San Antonio, the Alamo and the Babe

When I was in seventh grade, I did a report on The Alamo. As part of my project I built a miniature Alamo approximately 12" x 16" using popsicle sticks and miscellaneous materials, possibly clay or plaster. My father was a chemist involved with the development of latex paints so I could create the precise colors one would see in the barren landscapes of South Texas. No photos exist of this remarkable model, only memories.

Santa Claus coming to town, a Texas Ranger riding shotgun.

The Alamo.

General Santa Anna's troops stayed in the hotel next door.

The light from this Christmas tree is what gave away the location
of the Texans who were forced to take refuge at the Alamo.

The slaughter at the Alamo in March 1836 marked one of the starkest moments of the Texas Revolution. After a 13-day siege, Mexican forces under General Santa Anna overran the mission and killed nearly all the Texan defenders, including figures like James Bowie and William Travis. Though a military defeat, the Alamo became a powerful symbol of resistance and sacrifice, rallying Texans with the cry “Remember the Alamo!”  This saga crystalized the mythology of American frontier courage.

Sunset over Mexico. The war that followed culminated in
the Gadsden Purchase.

The Gadsden Purchase (1854) was the United States’ $10 million acquisition of roughly 30,000 square miles of land from Mexico—today’s southern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. It wasn't really a "purchase" per se.The agreement, negotiated by James Gadsden, went something like this: "You give us this territory and you will have fewer headaches in the future.. Oh, and here's some cash so we tell our people we didn't steal it but bought it fair and square."

Gadsden, a key figure in railroad development, was looking to secure a flat terrain for a southern transcontinental railroad and settle border disputes after the Mexican-American War, This deal finalized the modern continental U.S.-Mexico boundary. Though small compared to earlier expansions, it remains the last major territorial addition to the contiguous United States.

Babe Ruth once played an exhibition game in San Antonio.
While there he stayed at the Menger Hotel.

Ruth and the New York Yankees were on a preseason barnstorming tour and faced the San Antonio Bears at League Park. Contemporary Texas newspapers reported that Ruth thrilled the crowd with a towering home run during the game.

The Yankee's visit to San Antonio took place in 1922, during Prohibition. By this time San Antonio had become known as one of America’s most openly “wet” cities. Speakeasies, back-room saloons, and “soft drink parlors” operated throughout downtown, often with the quiet cooperation of local officials. Smugglers funneled liquor across the nearby Mexican border, soldiers and civilians provided steady demand, and police raids were sporadic. The result was a vibrant but illegal nightlife that flourished despite the letter of the law. The Menger Hotel stood at the heart of the Prohibition-era nightlife zone where many of San Antonio’s back-room saloons quietly operated.

Ruth drank heavily throughout his playing career, often late into the night, even during the season. Teammates and sportswriters of the era documented his frequent binge drinking which was tied to the broader image of Ruth as a larger-than-life figure—big appetites, big personality, and little interest in discipline off the field.

Despite the drinking, Ruth’s natural athletic ability allowed him to perform at an elite level for most of his career. By the mid-1930s, his drinking and partying lifestyle began catching up with him. Sooner or later, all things must pass.

* * *

You probably didn't know where this was going when you began reading here. I didn't either. I was simply trying to create copy to accompany a few interesting photos sent to me by America's Photographer, Gary Firstenberg.

Here's a link to his website. Ye shall be impressed.

www.firstinphoto.smugmug.com

Stats related to U.S. Law Enforcement Deaths Throughout History: A 7 Question Trivia Challenge

Photo by Matt Popovich on Unsplash

This afternoon I got to wondering how police officers have been killed in the line of duty the past couple years compared to previous decades. I Googled it and was surprised to find a chart that lists the number of law enforcement people killed per year since the founding of our Republic. There are some very interesting insights one can gain by looking at these numbers. 

I love turning things into a game. Here's a seven question Trivia contest. Let's see how you do. 

1. On average, how many officers were killed per year from 1786 to 1806?

2. On average, how many police officers were killed per year in the 1850s, the years leading up to the Civil War?

3. In the 19th century, what year had the most officers killed and how many?

4. What was the first year that more than 200 officers were killed on duty?

5. What was the first year that more than 300 officers were killed?

6. On average, how many officers were killed on the job per year in the 1960s?

7.  What was the first year that more than 400 officers were killed?

* * * * *

The purpose of this photo below is to place the answers

a little further away from the quiz.

