The Paradise of the Ostrich is an essay composed by Samuel ...



Literature Review: Alcohol Prohibition

Alfred DiPietro

HI-411 Historian's Craft

Professor Fromm

March 7, 2015

In beginning research on the United State's prohibition of the 1920s, or any historical period wanting to be written on, it is important to find a book which offers very broad information on the subject. The book Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition written by Daniel Okrent offers a great overview of events leading up to prohibition, the thirteen years of prohibition, and the 18th amendments inevitable repeal. The book does an excellent job in dividing the populous into two categories, the wets and the drys as they would come to be known, each had their own cast of characters leading their division. Those who considered themselves wets range from the brewer and distiller families such-as the Candlers and Shuberts to northern politicians. The drys meanwhile had very fierce leadership under the Anti-Saloon League (ASL), with ruthless southerners such-as the Reverend James Cannon[1].Last Call does a great job displaying the diversity present in the dry community, it is even seen the KKK stood behind the temperance community. Okrent's ability to describe contrast and detail conflicts had between the drys and wets through the period is a real strength to his book.

The Paradise of the Ostrich is an essay composed by Samuel Church president of the Carnegie Institute and was subsequently published by the North American Review under the article Five Years of Prohibition and Its Results in 1925. The essay has proved invaluable as a period piece; Church does a wonderful job painting a picture of the United State’s wet population and their tiring of the 18th amendment. The Paradise of the Ostrich is told from the perspective of a man understanding of alcohols evils, these however don’t, as he explains, allow cause for prohibition. Church helps decipher the parallels between parliaments “prohibition” and “true temperance” by displaying how much better off the country was before the 18th amendment and the Volstead act. It is declared in the article that the country was moving, prior to Volstead, towards, as Church puts it: “...[A] very practical system of temperance through the development of character.”[2]. It would only be after prohibition that the idea of temperance would be warped beyond identification - and to this, Church offers his metaphor of prohibition as “... the paradise of the ostrich. With his head in the sand the stupid bird believes that what he will not see does not exist.”[3] In other words the government of the time chose not to accept the mess it conjured via the 18th amendment. Samuel Church’s voice throughout the essay is overwhelmingly against the idea of any law which is in direct conflict to human nature.

Another unique piece of The Paradise of the Ostrich is that it provides a couple remedies for the country’s aliment which is prohibition. Church argues in his essay that the eighteenth amendment could be challenged by the supreme court in an argument regarding its adoption, which held an “absence of a constitutional quorum in the House of Representatives, and because the referendum required by some of the States had been wilfully neglected.”3

The North American Review’s Five Years of Prohibition and Its Results offers twenty-one essays in total to be explored, each one has its own unique take on prohibition as observed in 1925. Have We Prohibition or Only Prohibition Laws? Written by William Stayton National V.P. To the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment offers another scholarly opinion on the 18th amendment. Staytons, as compared to Samuel Church, seems to have expected the 18th amendment and the problems associated with it. Stayton believes “Prohibition laws... had, in fact, been plaguing the world for ages”[4]. The true value of Have We Prohibition or Only Prohibition Laws? Lies in the essay’s ability to relay statistical information concerning prohibitions harm. Stayton concludes annually the United States government has allowed an estimated 260 million gallons of 100 proof whiskey to be stolen, created, and smuggled into the country[5]. With more alcohol undoubtedly being sold in the country, Stayton claims a proportional level of arrests had went up also. Through his graph on page 596 we can derive a 20% increase of all crimes following the Volstead Act. With era-authentic statistics such-as the ones available in North American Review's Five Years of Prohibition and Its Results it is clear that 18th amendment and Volstead act were failed social experiments.

To strengthen a history research paper it is often necessary to put ones argument under a microscope; in the case of prohibition it is necessary to uncover how inefficient the policy was. In the case of Wayne Hall's journal entitled: What are the policy lessons of National Alcohol Prohibition in the United States, 1920-1933? Prohibition is certainly reviewed through many channels; these include its effect on crime, drunkenness, the country's social situation, and economy. The results of Halls research surprisingly yields some benefit in regards to national consumption and harm endeared by those intoxicated. Overwhelmingly however these benefits were outweighed by the social, criminal, and economic impact spent by the country’s population at the time[6]. The primary value of Hall's research is to reassure that the statistics presented in Have We Prohibition or Only Prohibition Laws? And The Paradise of the Ostrich are used similarly to this very day and researchers are still yielding similar results from the data. Lastly, the benefits of modern research allow the relation of a historical topic to modern day endeavors. In fact Wayne Hall's concluding remarks speak to the benefits of “partial” prohibition has the ability to improve the public’s health6.

Bibliography

Okrent, Daniel. Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. New York: Scribner, 2010.

Church, Samuel H. “The Paradise of The Ostrich.” The North American Review, summer & fall (1925): 625–631.

Stayton, William H. “Have We Prohibition Or Only Prohibition Laws?” The North American Review, summer & fall (1925): 591–596.

Hall, Wayne. "What are the policy lessons of National Alcohol Prohibition in the United States, 1920–1933?." Addiction 105, no. 7 (July 2010): 1164-1173.

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[1] Daniel Okrent, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (New York: Scribner, 2010), 1744

[2] Samuel Harden Church, “The Paradise of The Ostrich,” The North American Review, summer & fall, (1925) 626

[3] Church, Paradise, 629

[4] William H. Stayton, “Have We Prohibition Or Only Prohibition Laws?,” The North American Review, summer & fall, (1925) 591

[5] Stayton, Have We, 594

[6] Wayne Hall, “What are the policy lessons of National Alcohol Prohibition in the United States, 1920-1933?,”Addiction 105, no. 7 (July 2010): 1171

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