Transitioning into Prohibition
Political Tag: "Vote Dry for Me November 7" that a child might have worn. [1984.191.0008 THM]
In 1916, Montana voted for prohibition to begin December 31, 1918, preceding the nation’s 18th Amendment which would pass in 1920. Mixed feelings surrounded the transition into Prohibition: the doubt, anger, and sadness, but also hope, optimism and pride are reflected in the following three articles.
Drys, those in favor of Prohibition, argued to morality at the cost of revenue. Wets, those against, argued for moderation and warned of the loss of jobs. Upon modern day reflection, did Prohibition fulfill the promises made by the Drys and the Wets?
Great Falls Tribune December 30, 1918, pg. 6:
Good-Bye Booze
This is the last day you can legally purchase a drink of anything capable of being used as a beverage which contains alcohol in any quantity, or give it away unless you are a minister of the gospel of Christ’s religion and give it at a communion service. Even lemon or vanilla extract is barred from sale or gift by the law after today, as a good many householders are apt to discover to their surprise when they wish to renew the stock on the pantry shelf. The state of Montana will go dry, very dry, after today so far as gift, sale or import of anything that contains alcohol is concerned. The prudent drinker has perhaps put away a secret hoard to taper off on and rests in security for a time, but he need not be too sure of his ability to temper the drouth of the immediate future, for the prohibitionists that made the present law in Montana are talking of amending it in the legislature before they have even tried it, with the purpose of seizing and confiscating all such secret hoards family, will ever inspire any poet or any near [A1] so that he will have no chance to enjoy the fruit of his foresight and saving. We would not wonder if such legislation got in the statute book soon. But we have no desire to create a panic in the breasts of the owners of secret hoards. Sufficient unto the day is the evil therefore says the scriptures. Then why worry?
Poets by the scores and hundreds have sung the praises of “inspiring, bold John Barelycorn,” as Bobby Burns calls him. We wonder if any poet will compose a poem in commemoration of his death in the state. We hardly think so, tho we doubt not he will have sincere mourners tomorrow when the cold ground covers his grave. Nor do we think that his successor, the frisky “pop,” or any of his relatives in the soft drink family, will ever inspire any poet or any near poet to break out into song. There is nothing inspiring about “pop” that we could ever discover. It lacks the respect that was paid old King Booze by his ardent admirers. Pop is a silly fellow at best. Old King Booze will be laid away tomorrow night, and it is probably we shall never see his like again. The prohibition voters have so decreed it, and like good citizens his friends and admirers will bow to the decree of the majority and obey it as democrats should.
Some people think there will be a vast litter of “blind pigs” in the state. We doubt it, and we sincerely hope not. Those who try such method of violating the law and the will of the majority are sure to get into much trouble. A pig is not a silent animal, and a blind pig cannot be kept in city or country very long without squeals that betray its locality. So far as this county is concerned our information is that the peace officers of the city and county are fully determined to enforce the law strictly and make it unhealthy for blind pigs or bootleggers, and that the saloon men who go out of business today are inclined to aid the officers of the law to the best of their ability in seeing that any man less law-abiding than themselves does not profit by defying the law.
And we believe that this represents the spirit of the whole community, including a very large portion of those who voted against prohibition at the referendum election. They want the law rigidly and sternly enforced to the last letter. They want the citizen punished who brings a bottle of lemon extract into the state or who sells it or gives it away as well as the bootlegger. They want the law enforced both strictly and impartially and they have an open mind to note results. These may not be so rosy and beautiful as were told they would be by the advocates of prohibition, but they may show improvement in social conditions on the whole. If so we will be glad to note it and make due acknowledgement of that fact. Let us have a full and strict enforcement of the law at least so that any good or bad results from the law may become evident.
One of the first results that we must face is the loss of about $60,000 a year revenue in this county. That loss we were told would be made good manyfold in lesser expenses for police, jail and court costs. If so we ought to be able to decrease city and county tax levies. The time is drawing near when these items of expenditure are fixed for next year. We shall note with satisfaction any decrease in the estimate totals that will save us $60,000 decreased tax revenue and perhaps a great deal more as we have been led to expect from the pre-election arguments of the prohibitionists. It will afford the latter perhaps their first chance to say “I told you so,” and we are quite sincere in saying we hope they will have that gratification, and that the loss of this revenue in the coming year will not involve any increased tax burden, but the contrary.
