the most notable exception being the dispensary system in South Carolina, which was still in operation, however, in only six counties out of 22 that previously had state dispensaries; besides these there were 32 counties dry under local option.
Experiments with local option provided valuable tests of the spread of prohibition sentiment. A writer in the National Municipal Review for Oct. 1916, dealing with local option in the United States, stated that at that time 80% of the land area of the United States was under prohibition, affecting 54% of the pop. of the country; in other words that more than one-half of the pop. of the United States, spread over four-fifths of its area, was without licensed supply of intoxicants. In the 26 local option states the percentage of area made dry in that year by local legislation ranged from 18% in Rhode Island to 98.3% in Wyoming, with a median percentage of 78.5. Only three of those states had less than half their area under no licence; seven between one-third and three-fourths, and 16 more than three-fourths. Therefore, said this writer, “with 19 states wholly dry, 16 states more than three-fourths dry and 7 states more than half dry, it would appear from the map that national prohibition requiring the consent of 36 states is not far off.”
Liquor Consumption.—Too much importance is often attached to actual statistics of the consumption of liquor as an evidence of the success or failure of local option, and of restriction or prohibition of manufacture and sale. They are by no means conclusive, and especially have slight bearing on the important question, involved in most local option and prohibition enactments, concerning the nature, character and number of saloons and places where intoxicating beverages are sold and consumed. The annexed official figures from the United States Statistical Abstract for 1920 give statistics for the consumption per capita of distilled spirits, wines and malt liquors for beverage purposes, from 1850 to 1920.
United States Annual Consumption per capita of Distilled Spirits, Wines, and Malt Liquors, 1850 to 1920; in gallons.
| Year ended June 30 |
Distilled Spirits |
Wines | Malt Liquors |
All Liquors and Wines |
| 1850 | 2.24 | .27 | 1.58 | 4.08 |
| 1860 | 2.86 | .34 | 3.22 | 6.43 |
| 1870 | 2.07 | .32 | 5.31 | 7.70 |
| 1871-80* | 1.39 | .47 | 6.93 | 8.79 |
| 1881-90* | 1.34 | .48 | 11.37 | 13.20 |
| 1891-5* | 1.37 | .39 | 15.20 | 16.96 |
| 1896-1900* | 1.12 | .36 | 15.53 | 17.01 |
| 1901-5* | 1.39 | .47 | 17.34 | 19.20 |
| 1906-10* | 1.43 | .62 | 19.81 | 21.86 |
| 1911 | 1.46 | .67 | 20.69 | 22.81 |
| 1912 | 1.45 | .58 | 20.02 | 22.05 |
| 1913 | 1.51 | .56 | 20.72 | 22.80 |
| 1914 | 1.44 | .53 | 20.69 | 22.66 |
| 1915 | 1.26 | .33 | 18.40 | 19.99 |
| 1916 | 1.37 | .47 | 17.78 | 19.61 |
| 1917 | 1.62 | .41 | 18.17 | 20.20 |
| 1918 | .89 | .49 | 14.80 | 16.18 |
| 1919 | .80 | .51 | 8.03 | 9.34 |
| 1920 | .26 | .12 | 2.63 | 3.01 |
*Average for the period.
Influences Behind Prohibition.—The facts and figures already set forth should help to indicate what were the influences which brought together the local, state and national forces, and led to the adoption of national prohibition in 1920, as well as to its virtual enforcement as a war measure July 1 1919, throughout the area of the United States and the territory subject to its jurisdiction. The movement was not to be ascribed, as some publicists have seemed inclined to believe, to a state of exaltation induced by the war. Neither was it due to the absence of many male voters engaged in military service and perhaps not able to make their opinions effective in the matter. Prohibition had its roots and causes outside of and far antedating these sentiments and experiences. The continuously rising standard of living of the masses in both urban and rural communities from 1910 to 1918 had much influence. The industrial demands for efficiency, and the growth of scientific knowledge about its requirements, had an important and increasing effect. Americans of all classes in increasing numbers perceived that, quite irrespective of their personal habits or desires with respect to the consumption of alcohol, they could not secure the advantages of abstinence, or of moderate and perhaps harmless consumption, on the part of the weaker and more numerous members of any community, unless they themselves were willing to forgo the liberty of personal consumption, even though they belonged to the minority whose efficiency might not in any case be seriously impaired. Enlightened opinion was also shown in the increasing regard for public health, and the measures which the nation as a whole, and the public authorities in most of its component divisions, were taking to promote it. The physiological effect of small doses of alcohol on physical strength and on mental processes had been studied by scientists for many years; and the activities of the leading life-insurance companies, during the decade here under review, in the dissemination of information with respect to personal and public hygiene, had also exerted a considerable influence upon the movement. The published statements of the life-insurance companies, analysing their mortality experience, have generally been regarded as unbiassed, but have not been unchallenged or free from conflicting interpretation. Their conclusions, however, steadily served to support the total abstinence arguments as to industrial efficiency and public health, and they were widely circulated by many of the companies in such a way as to exert an effective educational influence. Mr. Arthur Hunter, actuary of the New York Life Insurance Co., in a paper read before the National Conference of Charities and Correction in Indianapolis in 1916, presented a survey of this material in which he claimed that the American statistics, many of which were then only recently available in published form, corroborated the English data in indicating that total abstinence decidedly increased longevity. He said, “the experience of the seven American life insurance companies (and one Canadian company whose records had been studied) has proved that abstainers have from 10% to 30% lower mortality than non-abstainers, and there is no good reason for believing that if the other companies compiled their statistics there would be any different result, providing the companies exercised the same care in accepting abstainers and non-abstainers.”
Lastly, and of as much weight, it would seem, as all the other reasons combined, there was among all classes a growing hostility to the liquor saloon, as a mischievous agency, largely controlled and dominated by anti-social influences, and by persons and corporations actuated by a strong motive of private profit. Furthermore, the liquor saloon was gaining a power in politics, and a control of matters affecting the social life and general welfare of the people, which made its growth disproportionate to that of any other social institution in the country. The public perceived the increasing political influence of the saloon, and the failure everywhere of the various experiments to develop a substitute for it, or, indeed, to organize any other successful centre of recreation, social intercourse and community life, in competition with saloons supported and controlled by the profits of the liquor industry. A formidable body of public opinion united many persons who were neither total abstainers nor wholly convinced by the economic efficiency and health arguments against alcohol. Nevertheless they were sure that drastic measures were necessary, even if they involved heavy personal sacrifice on the part of many persons, to rid the communities in which they resided, as well as those in which they did business, of the baneful results and by-products of the saloon. Thus many who never would have voted for state prohibition, and who were even disappointed with the general outcome of local option, were prepared, when the issue was presented, to support and defend national prohibition.
Results.—Various efforts were made between Jan. 1920 and the autumn of 1921 to appraise the economic results and the effectiveness of the enforcement of national prohibition. But there had not yet been time to get accurate and convincing statistics or to know how to make allowance for purely accidental factors. Adjustment to the new conditions was still going on, and the existence of old stocks of liquor and wine introduced