Photo by LOGAN WEAVER | @LGNWVR on Unsplash

ANSWERS

1.  One
2.  9.3
3.  1898 -- 82
4.  1919.   221 died. The Volstead Act was passed in October 1919, enacted January 1920.
5.  1930. Prohibition did not end till 1933.
6.  160 per year. As troubled as it was -- Civil Rights movement, anti-war movement, SDS, Weather Underground -- the number of officer deaths was significantly less than the 1920s, which saw an average of 270 officers killed per year.
7.  2021

To see the full list of fatalities every year, click here.

To share any insights you might have based on this on this data,
leave a comment. What surprised you most? Least?

The Volstead Act: What Did We Learn from Prohibition?

Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not cure it or even diminish it. --Mark Twain

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.
--Albert Einstein

Alcohol didn't cause the high crime rates of the '20s and '30s, Prohibition did. And drugs do not cause today's alarming crime rates, but drug prohibition does.
--James Carriger Paine

For every prohibition you create, you also create an underground.
--Jello Biafra

* * * *
The past several days I have been watching Ken Burns' disturbing documentary on Prohibition. It's impossible to watch this without thinking of its contemporary applications. (i.e. the war on drugs).

The cost of the drug wars is far more than simply financial. Tens of thousands of lives have been wasted (i.e. people killed) in Mexico alone by the gangs that have risen to power as a result of the drug trade.  It's a strange world we live in.

I keep trying to understand what makes it different this time. Maybe one difference is that nearly every politician and rich person drank some form of alcohol in those days. (Teetotaler John D. Rockefeller was likely an exception.) It is probably less likely that all our congressional reps are smoking weed, though I wouldn't be surprised to learn there's been recreational drug use in the Capitol. (Only speculation, of course.)

Maybe another difference is that pot has been portrayed as a gateway to more addictive substances. I'm guessing that not every beer drinker advances to gin and tonics.

* * * *
Communism is like prohibition, it is a good idea, but it won't work. --Will Rogers

* * * *

Several states have legalized marijuana now, and the push for legalization continues to extend to other states, so it will no doubt be a political issue for years to come. For this reason here are a handful of articles worth reviewing.

Prohibition Then and Now. (Constitution Center, 2012)

Prohibition: A Parallel to Modern War on Drugs (Seattle Times, 2011) Due to its proximity to Canada, Seattle featured prominently in the alcohol trade during Prohibition.

Though the Temperance movement began before the Civil War, it came to fruition only after the First World War settled. From the beginning there were leaders who had issues with this cause, including Abraham Lincoln who said, “Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”

Nevertheless, in January 1919 the 18th Amendment was ratified prohibiting the manufacture, sale, transportation, import, or export of intoxicating liquor. Woodrow Wilson vetoed the amendment, but was overruled that fall by Congress.

Across the Atlantic Winston Churchill said he believed Prohibition was "an affront to the whole history of mankind."

* * * *
There was no late night television in those days, but we can assume that Dave Letterman/Johnny Carson equivalents were poking fun of the situation. Here are some comments related to the evils of drinking:

Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water. --W.C. Fields

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. --Henny Youngman

Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. --Dave Barry

Related Links
The Price of Prohibition (Reason Magazine)
Prohibition-Era Detroit
Read my 2009 commentary on this issue: Prohibition and the Drug Trade
Illustrations by Ed Newman

Meantime, life goes on all around you... 

Last of the Capones Talks About Her Uncle Al

“They’ve hung everything on me but the Chicago fire.” ~Al Capone

My first experience of “racism” against Italians was in New Jersey when I had a summer job working for a landscaper named DiMartino. I was doing some work in his yard and while he was standing in the driveway the neighbor across the street shouted, “Hey shoemaker,” something that seemed innocuous to me. I did not understand that “hey shoemaker” was a put-down akin to calling a black man “boy.” I was critical of my boss at the time, I’m embarrassed to admit, because of his reaction toward his neighbor. The reality is that we’ve forgotten the mistreatment endured by Italians in earlier days. Hence, a man named Dino Crocetti changed his name to Martin when he went to Hollywood. Understanding this is an important detail with regard to the Al Capone story.

Al Capone received no special treatment here at Alcatraz.

At one time Deirdre Marie Capone was ashamed to be a Capone. It was bad enough that her great uncle has been blamed for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, but when when Robert DeNiro portrayed Uncle Al as a psychopath, this just didn't square with her experience. As her children were growing up she was concerned about how her children would be treated because she had been on the receiving end of her own measure of taunting. She was relieved when they reach adolescence, however, and had different emotions about being a Capone than she had had growing up. 

I had just watched Ken Burns' documentary on Prohibition when the opportunity arose to interview Ms. Capone and review her book. It's a fast read and does succeed in bringing out new perspectives on the mythology of that era. 

