Prohibition's Proving Ground: Automobile Culture and Dry
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PROHIBITION’S PROVING GROUND: AUTOMOBILE CULTURE AND DRY ENFORCEMENT ON THE TOLEDO-DETROIT-WINDSOR CORRIDOR, 1913-1933 Joseph Boggs A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2019 Committee: Michael Brooks, Advisor Rebecca Mancuso © 2019 Joseph Boggs All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Michael Brooks, Advisor The rapid rise of an automobile culture in the 1910s and 20s provided ordinary North Americans greater mobility, freedom, privacy, and economic opportunity. Simultaneously, the United States and Canada witnessed a surge in “dry” sentiments and laws, culminating in the passage of the 18th Amendment and various provincial acts that precluded the outright sale of alcohol to the public. In turn, enforcement of prohibition legislation became more problematic due to society’s quick embracing of the automobile and bootleggers’ willingness to utilize cars for their illegal endeavors. By closely examining the Toledo-Detroit-Windsor corridor—a region known both for its motorcar culture and rum-running reputation—during the time period of 1913-1933, it is evident why prohibition failed in this area. Dry enforcers and government officials, frequently engaging in controversial policing tactics when confronting suspected motorists, could not overcome the distinct advantages that automobiles afforded to entrepreneurial bootleggers and the organized networks of criminals who exploited the transnational nature of the region. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I. AUTOMOBILITY ON THE TDW CORRIDOR ............................................... 8 CHAPTER II. MOTORING TOWARDS PROHIBITION ......................................................... 29 CHAPTER III. TEST DRIVE: DRY ENFORCEMENT IN THE EARLY YEARS .................. 48 The Beginnings of Prohibition in Windsor, 1916-1919 ................................................ 50 Enforcing State Prohibition, 1918-1919 .......................................................................... 54 CHAPTER IV. “TRUCKLOAD AFTER TRUCKLOAD”: PROHIBITION & POLICING IN THE AGE OF THE AUTOMOBILE .......................................................................................... 101 CHAPTER V. TAKEN FOR A DEATH RIDE: THE END OF PROHIBITION ON THE TDW CORRIDOR ................................................................................................................................. 132 REFERENCES ...................................................................................................................... 164 SECONDARY SOURCES .................................................................................................... 170 1 INTRODUCTION A revealing short story entitled “‘Bill’ and the Water Wagon” was printed in the November 1914 Michigan state edition of the American Issue, a monthly Anti-Saloon League periodical. To start the dry parable, an “average working man” named Bill is confronted by an old friend who asks for his view on the so-called “Prohibition question.” After admitting he had not thought of it much, Bill surmised, “he would probably vote ‘wet’” in the upcoming election “for he was in favor of personal liberty and thought if he wanted to take a drink when he felt like it, it was nobody’s business.” On his way home from work that night, Bill set his eyes on a newly painted billboard advertisement. It boldly proclaimed, “Budweiser is a Friend of Mine.” Immediately Bill began to ponder whether that statement was true, whether alcohol companies or the saloons that served intoxicating beverages actually cared for him. Spending over $1,800 at Tom Kelly’s saloon in the past decade, Bill began to realize “he had received nothing of value in return” for his loyalty to the neighborhood-drinking establishment. He remained as “poor as when they move there ten years before.” Accordingly, Bill pays more attention to the saloonkeeper, Tom Kelly, during his “morning pick ups” and drink breaks. He notices that the saloonkeeper wears diamond buttons, lives in a stately mansion, and that he and his wife are always “dressed in the height of fashion.” As Tom is enjoying his corncob pipe on his stroll home from work later that night, a “fast roadster” barrels past him. Looking up, Bill recognizes the driver as Tom Kelly. The short story then tellingly states, “As he watched Kelly and the automobile disappear down the street it 2 occurred to him that he had handed enough money over Kelly’s bar to have bought and paid for an automobile just like the one Kelly had.”1 This short story was more than just a cautionary tale about the parasitic nature of the alcohol and saloon