100 Years Ago in Washington: ‘Swarm’ of new Prohibition agents en route

The war on illicit alcohol was escalating, as 23 new federal Prohibition agents were on the way to the state of Washington.

This “swarm” of new revenue agents was necessary to combat “the rapidly increasing Prohibition law violations.”

“Some inspectors will be assigned to investigate and check alcohol permits,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle said. “Others will be assigned to ‘still’ investigations. Others will do the Canadian border patrol. Still others will be assigned to trails and interior routes leading from Canada to the United States, which are now being infested by bootleggers.”

How will the federal agents know whether they are making headway?

“Our success is measured by the curbstone (street) price on whisky,” said the director of the state’s Prohibition enforcement arm. “If the curb price on whisky goes up, we know we have the bootleggers on the hip, and if the price goes down, we know they are gaining on us.”

Also from the Prohibition beat: The war against alcohol would be won within 10 years, and not just in the U.S. but in “the greater part of the world,” according to a bold prediction made by W.E. “Pussyfoot” Johnson in a speech at the Central Methodist Church in Spokane.

Johnson, a well-known anti-liquor figure from Britain, said that even England, the “old stronghold of liquor,” would go “dry” by 1930.

“England sees that she cannot compete with a dry America,” he said. “Her only salvation is to go dry herself.”

Johnson’s prediction turned out to be spectacularly wrong. The whole world did not go dry, and England emphatically did not. In fact, America would stay dry only until 1933.