First governor of Iowa against the liquor traffic

     In early pioneer times most of the men folks drank whisky and other strong drinks. Such liquor could be purchased at the grocery stores. Some grocers even gave it away to attract customers.

    But, as all through recorded history, there were constant warnings against the excessive use of intoxicating liquors. Over a hundred years ago temperance societies began to be formed in the United States. The temperance movement reached Iowa already in Territorial times. Robert Lucas, was president of one of the first temperance societies organized in Iowa. The laws of the Territory forbade the sale of intoxicating liquors to the Indians at all times and to white people on Sundays. And before long there was so much opposition to the liquor traffic that the people of Iowa in 1855 approved a law which forbade the sale of intoxicating liquors except for medicinal purposes within the State. A majority of 3,000 favored this law. This shows the rapid growth of the temperance movement in early Iowa.

Wine and beer again permitted to be sold.

     In the fifties there was a great inrush of foreign immigrants into Iowa: Bohemians, Irish, Germans, and Scandinavians. Many of them thought differently about temperance and liquor selling than....

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....did the members of the temperance societies. To the former it seemed that men of character would not drink to excess, and therefore moderate drinkers should not be forbidden the use of intoxicants though persons of weak character abused their personal freedom.

Mrs. Annie Wittenmeyer

    Before long the political parties took sides, the Republicans favoring the foreigners, and the law of 1855 was modified permitting the sale of beer and wine, but not stronger liquors.

Many temperance societies

     But the modified law was not well enforced. Undaunted by this the temperance societies worked all the harder to make the State "bone dry." They organized societies bearing such names as the Sons of Temperance, the Good Templars, and the Blue Ribbon. Many joined the Iowa branch of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Aided also by many of the churches, these societies labored unceasingly to educate both young and old to see that strong liquors are dangerous to health and morals, not only to primitive Indians, but to civilized men as well. Boys were encouraged to take the temperance vow. In some churches societies were formed among the children to arouse sentiment against the use of intoxicants.

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Prohibition wins

     Having enrolled both men, women and children in their ranks, the prohibitionist or temperance people again made an attempt to close the saloons in Iowa, of which there were over 900 in the early eighties. In Spite of their former stand on the liquor question, the Republicans now took up the cause of prohibition, and two successive sessions of the General Assembly passed a resolution for an amendment to the State constitution forbidding the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors within the limits of the State. When this measure was submitted to the people for approval, there was a majority of 30,000 for prohibition. It was a great victory for the prohibitionist, and great was their consternation therefore when the Supreme Court of Iowa declared the amendment unconstitutional because of certain errors, which had been made in its passage by the General Assembly.

    The court decision was a victory for the anti-prohibitionists. But the Republicans had promised to champion the cause of prohibition, and since they had a majority in the General Assembly, they enacted the Clark Law, which prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors in the State. And thus, in spite of all, Iowa became a prohibition state.

Prohibition through education

     In some counties the Clark Law could not be enforced. In other counties the violaters of the law were fined and sometimes imprisoned. There was much bitterness. Many unpleasant episodes occurred. At least one man lost his life while attempting to enforce the law.

    A growing number of people were coming to believe that prohibition should come about gradually, through education. In 1886 the public schools of Iowa began to teach the effects of narcotics (tobacco) and stimulants (intoxicants). This did not mean that actual prohibition was taught in the schools, but children found out about what bad effects intoxicants have on body and mind. This helped them later as adults to vote more in accordance with the facts of the problem.

The Mulct Law and the Moon Law

     The difficulty of enforcing the Clark Law helped to bring about the defeat of the Republican Party in 1891, the first time in Iowa after the political overturn in 1854 when the Republicans first came....

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....into power in Iowa. The Democrats then modified the Clark Law in 1894 so as to permit the voters in the counties and larger cities to have saloons if a majority of the people voted for license. This modification of the Clark Law was called the Mulct Law.

    The Mulct Law gave the State a system of liquor control which was really a combination of prohibition and liquor option. One is tempted to call it a crazy-quilt control system, but it stood the pragmatic test: It worked. It gave prohibition to the prohibitionists and liquor to the anti-prohibitionists. Since neither would make any real effort to understand the other, politicians had to strike a balance.

    But the prohibitions were not satisfied. Urged on by them, the General Assembly in 1909 enacted the Moon Law which limited the number of saloons a town might have - one for towns with less than a population of 1,000, and for larger towns one for each 1,000 people.

Will the automobile promote temperance?

     In 1919 a prohibitory amendment to the State Constitution was submitted tot he voters of Iowa. It failed by a majority of only 932 votes, but an amendment to the constitution of the United States two years later made prohibition nation-wide. The law was too drastic and in 1933 the prohibition amendment was repealed. Beer is sold in Iowa now in grocery stores and taverns, but hard liquors are sold only in State liquor stores.

    The constantly increasing use of the automobile and motor-driven trucks since the beginning of the present century has made it necessary to stress temperance. A driver of an automobile or truck under the influence of liquor cannot be tolerated on the highways. Punishment for drunken driving is very severe.

Questions and exercises: Explain the phrase- liquor traffic. What is the difference between prohibition and temperance? Explain the liquor law of 1855, the Clark Law, the Mulct Law, and the Moon Law. What has been done in the public schools to promote temperance? Will the greater use of automobiles and trucks promote temperance?