The Depression Dilemmas of Rural Iowa, 1929-1933

7. Policy: Prohibition Possibly Prohibited: Voicing Temperance Concerns

135 some day historians will taste of the prohibition pottage cooked on our present political cook stove, smack their lips and tell our grandchildren or great grandchildren students exactly what the recipe was and how it could have been improved had their forefathers (ourselves) not been so utterly blind and woefully stupid. prohibition is with us cloaked in a garb that is angel white or smeary with awful grime according to the kind of glasses one is peering through. —fred a. Hinrichsen, Davenport, iowa (1930) rs. albert g. ossian, president of a local women’s Christian temperance union, delivered a short talk at the annual reception for the school faculty in stanton on november 7, 1929. mrs. ossian (or Bessie) welcomed the teachers and explained the “scientific temperance instruction” that the wCtu followed for school essay and poster contests. another wCtu member, mrs. marie ossian, then served the two-course luncheon. three teenagers from the young people’s branch (misses elva ossian, florence anderson, and marveline reed) passed the plates while the forty-five members of this local chapter entertained their guests with renditions of pop songs. and so continued a long tradition of local, state, and national participation of the still-active wCtu in 1929, almost a decade since the passage C H A P T E R S E V E N Policy Prohibition Possibly Prohibited: Voicing Temperance Concerns m the depression dilemmas of rural Iowa, 1929–1933 136 of the eighteenth amendment. prohibition voices continued to support their cause in a variety of community social events as well as public speeches and political debates during the next three years, but the trend of the temperance tide was turning terribly quickly after the stock market crash, more than mrs. ossian or any other prohibition leader could have imagined.1 the wCtu of iowa had organized in november 1874, the same month as the national organization, and continued with strong membership numbers for each year until the 1930s. the union described its methods as evangelistic , educational, preventative, social, and legal. it promoted abstinence of all alcohol with various watchwords such as agitate, educate, and organize along with inspirations of love, loyalty, and light. the dues remained a $1 a year with a badge of knotted white ribbon as membership symbol, and the state records listed 60,000 iowa women as paid members. its official publication became The Iowa Champion, its songbook gleaned from the loyal temperance legion, and its current motto rang with the phrase, “the eighteenth amendment forever!”2 in 1930 this author’s step-great-grandmother (mrs. albert ossian) and other local residents still deeply believed in the eighteenth amendment, that prohibition would continue until certainly their grandchildren or great-grandchildren came of age. Yet just three years into the new decade this delightful promise or dreadful experiment suddenly ended with the ratification of the twenty-first amendment, although repeal when the eighteenth amendment became official in 1920 had not seemed probable much less possible. an amendment to the Constitution of the united states implied constancy; certainly none had ever faced consideration for repeal. in iowa the dilemma of prohibition did not easily resolve itself nor did it simply fade away. many devoted activists and average citizens continued to believe in their cause with a combination of a social, moral, or economic reasoning. some of the energy, organization, funding, and passion was perhaps passing since 1920, while the fears were only increasing by the end of the decade that neither the legal nor the social benefits of prohibition had been or ever would be revealed during those early years of the great Depression. still, we great-grandchildren should remember that the consumption of liquor and other intoxicating beverages had decreased during the years of prohibition. as historian K. austin Kerr reminds readers in the history of the anti-saloon league, “the conventional wisdom overlooks one simple yet highly significant fact: prohibition worked.”3 Yet success can always be measured in many different ways. tax revenue , legal control, and criminal enforcement had also been lost during prohibition’s decade without enough serious education or adequate fund- policy 137 ing devoted to the cause. as the years passed, speakeasies, bootleggers, and troublemakers displayed an overall disregard for the law and caused many iowans and americans to reevaluate their prohibition position. at the height of the prohibition debate during the great war, iowa senator william Kenyon had asked...