The change from wet to dry in this state comes at the best possible time from the prohibition standpoint, for after next July the whole country will have to go on a dry basis and stay that way for a year at least, as a war measure. And there is every indication that before that war measure ceases to operate we will have national prohibition by statutory enactment. That is a very different thing from state prohibition so far as enforcement is concerned at least. It removes a number of practical objections to state prohibition and should aid greatly in demonstrating the virtues of prohibitory legislation in the state. Incidentally it will make the way of the transgressor against the law more thorny. In fact it is good-bye Boozed for the whole nation before long anyway, and he in flood of all virtues and benefits of total abstinence we have had pictured to us will follow no doubt. Good-bye Booze. Good-bye poverty. Good-bye crime and wickedness.
[A1]Typo in the original printing.
Great Falls Tribune clipping, December 31, 1918
Great Falls Tribune December 31, 1918, Pg. 3:
Barelycorn Takes Count at Midnight
Jollification, but Little Rowdyism, Marks Close of Old Regime in Great Falls on Eve of Inauguration of Prohibition.
“David’s lips are locked; but in divine High-piping Pehlevi, with wine, wine, wine!
Red wine! – the Nightingale cries to the Rose
That sallow cheek of hers to incarnadine.
Come fill the cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your winter garment of repentance fling:
The bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter – and the bird is on the wing.
Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,
Whether the cup with sweet or bitter run,
The wine of life keeps oozing drop by drop,
The leaves of life keep falling one by one.”
Great Falls took it philosophically last night and celebrated the death of John Barleycorn -- General Barleycorn; if you please – with a wake that will go down in history. Such a wake will never be seen again. Among those who celebrated were many who voted for prohibition. A general dispensation, it seemed, had been granted – by whom, no one could say, but the celebration was good-natured and marked by the best of will. There were but ten arrests for drunkenness. This is far from being a record. It has been surpassed time and again in the past when the ultimate defeat of General Barleycorn was never suspected by his infatuated followers.
“So when the angel of the darker drink at last shall fill you by the river brink, and, offering his cup, invite your soul forth to you lips to quaff – you shall not drink.”
The philosophy of Omar Khayyam was exemplified again and again both on Central avenue and First avenue south by men more or less favored by fortune.
Like Ball at Brussels.
Like the ball at Brussels the night before Waterloo was the carnival balls held last night at the Park Hotel and Hotel Rainbow – it was the night before the utter extinction of General Barleycorn in the state of Montana – General Barleycorn, the doughty warrior who has made and unmade statesmen of the lesser type. The management of the two hotels gave a masquerade hat or cap, of blue and gold, green, yellow and black and white, to everyone, man or woman, who glided out upon the floor of the ballroom. Every table in the café had been reserved in advance, so only the favored few could drink there to the death of the old monarch, Demon Rum, and toast the health of the new king, Prohibition.
Strange contrasts were brot [G1] out in the closing hours.
“We are serving wine only,” said George E. Edman, proprietor of the White House bar, at 10 o’clock.
Nearby, at the Palace bar, Frank Dalton, the proprietor, said:
“We have sold out all our wine, except two bottles of champagne. All we have left otherwise is whisky and a very little beer.”
Edman, even amid the excitement of the general jubilation, was filled with the feeling that he was nearing the end of a saloonman’s career and exhibited trepidation when the visitor who accosted him announced that he was a reporter.
“All my patrons are on their best behavior,” he remarked. “Although they never felt better in their lives. Say now, remember that I am a man of family.”
Visions of Old Times.
The visions of the days gone by came to Edman and he forgot that he was talking to a newspaper man.
“I was in the saloon business thirty years ago,” he said. “Then I went to Belt and opened up a saloon there which I have still – the Oriental bar. Yes, of course it will be closed tonight. I came back to Great Falls in 1910 and have had a saloon here ever since.”
The music box was doing its – well, its very best, as the closing hour neared, to add to the good cheer. A number of the celebrants were dancing – stag dancing, of course, and one man was working off his surplus energy swinging a pair of Indian clubs.
“Yes, I have the best music box in the city,” remarked Edman wistfully. “I am a Swede and most of my friends are Swedes, and we all like music.”
Across the street was the Stockholm bar, completely extinguished by that time. By 9 o’clock the Stockholm had sold out all its wet goods and its fixtures as well. There was not even a cigar left. The fixtures will be removed this morning.