industries. “‘Bill’ and the Water Wagon” embodied how prohibitionists embraced a booming American consumer ethos to turn drinkers away from booze. The Anti- Saloon League and other dry leaders were demonstrating to “wets” that their perennial cry of “personal liberty” was getting in the way of personal purchasing power. As in the case of Bill, wages spent at the saloon could instead be diverted towards flashy clothing accessories, an updated wardrobe, or even a better house. Most conspicuously, this 1914 dry parable notes how Bill’s daily drinking routine precluded him from purchasing “an automobile just like the one Kelly had.” If any product epitomized the new culture of consumption, it was the automobile. For the first decade of the 20th century, the “horseless carriage” was just a device of luxury for the elite. Beginning in 1913, however, with Henry Ford’s implementation of the assembly line to mass produce the Model T and the subsequent lowering of car prices, the average American wage earner could afford a motor vehicle. Besides the numerous benefits “automobility” provided—including greater access to market goods—the marked uptick in motor vehicle sales spurred a robust automobile culture. In turn, prohibitionists hoped to utilize this important societal development to change the attitudes and actions of drinkers. Dry organizations like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) gained momentum and garnered the national spotlight in the late 19th century, a couple decades prior to the Ford Motor Company flooding 1 “Bill and the Water Wagon,” American Issue, (Westerville, Ohio), November 1914. 3 the American market with its “universal car.” By the time widespread passage of local, state, and national prohibition laws were finally realized in the 1910s and 1920s, the precipitous wave of automobile ownership was fully inundating the country.2 In turn, drys embraced the motorcar craze of the early 20th century. They utilized automobiles in public parades to disseminate their anti-alcohol message and traveled in them to deliver speeches in churches and capital buildings. Later, when attempting to defend prohibition, they referenced soaring car production and sales statistics.3 Nevertheless, prohibitionists and those who supported their message failed to foresee that the culture of automobility would ultimately play a role in steering the “noble experiment” to its demise. Recent historians have correctly identified the fatal flaw of the 18th Amendment: its inability to be effectively enforced. Specifically, scholars have pointed to abusive and corrupt liquor agents, lack of governmental funding and resources, and troubles due to concurrent enforcement.4 While all of these were indeed problems with policing during the era of prohibition, historians have largely neglected how automobility in America fostered a bootlegging culture and presented predicaments to dry enforcers. The jobs of sheriffs, municipal officers, state troopers, and federal agents became more demanding as automobile usage 2 David E. Ruth, Inventing the Public Enemy, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), p. 38. 3 Richard Crawford, “Local Effort to Make San Diego Dry Was All Washed Up,” San Diego Union-Tribune, February 24, 2011 accessed at http://www.sandiegoyesterday.com/wp- content/uploads/2011/03/Anti-Saloonists1.pdf; “Automobiles Instead of Rum,” Brewers Journal and Barley Malt and Hop Trades’ Reporter, (New York City: New York), October 1, 1916; “Welcome Pussyfoot Home,” New York Times, April 25, 1920. 4 W.J. Rorabaugh, Prohibition: A Concise History, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 88-89; Lisa McGirr, The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the American State, (New York: W.W. Norton, 2016), 33; Daniel Okrent, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, (New York: Scribner, 2010), 141-145; Julien Comte. "“Let the Federal Men Raid”: Bootlegging and Prohibition Enforcement in Pittsburgh." Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 77, no. 2 (2010): 166-92. 4 increased in the 1910s. Then in the late 1910s and 1920s, as entrepreneurial rumrunners largely adopted and utilized motor vehicles to transport their illegal cargo, local and national law enforcement was challenged even further. The Toledo-Detroit-Windsor (TDW) corridor is the ideal place to research how the growing culture of automobility affected dry enforcement. Consisting of Lucas County in Northwest Ohio, Monroe and Wayne Counties in Southeastern Michigan, and Essex County in southern Ontario, the TDW corridor of the early 20th century was a microcosm of rapid urbanization, widespread acceptance of the automobile, and prohibition enforcement issues throughout North America.