The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-11-18

year history and tradition of beer
making. For man has been a
beer-naker as long as he has been
a breadmaker. Baked bricks of
Babylon record that they we're
making beer from barley in 5000
B. c.
1t was an important feature of
daily life in ancient Egypt. Greeks,
Romans, Gauls, Germans, Rus
slams, Japanese, African bushmen,
all have brewed beer from the
earliest times we know of.
In almost every batch-of Amer
lean colonistS sent from home
lands brewers we're included. But
most of the colonists brewed their
own beer.
William Penn brewed and sold
beer at Pennsbury, Pa, and he
was ga great lover of beer andAc-
cuStomed to praise his own brew
ing"
Early acts of colonial legisla-
lures were almost all aimed at
substituting fermented for dis
titled drinks.
TIP to the time of the Revolu-
~ ton, however, brewing tend
ed to decline, despite attempts to
encourage it. The country drank
imported rum and home made
whisky with such heartinesS as to
shock every European traveller
who has set down his impressions.
This NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. ira
dition continued until the middle
of the last century, when the rise
of the German brewers began.
Agitation for control of drink
ing also began very early, though
all the early efforts were aimed
at encouraging drinkers to desert
fiery .whiSkies, runs and bran
dies for varieties of beer.
Dr. Benjamin Rush (1785) usu-
ally is regarded as the first real
campaigner against the evils of
drink.
Roughly, the course of the
movement against alcohol moved
from one objective to another
something like this:
1. Moderation.
2, Personal abstinence from
hard liquor"
3. Personal total abstinence.
4. Pressure on others for abb
stinence.
5. Anti-saloon license agitation.
6. State prohibition.
7. National prohibition.
The temperance movement was
the first stage. BY 1885 it claimed
100000 members in a country
that only had 100000 people.
Many of these societies permit
ted their members to use beer and
light wines. But shortly after that
brewing began its rise, and the
temperance people banned beer
as well. as spirits.
THE Mexican was was on when
u the first prohibition law
came to America, and Mayor Neal
Dow of Portland led Maine to
become bone-dry in 1886.
BY 1855 there were thirteen pro-
hibition states. BY the end of the
Civil war, however, eight of the
thirteen states had abandoned
prohibition.
1t was in the S0s that the real
battle was joined on a grand scale.
The United States Brewers Asso-
citation was well organized, hav-
ing been integrated since 1862.
It's founder, Frederick Lauer,
had been sort of dean of Ameri-
can brewers, as his family's brew
cry was established at Womels-
dorf, Pa near Reading, in 1923.
The stage was being set for the
w. G. T. U. for Frances Will
lard, Carrie Nation, John Cough,
Wayne Wheeler and the other
names sacred to the dry cause.
At about the time the statue of
Liberty was unveiled in New York
harbor C88D the battle was
growing fierce.
TINE dramatic Women's Cru
4 SADIE Of the 70s was the fore
runner of the w. c. t. U. It
started in Hillsboro, O., led by
Mother MRS. Z. j. Thompson.
PiouS. earnest women went
from their churches while bells
tolled. and knelt in saloons, i'm
ploring and praying that the
dealers give up their trade. Many
did. Hundreds of saloons were
closed.
In 1880 CMartyr Garfield was
president) Kansas wrote prohihi-
ton into its state Constitution, the
first state to do so. But nearly
every state was by this time ex-
perimenting with regulation,
license laws, or one form or an
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