| Health
Matters
Michigan
and alcohol have sordid past
by George Sedlacek
The Michigan Traffic Fatalities statistics for 2008 were released
recently. There was some good news and some bad. The good news
was that statewide, the number of fatalities was reduced to levels
not seen since 1925.
The news in the Upper Peninsula wasn’t as good. According
to Michigan State Police, there were thirty-eight fatal traffic
crashes in the U.P. in 2007, which resulted in forty-five deaths.
There were the same number of fatal crashes in 2008 but the number
of deaths dropped to forty. Most troubling was nearly half the
fatalities in 2008 involved alcohol use—twenty-one deaths
due to alcohol involvement. In 2007, only ten involved alcohol.
The Marquette County Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention
has worked to reduce high-risk drinking with some success. Binge
drinking (more than five drinks per occasion) has fallen since
the late 1990s. Binge drinking leads to an intoxication level
that impairs decision making.
The U.P. has had a love-hate relationship with alcohol since early
mining days. Even then, many had conflicting emotions. Prohibition
was discussed nearly a half century before it took effect on January
16, 1920. Michigan had an election on April 5, 1887 on Prohibition,
which lost statewide by about 8,000 votes. The news caught the
attention of the New York Times, which reported the “Upper
Peninsula with its iron and copper mining population, has struck
a severe blow against prohibition.” The large town of Marquette
had 425 more votes against enactment.
It’s not surprising that immigrants to our region brought
their culture with them. Many don’t know that Scandinavian
countries had a strong history of prohibition even before the
United States. Nordic countries today, with the exception of Denmark,
strictly control the sale of alcohol. There are government monopolies
still in place for selling liquors, wine and stronger beers to
consumers in Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland. Beer was prohibited
in Iceland up until 1989.
Historian Marcus Robyns, in his paper, “Finnish Immigrants
on the Marquette Iron Range” said Finns on the Marquette
Iron Range took the lead in the temperance movement. The first
organization formed in Republic in 1885 and was followed by the
Ishpeming Temperance Society in 1886.
In 1888, temperance organizations throughout the U.P. met in Republic
and formed the Finnish National Temperance Brotherhood of North
America. Ishpeming Finns were so upset by their fellow countrymen
fighting and swearing in the saloons of the time that a large
temperance movement began. They feared they were getting a bad
reputation and discrimination was bad enough for them at the time.
By 1906, the Finnish temperance movement on the Marquette Iron
Range actively joined the national effort for Prohibition. In
1908, all the groups on the Range met in Ishpeming and formed
the Marquette County Temperance League.
There are many interesting stories about prohibition in the U.P.
Crime reporter Allan May provides a great story on the famous
“Michigan Whisky Rebellion” that took place beginning
on Valentine’s Day, 1920. An army of news reporters descended
on the village of Iron River. They reported on the progress that
Major A.V. Dalrymple, the federal prohibition chief for the midwest
region for enforcing prohibition, wanted to make when the local
law enforcement official would not.
The supervising prohibition agent for the U.P. was Leo Grove.
His agents had made a raid on the home and store of the three
Scalucci brothers. The brothers stated they had used a trainful
of grapes the previous fall to make wine. Agents confiscated the
wine—that is, until the state’s attorney for Iron County,
Martin McDonough, got wind of it. His opinion was the raids were
illegal since it wasn’t liquor, but wine made for the purpose
of drinking in one’s own home. Also, it was seized without
a warrant.
McDonough asked to see Grove’s badge and when Grove couldn’t
produce it, McDonough pointed down the road and said “You
see that road? Well, that leads out of town. Take it.” Grove
went straight to Chicago and reported immediately to the Major.
Leo told him that McDonough and the local chief of police arrested
him for “transporting” liquor. The Chicago Tribune reported
that McDonough said, “we have a peculiar situation here on
the peninsula. We have a large number of foreign workers here
and we wish to keep them. These foreigners always have their grape
presses and their homemade wine. They drink this in preference
to water and won’t work without it.”
Dalrymple vowed to the reporters that he’d crush the liquor
rebellion with the 600 rounds of ammunition he was bringing and
arrest any local law enforcement officer who defied the local
prohibition enforcer.
“My judgment is to go up and clean hell out of that district,”
he said.
The Chicago Tribune reported conditions of panic as residents
falsely believed armed troops would be sent to quell the hyped
insurrection. Reporters noticed citizens hung out anything white
such as towels or pillowcases to indicate surrender. Meanwhile,
every man, woman and child was being used to transport their stash
up to caves located in the hills and mines. On February 25, Dalrymple
went to the home of a local priest where wine was being stored
in a locked basement room. The men took the barrels of wine to
a nearby ditch and smashed them.
The higher ups in the Prohibition Department announced that agents,
when acting without local cooperation, must first obtain warrants
permitting searches of suspected premises. This provided McDonough
the ammunition he needed.
The Major and McDonough met and accused each other of grandstanding
for the media and argued who was a better actor. In the meantime,
the assistant attorney general of Michigan was reported on his
way to back up McDonough. By 4:00 p.m., Dalrymple announced he
had important business in Washington and would leave within the
hour. A subsequent federal investigation ruled Dalrymple had acted
both illegally and injudiciously. Dago Red in the home, the investigation
pointed out, was indeed legal.
Prohibition was successful in reducing the numbers of people with
severe liver disease, domestic violence and public drunkenness.
However, it was a social failure in that large numbers of people
disregarded the law, and caused a rise in organized crime. Larry
Engelmann’s Intemperance provides a story of the public debate
in congress on the repeal of prohibition:
Grayson Murphy: “Personally I do not know a man—I want
to make this clear: I may know a man, but I cannot remember if
I do—I do not know of a single leading banker in the United
States, I do not know of a single leading industrial executive
in the United States, I do not know a single important railroad
executive in the United States, that I can think of who does not
break this law and who does not drink.”
Mr. Michener: “Henry Ford?” (Ford supported prohibition)
Grayson Murphy: “I do not know him.”
Michigan has the distinction of being the first state to repeal
prohibition in 1933. With the repeal came a lot of increased regulation
and responsibility, such as drinking and driving laws, reduced
sale of alcohol hours, drinking age laws and a host of others.
These laws are effective; we must not be complacent or we’ll
see a return to the high-risk drinking rates that caused such
a drastic step as Prohibition in the first place.
Education appears to be successful in reducing high-risk drinking.
The most recent effort is to define what is meant by “responsible
drinking.” Its 0013 program (zero drinking by minors, zero
drinking and driving, one drink per hour, and no more than three
drinks per event) has helped event organizers sell alcoholic beverages
to a standard that does not hurt health. The body is able to metabolize
roughly one ounce of alcohol per hour. Any more than that and
it impairs ability and emotions.
The Sawyer Rodeo and the Marquette County Fair participate in
the 0013 program. Several school groups, called “Action Troupes,”
make presentations to area service clubs on the program and are
willing to meet with groups across Marquette County. For details,
call 315-2621 or visit www.upprevent.org
—George Sedlacek
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