleries.
Weekly raids were being conducted in southern West Virginia – “one of the most active moonshining districts in the state.”
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