The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-01-06
BY FORREST DAVIS
Times staff Writer

iCOpYrlRNL. 1888. DIV new YORK World.
Telegram Corporationl
A FEW minutes past the mid
4 n night, on Jan. II, 1920, a po-
hceman-whether conscientiously
or from mere malice, does not ap-
pear on the record-arrested Mike
Minden in his saloon, at Howard
avenue and Monroe street, Brook
Ign, for selling a glass of brandy.
Minden, spoken of in the press
of the day as "well-known dram
seller" thus became the first pris-
oner in the great war; conflict
of mass will against authority,
which would perplex the land for
twelve years and longer.
Fifteen minutes before the po-
liceman collared Minden, it had
been no crime to pass hooker of
brandy across the bar. Now,
through the metaphysics Of certain
ponderous phrases engrossed on
congressional records at Wash
ington and numerous state
capitals, the act had become an
offense against that revered in
stument, the Constitution of the
United States.
The almost comical disparity
between Minden'S petty trafficking
and the august eminence of the
fundamental charter of the
peoples liberties appeared not to
strike observers in 1920.
So, with the arrest of an obscure
rum-seller in Brooklyn, the issue
actually was joined.
Would the American people,
spirited and touchy about their
rights in earlier times, observe an
ordinance which SO draStically
altered ages-old habits and
customs?
Could the use of alcoholic
beverages-as natural to many
races and to countless individuals
as swallowing tea or coffee, eating,
or talking-be eradicated from the
land, from New York City, by a
fiat Historically arrived at?
TINE dry crusaders in January,
u 1920, expressed a naive faith
in the ability of the law arbitrar-
lily to amend manners, rob bow
serS of their thirst and stamp out
ancient mental attitudes.
1t has been suggested that the
childlike reliance of American re-
formers on the statutes stems
from their evangelical upbringing.
Mr.. Daniels, and the prelatical
wing led by Bishop Cannon, be-
lieved almost pathetically that
rum would vanish as by magic.
But, instead Of a dry republic,
the abracadabra of the eighteenth
amendment and Mr.. Volstead's de-
finitive straightjacket, brought us
in the incredible 1920's, the
Speakeasy Age; hip TASKS, Rum
Row, all but universal cocktails,
an army of bootleggers necessarily
corrupting enforcement officers,
"diSrespect for law" and in the
end the most ferocious clash of
propaganda witnessed since the
slavery issue merged into the
Civil war.
Moreover, the attempt to correct
a nations habits as a severe par
ent does a childs, revived the cult
of drunkenness which had been
waning steadily.
The drinking of spirits had de-
creased steadily from 1850 to 1918,
by roughly, 40 percent per capita.
Beer consumption had advanced
during that period from 408 gal
Ions per capita to 22.80 gallons.
The use of wines had doubled.
In the ealiy years of this CEN
tury, the country seemed pro-
gressively 70 be SOLDERING up. The
Yankee, in his earlier stages, a
spirits drinker similarly to his
north European forbears, had
turned to milder brews.
But prohibition reversed the
process. Gin, hitherto regarded
with contempt by the Stalwart,
who relished honest bourbon and
rye; treated with disdain by the
fastidious; held by many to be
no beverage at all, but merely a
degraded Cipple-gin promptly
became the national drink.
The reason is obvious. Sound,
imported liquors were expensive;
beer too bulky for profitable
transport. Alcohol distilled in
the thousands of illicit laborato-
rieS that sprang up everywhere,
easily could be turned into a
DaSSa6le gin bV the citV house