The Problem of Crime

Southeastern Kentucky in the early 1900s had its genteel society.  There was a Rotary Club and a Kiwanis Club; there was a DAR chapter.  Women had their bridge clubs and church socials.  That said, if one reads only the front page of The News it could easily be concluded that lawlessness and gun violence were rampant.  Even beyond that, the reader gets the sense that many had hair trigger tempers that could instantaneously produce kill-or-be-killed rage.  Crime certainly took place in the city of Pikeville, but the county seemed to produce the bigger share of violence and felonious behavior.

Much crime involved alcohol, which was illegal during prohibition.  Prohibition began with the ratification of the 18^th amendment to the U.S. Constitution on January 16, 1919, and became effective January 16, 1920.  It ended on December 5, 1933, when Utah became the 36^th state to ratify the 21^st amendment, repealing prohibition.  The beginning days of the widespread removal of consumable alcohol from society was not as dramatic as it could have been since over half of the 48 states already had some form of prohibition laws.  The Volstead Act, after its author, Andrew Volstead, R-Minnesota, was passed about 10 months later and defined intoxicating liquor and the amendment’s enforcement provisions.  The Act was passed over the veto of President Woodrow Wilson.  Wilson supposedly was opposed to prohibition and kept a supply of bootlegged liquor in the White House.

The legal loopholes of the Volstead Act and widespread willingness to violate its letter and spirit made liquor discretely available in many places.  The law allowed for limited amounts of wine and hard cider to be produced at home.  Some alcoholic beverages were still produced but were available only through government warehouses.  This alcohol was legally used for religious services, such as Catholic communion, and for medicinal purposes.  Physicians could prescribe liquor for medicinal purposes and pharmacies would fill them, usually without question.  This provision was abused, as would be expected.  But alcohol was often truly used for medical purposes.  It must be remembered that today substances are produced for the sole purpose of medical use, but in those days there were few such remedies.  Instead, people were forced to rely on the real or perceived medicinal properties of common substances, or they could take their chances with the numerous “snake oil” remedies widely touted.

Prohibition was not a unique American experience.  Most Scandinavian countries, as well as some Canadian provinces and Muslim countries, have or have had prohibition laws.