Century-long effort

to end evils of alcohol

By Fritz Busch

Staff Writer

NEW ULM — Former August Schell Brewery President Ted Marti described in detail what led to Prohibition and how the brewery survived it at the Brown County Historical Society Museum Annex Thursday.

“Prohibition was the culmination of over a 100 years of an effort to overcome the evils of alcohol. The concern of alcohol abuse came long before the 18th Amendment (Prohibition) passed,” said Marti.

During the 1800s, men drank primarily whiskey, rum and gin almost exclusively in taverns. Marti said it was a more difficult to make beer and there were not as many good brewmasters back then.

“Owners and patrons regularly ignored the governing laws of operation, serving minors. Drunkenness became a serious social problem,” he added.

Marti said the American Society of Temperance was formed in 1826 to promote moderation and often complete abstinence in the use of intoxicating liquor.

“Early on, whiskey was the bad guy. Beer and wine were advertised as temperance drinks, owed in part to the lowered alcohol content,” said Marti. “As a result of the temperance efforts, hard liquor consumption decreased by nearly one half from 1820 to 1850.”

Marti said a national liquor tax helped fund the temperance effort. He said German and Irish immigrants in the 1850s paid little attention to the movement.

Temperance movement supporters continued to push for legislative power, showing how children and families were directly tied to their cause.

“They highlighted domestic damage to families with children and wives being beaten,” Marti said. “In 1869, the Prohibition Party was formed with a platform of destroying saloons and achieving women’s suffrage (voting rights), bringing in additional issues as a way to further their cause.”

In 1874, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform linking the religious and secular with strategies based on Christianity.

Marti said six states went dry in 1890. Breweries owned or had controlling interest in nearly 80% of saloons and made loans with easy terms to saloons, who were encouraged to sell as much of the product as they could.

“Those were the years of the free lunch, a way to get customers into the door. They drank and drank until their paychecks were gone. This tied together beer and hard liquor in the eyes of the temperance movement,” Marti said.

The Anti-Saloon League later spearheaded the drive for nationwide prohibition.

“It was very effective at getting political support, making alcoholism a crucial issue in elections,” Marti said. “In 1906, three states were dry. In 1913, nine states were dry. In 1916, 23 states were dry. During World War I, beer was targeted as making Americans weak.”

The Lever Food and Fuel Control Act of 1917 regulated food, fuel and other commodities that may be needed for the war effort. It was argued that grain needed to distill alcohol was needed as food and in short supply due to war needs.

“It prohibited the use of grain for hard liquor production but not for beer or wine, which were considered food,” said Marti. “This temporarily limited beer ot 2.75% alcohol by volume. Most beer today and back then were 4-4.5% alcohol.”

Marti said by the end of 1915, 56 of 87 Minnesota counties, 47% of the state’s population, voted to go dry.

“At Schell’s, we felt the Prohibition movement early on,” said Marti. “We began making vacuum tonic in glass-lined tanks that sped up the fermentation process by boiling off alcohol and finishing it in a kettle. Soft drinks including root beer were made during Prohibition that lasted 12 years before ending Dec. 5, 1933.”

After Marti’s talk, one woman who was a nursing mother in the 1960s and 1970s said she was advised to drink wine and beer by a doctor.

Dr. Ann Vogel said decades ago, women were told to wash their hair with vinegar and beer.