Prohibition in Perry County
Perry County, MO has always had a large German immigrant population since the middle of the 19th century. It’s no surprise that when prohibition was going into affect, it was met with resentment as drinking and brewing beer has been apart of the German culture for a long time. The article above from the Perry County Republican was posted on October 24, 1918 and gives several different reasons why the citizens of Perry County should be against prohibition, a few of which stand out significantly.
The first bullet points on the left and right sides of the article state that the amendment is “undemocratic and an invasion of the Bill of Rights” and that “the rights and privacy of the home would therefore undoubtedly be totally sacrificed” which became a huge problem as prohibition raged on throughout the 1920’s. Specifically, this challenges the 4th amendment which protects against unlawful search and seizure. This amendment was violated numerous times, not in Perry County (at least not to my knowledge) but in other parts of the country. This NYT article discusses Williamson County, IL and what the local population had to face during the prohibition. To summarize, the prohibition allowed for the resurgence of the Klan, and in Williamson County, many roadhouses and immigrant homes were targeted and raided. The Klan members didn’t treat the immigrants well, stole from their homes, planted evidence, and even burned some of them to the ground. So, while many Americans may have viewed drinking as being unpatriotic, some of the efforts put forth to stop drinking were even more unpatriotic as they violated the very rights set forth that helped build the foundation of this country.
The fourth bullet point on the left of the article also significantly stands out saying that prohibition is “destructive and not constructive” and that it “involves the ruin of several hundred million dollars worth of property and the businesses and livelihood of thousands of citizens”. This is a huge accusation to make but also a largely true one as well as many of the top breweries in the United States at the time were built by German immigrants, specifically Anheuser-Busch, Pabst, Miller, and Coors all of which were founded before the prohibition era. Anti-German sentiment grew during the course of World War I, and contributed largely to prohibition laws being passed. The article How World War II Saved American Beer Brewing has a piece of propaganda from World War I that depicts German-Americans as barrels of beer and beet bottles and they hold signs that say things like “we make people poor” and “we cause poverty and crime”. This brings out two very different viewpoints and shows where some of the division lies in the prohibition movement. Supporters of the movement thought that Germans were wasting resources by brewing beer and that they were also leading Americans to live an undesireable life by advocating that drinking makes you poor. On the other hand, many German immigrants would end up losing their jobs and livelihood because of prohibition going into affect potentially leading them to a life of poverty and crime. However, with the repeal of the 18th amendment in 1933, Germans were able to brew beer again and would happily send drinks overseas to aid the solders fighting in World War II.