“This is just lake an ordinary evening.” Said Dalton of the Palace, “except that there is more business. A good many persons who waited until the last to stock up are caring out packages. We have done $500 worth of business today. We intend to transform the place into a poolroom and reopen with a stock of soft drinks and confections.”
For the last month Dalton has been assisted in handling the rush by James E. Jewell, who was appointed fire chief in 1905 and served in that capacity for in 1905 and served in that capacity for [G2] in 1886 and has been here ever since.
Lights Fail.
While Jewell was serving drinks the lights went low and the bar room was bathed in twilight.
“I wonder what’s the matter with the lights,” remarked the bartender.
“Oh, nothing,” remarked a weary by-stander. “except that the juice at the powerhouse has gone dry.”
“Nothing left,” was the message from Dulin & Powers at the closing hour.
“But we will open at 8 in the morning with soft drinks for the thirsty,” said M. M. Powers, who had valiantly resisted temptation and was bright-eyed to the last.
“We have taken in $1600 today and have dispensed drinks to more than 1000 patrons,” said E. T. Martin of Martin and Seifert, proprietors of the Cream City bar on Fourth street north. Martin said he was going into the soft drink business somewhere, but he didn’t know where.
At the Rainbow two orchestras and an accordion player from the Pantages circuit helped to make the wake lively.
“A little gin, a little rum, and two bottles of American beer,” was the way stock was taken at 10:30 at the bar of the Great Falls hotel.
Good night all around, and a peaceful sleep.
[G1] typed how it appeared in original printing
[G2] Misprint in original printing
Great Falls Tribune Clipping, January 2, 1919
Great Falls Tribune January 2, 1919 pg. 11:
First Day’s Score Stands at 11 to 0
Police Arrests for Drunkenness on Jan. 1, Under Wet was 11 While None Were So Charged in 1919 Under Dry Rule.
As compared with the first day of 1918, yesterday was a quiet day at the police station. One year ago the wagon brought in 21 people accused of different minor offenses and yesterday there were 10. On January 1, 1918, 11 of the 21 arrests made were for drunkenness, but on the first day of 1919, the second day after the prohibition law went into effect, not a single case of inebriety was recorded on the police blotter up to last midnight. Yesterday’s arrests consisted of six people taken up in connection with an alleged bootlegging case, two for gambling and a man and a woman from a rooming house. The blotter did not show a disturbance case, a disorderly case or an arrest for any other offense in which liquor has figured in the past.
A year ago six of the 11 drunkenness cases involved additional charges. One was arrested for drunkenness and assault and five for drunkenness, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace, the remaining five being plain inebriates. Eight of yesterday’s arrests were made before daylight and the last two offenders were not picked up until 11 in the evening, the remainder of the day passing without a call of any kind for the wagon being made, or the lodging of a complaint.
“This is considerably different than what we are accustomed to,” said Captain Fred Locher just before midnight. “Usually at this hour the wagon has made perhaps a dozen trips to bring in people who have gotten into trouble through booze, but this has been one of the quietest days we have had in the department in a long time. There hasn’t been a sign on the street of anyone who appeared to be in the least intoxicate, or have we seen anything that looked like a bottle. We expect a few drunks to be brought in as a result of private stores that were laid by before the saloons closed, but even these may be few, and as time passes there will be fewer.
“Last night, the one night in all the year when many people feel privileged to relax a little, there were only four arrests for drunkenness, although the saloons had been closed less than 24 hours. The old year was ushered out with the usual blowing of whistles, ringing of bells and an occasional song, but there did not appear to be 30 people on Central Avenue and there was no indication of roughness in any quarter.
“You can take it from me that the police department is glad to see the saloons close. Booze has ben the thing that caused more disturbance and trouble than anything else, but now that its day has passed we anticipate a more orderly city. The department also expects a falling off in the number of men who have been accustomed to asking for sleeping quarters at the jail every night. There have not been as many this winter as last, but there probably are more now than there will be a month later. These men used to spend their days in the saloons and come down to the station for a place to sleep when they were put out at midnight, and when one of that kind came to town with some money the gang would live off him until it was gone.
“And always the money was spent for booze. With the saloons closed these men will be without a loafing place and the next step will be, after they get the whiskey out of their systems, to find a job. There have been some characters here who have not been on speaking terms with work for years, but we confidently expect that many of them will become useful citizens during the next few months.
“I don’t want to set down as a prophet,” concluded the captain, “but the police have had an opportunity to know how booze works with men. Now that it is gone we look for a change, and it is our confident belief that the change will be for the better.”