The consequences of Prohibition

Concerned with men spending rent money in saloons rather than on the family, groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union supported Prohibition. Submitted photo

Prohibition – or what Herbert Hoover called “the noble experiment” – had unintended consequences on American history. In the years following the Civil War there was growing pressure from groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, who were greatly concerned about too much drinking of liquor – principally by the menfolk. Early targets were the saloons where men spent the rent money, neglected the family, consorted with ladies of the night and became abusive drunks. Eventually the goal became prohibition of alcohol and not just the places where it was consumed.
For many the prohibition movement became a partner with the drive for the right of women to vote. It was a powerful combination. Finally the politicians caved in. On December 18, 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment, which was ratified by the required three-quarters of the states on January 16, 1919, to take effect a year later.
The 19th Amendment, which prohibited the denial of the right to vote “on account of sex,” became the national law on August 26, 1920, just in time for the upcoming election. Actually several states had given women the vote a few years earlier. Republican Jeanette Rankin was elected to the House of Representatives from Wyoming in 1916.
Efforts to water down the 18th (Prohibition) Amendment by exempting wine as a food or to allow “local option” failed under the pressure of the prohibitionists. The 18th Amendment banned the manufacture, sale, transportation or export of “intoxicating liquors.” For Sonoma Valley, in which grape growing, wineries and tourism were major industries, January 16, 1920 was a dark day indeed.
The legislation enforcing Prohibition (The Volstead Act) allowed some leeway by permitting wine making for sacramental and medicinal purposes. To qualify for making altar wine, the winery needed approval from the Catholic Church. Three winemakers in northern California, where the owners proved to be particularly religious, were Samuel Sebastiani, de Latour of Beaulieu in Napa and the Wentes in Livermore. Some physicians were criticized for writing so many prescriptions for brandy to stimulate heart patients that finally limits were put on the number of such prescriptions written per annum.
Enforcement of the illegal making or selling of booze was erratic. Federal revenue officers tried to shut down illegal stills, and local police and sheriffs got into the act and often made spectacular dumps of liquor, with pictures in the newspapers, to discourage rum running. There was also the problem of law enforcement officers tempted by payoffs, particularly to keep so-called “speakeasies” open. And for those who did not pay off the enforcers, there would be a raid on their bars like that of popular George Nerton on the Sausalito waterfront where the bottles, mirrors and furniture were smashed as a lesson.
In Sausalito dozens of places – popular with the San Francisco crowd – served drinks more or less openly. Supposedly they sold only seltzer water and other mixers. Trucks slipped across the Canadian border or powerboats pulled into coves along the California coast – Marin and Sonoma beaches were popular landing zones. In Santa Barbara a tank truck painted exactly like a Richfield Oil truck, and filled with whiskey, made its rounds of the area until a deputy sheriff spotted it in a neighborhood where there were no service stations. For many, prohibition was treated as a joke and escaping detection became part of a game of hide-and-seek.
“Bootleggers” made deliveries openly, but the quality of their product varied widely, from smuggled quality Scotch and Canadian whiskies to dreadful and dangerous “white lightening” made in a still. There were at least 50 stills in the hills around Sonoma Valley. The Lovall Valley Loop and other sites in the woods were busy and hard to find. Worse yet were the amateurs making “bathtub gin” mixed with raw alcohol, and even shaving lotion, for parties. Blindness, ruined stomachs and death from alcohol poisoning were not uncommon. Since sales were uncontrolled, with no established closing hours or rules against serving drunks, alcoholism was rampant.
Sonoma Valley’s resorts had a choice: Shut down or break the law. The revenuers decided to make an example of Emma Fetter of Fetter’s Hot Springs, whom they caught serving liquor from bottles hidden under the counter. She was sentenced to nine months in jail, which was reduced to 30 days. A $300 fine became common and was treated as the cost of doing business. During one week in August 1922, 11 places in El Verano were raided, including, once again, the unrepentant Emma.
The worst aspect of life under Prohibition was that, since liquor consumption and trafficking were illegal and unregulated, and prohibition was not supported by public opinion, criminal elements moved in to fill the void and take over much of the liquor business. There was so much money and profit involved, and so much organization required, that unscrupulous gangs were drawn to the business. In fact, Prohibition was the seed that spawned much of the organized crime that exists today. The huge profits from illegal liquor strengthened the criminal hold on extortion, prostitution, loan sharking, dealing in stolen goods, union racketeering, gambling rackets, and eventually drugs. Methods of control often involved force, threats and murder.
As a rural enclave Sonoma Valley’s contact with big-time crime was not extensive. However, delivering for the bootleggers for a while was the notorious bank robber, killer and prison escapee George “Babyface” Nelson, one-time “enforcer” for Al Capone who had close contacts with San Francisco gangster Joe Parente and the famed bank robber John Dillinger. Chased out of his cabin by a Sonoma County deputy sheriff, “Babyface” headed for Sausalito where he became a bartender at the Walhalla (renamed Valhalla by famed Sally Stanford), living quietly next door to the unsuspecting town constable. Eventually bored, he headed for Chicago, bank robberies and death in a shootout with the police in November 1934.
The Prohibition amendment was repealed by the 21st Amendment, which was enacted by Congress on February 20, 1933, and ratified by three-quarters of the states on December 5, 1933. Our long national nightmare was over.
The effect of prohibition on the wine and vineyard industries will be discussed in the next “Hill on History” column.
Gerald Hill is co-author with his wife, Kathleen Thompson Hill, of six books on regions of the west coast as well as several other books and numerous articles. In addition to his Hill on History columns, his program Hill on History is broadcast on KSVY, 91.3 Sonoma at 2 p.m. on Tuesdays.
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