The Lion of Idaho series: That time when Idaho quit drinking

An interesting chapter in Idaho’s history came 1915 when statewide Prohibition put into law.  As this article states, Idaho was never entirely dry during the Prohibition era.  Speakeasies and illegal stills sprung up immediately.  Liquor was verboten in name only.  Of Shoshone County in northern Idaho it was said that alcohol could be bought anywhere “but the post office and the Methodist Church”.  Cities relied on taxes from liquor licenses and the businesses catered to people’s need to go out and have a good time.  Eventually Prohibition failed.  From Syd Albright’s article:

One report said, “The criminal justice system was swamped although police forces and courts had expanded in recent years.  Prisons were jam-packed and court dockets were behind in trying to deal with the rapid surge in crimes.  Organized crime expanded to deal with the lucrative business, and there was widespread corruption among those charged with enforcing unpopular laws.”

Borah was pro-prohibition.  Idaho actually went dry four years before the nation did, the United States passing the 18^th Amendment in 1919.  Senator Borah willfully engaged in machinations to achieve this end, urging fellow Prohibitionist to wait for an amendment to the state constitution instead of simply having the legislature enact a law:

The change which comes from statewide Prohibition will in the very first instance almost exclusively prove unpopular.  The readjustment which has to take place and the rehabilitation of society, as it were, leads to criticism and objections and for a time almost invariably as a history of Prohibition shows weakens the Prohibition cause.  If you have statewide legislative Prohibition and undertake to secure an adoption of a constitutional amendment two years thereafter, you will weaken the Prohibition forces in your fight.

According to Johnson’s biography, Borah never touched a dropped of alcohol:

Although Borah has always hated liquor, he has not always advocated Prohibition.  His original position on liquor was purely personal.  He would have nothing to do with in himself, but if his friends and neighbors wanted to muddle their heads with it, that was no particular concern of his.

Once the zeitgeist dictated, Borah could follow personal guidelines that matched up with those of his constituents.  The Anti-Saloon League was putting politicians under its influence, so to speak, and was active in Idaho.  As already mentioned, the League would see Idaho become dry before the nation.  Those that sought Prohibition perhaps had their hearts in the right place.  But, as Albright discusses in his article, Prohibition was economically damaging and served to create a bureaucratic entity – the Bureau of Prohibition – which exists to this day as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.