When Booze was Banned

My early morning “on-air” partner, Mike Hammer, is a young man… younger than my kids. The other morning the subject of Prohibition came up. Mike asked me what it was like. Well! Prohibition ended when I was only 5 years old so I had very little experience; however, I heard a lot of talk as a child, talked to moonshiners as I grew older, and then did a lot of reading. Few modern people know much about “Prohibition” in Montana, but they’ll know a little more by the end of this column.

First, we must remember that Montana did not get along very well with the suppression of drinking laws. Under the leadership of the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition and Public Morals, the states around us went dry before we did and the result was that thirsty folks from Washington, Oregon and Idaho came here in droves to oil their tonsils. Little border towns like Superior and Taft with a railroad, turned into what one writer called “civic bars.” This did not sit well with the Anti-Saloon League, but it made a lot of bar owners happy. Another factor involved here was that in 1914 Montana took the national lead and gave women the right to vote, four years ahead of the U.S. Congress.

With the women voting, Montana politicians were told to clean up their state and end its attraction for the “liquor-hungry, lustful hordes” coming in on the daily trains.

In 1916 Montana was deeply influenced by the “forces of righteousness,” the Montana Anti-Saloon League, thus the citizens voted 102,776 for the state’s Prohibition Law, and 73,890 against… but the law was flawed. There was no money provided for enforcement. There sat Attorney General Foote with a problem. He was ordered to close every bar and saloon in the state along with the breweries, home stills and wineries, stop the manufacture of any kind of alcohol by anyone, and prevent any from being shipped across our borders. A mighty tall order to carry out without a dime of revenue.

Then an out-of-state fella, named Evertt E. Van Wert, showed up in Helena and said he would handle the situation. Said he’d foot the bills for the crackdown operation until the courts began fining lawbreakers he brought in. The Attorney General later said, “Sure, he was a stranger, but, it was hard to find a man like that,” so he got the job. A story in Collier’s magazine says, “So that’s the way state prohibition started off in Montana… Van Wert with his car, his own gasoline and his own gun, backed by the power of the state of Montana.”

The rest of the story would make a helluva movie. Van Wert hired some “guns” and they began raiding homes, businesses, parties, and even stopping people on the roads to search for booze. The Van Wert boys picked a crew of town loafers and hooligans across the state and paid them to be stool pigeons. All the “enforcers” reportedly lived quite well and stayed in the best places, but a good thing only lasts so long. Soon judges began throwing cases out of courts and juries began having trouble being convinced of the guilt of those arrested. There were shootings and killings.

Two rough looking enforcers tried to stop a car on a lonely road and the young boy driving alone became scared and sped away. He was killed with a rifle shot through the rear window. A country dance at Augusta was raided and a gun battle started when the celebrants found “state men” going through their cars. Another enforcer was shot when he tried to arrest a man with a hip flask. Then one day while he was testifying in court, Van Wert was asked by the defense attorney if he had ever served time in jail. Under oath and with the attorney waving an Iowa court document in his face, Van Wert admitted he had a record. It turned out that so had many of his hired guns.

All this corruption and chaos continued for years with the people of Montana completely fed up to the gills with Van Wert and all he and prohibition represented. A hearing at the State Legislature revealed volumes of scandal in 1923, but it was two more years before the people of Montana got to vote on a referendum to kill their state prohibition law — and they did it. Of course, Montana was still subject to the Federal law, but it was easier to get a cold beer and Van Wert’s enforcers were out of the action.

Roosevelt’s first Congress got Prohibition killed in December of 1933 and Joe Kennedy’s ships full of scotch sailed into the eastern coast.

G. George Ostrom is the news director of KOFI radio and a Hungry Horse News columnist.