My correspondence with Deirdre was by email and though not as loquacious as many people I’ve interviewed, she certainly has a fascinating story. In an attempt to clear the name she wrote a book based on extensive research and sharing family stories that only an insider could know. 

EN:  How old were you when you knew you great uncle?

Deirdre Marie Capone: My grandfather Ralph was Al's older brother and business partner. I had him until I was 34. Al died on my 7th birthday.

EN:  Why was it that Al Capone was so wanted by the FBI?

DMC: It was a personal vendetta brought about by a couple of business men who wanted to bring Al down, mainly because he was Italian.

EN: How close were your parents to Al Capone? How did your parents feel about him? Where did you grow up?

DMC: My parents were very close. My father was raised by Al's mother as the youngest sibling of Al. My parents were living in Al's home the day I was born.

EN: Did you ever go to his hideaway up in Northwest Wisconsin?

DMC: Yes, many times.

EN:  What was Uncle Al’s involvement in the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre?

DMC: He, nor any of his hench men were involved in this crime.

EN: What were his years at Alcatraz like? Do you have any correspondence from that period in your book?

DMC: Yes, I do have correspondence from him. His years in Alcatraz were very hard on him.

EN: Where can people find a copy of this book if they want to read more?

DMC: From every major book selling outlet, plus you can get an autographed copy from my website, www.unclealcapone.com

Alcatraz was very hard on Al Capone.

EN: Where did you grow up?

DMC: I grew up on the south side of Chicago and spent most of my time inside the Capone family residences.
 

EN: What did your grandfather Ralph do for a living?

DMC: My grandfather was Al's older brother and business partner. It was my grandfather who gave me most of the information about their business.

EN: Lots of people were involved in the illegal liquor business. In what way was your uncle Al Capone involved?

DMC: My grandfather and uncle ran the most profitable and successful bootlegging business in the world..
 

EN: What is your most painful memory with regard to the Capone legacy?

DMC: There are two, my father's suicide and being date-raped by a person who wanted to be part of the 'outfit'. 

* * * 

The book is called Uncle Al Capone: The Untold Story From Inside His Family.

Alcatraz Guards Were Skilled At Counting

While watching the Ken Burns documentary prohibition this past week a number of thoughts were sparked. First, I had not previously connected the timing of the Volstead Act, and later it's repeal, with any of the broader events taking place in our culture. When the 18th Amendment was being debated in the states we were in the middle of a great war with Germany.

Anti-German sentiment was strong at the time. One of the ways public opinion was swayed to abolish alcohol was to manipulate this anti-German sentiment and use it to strike out against the German brewers who dominated that field of endeavor. Busch, Schlitz and the many others who had come to America and brought their knowledge of brewing to a new, wide open market. Burns' documentary shows the glee with which the "good guys" split open the kegs of beer with axes.

The end of the Volstead act also had a cultural context. In 1933 the last of 36 states had approved repeal of the 18th Amendment, FDR's first year in the White House. It's commonly understood that when presidents want to accomplish something that will not be popular with many of their constituents it's best to do it early in one's administration. Four years later at re-election time the unpopular decision will be forgotten, or at least diminished. Sure enough, when it came time to run for re-election, the country was in a great depression and prohibition was far from peoples' minds.

When prohibition was signed into law, millions of Americans were transformed into instant hypocrites, because the rich never stopped their sipping. If you're in Duluth, you might want to visit the basement "speakeasy" at Tycoon's on Superior Street. The Gitch was never dry either.

Yesterday afternoon I stopped at a place called Wine Beginnings for a wine tasting event. Wine Beginnings is not a liquor store, it is a store where you buy the ingredients for making your own home-made wine. The topic of prohibition came up and one of the people there explained that at that time the people who produced and sold these kits had warning labels that read, "Do NOT mix with such-and-so or it will become wine." In other words, they helped to make sure home brewers knew which kits to purchase.

One can hardly discuss prohibition without commenting on the the gang wars it fostered, especially in Chicago. It was not a pretty season on the South Side. Ultimately, Elliot Ness and his cohorts managed to get Al Capone on income tax evasion and he was sent away to prison in Atlanta. This surprised me because I thought he'd been sent to Alcatraz. Sure enough, Capone did go to Alcatraz. He'd been so popular in the Atlanta prison everyone was doing favors for him. He was a king inside the prison. Inside Alcatraz he learned that he was just another man doing time.

I came across a post card from Alcatraz this week. It summarized the daily routine of the prisoners there. I couldn't help but notice that the guards did a lot of counting.

6:30 AM: Morning whistle. Prisoners arise, make beds, place all articles in prescribed order on shelf, clean wash basin and toilet bowl, wipe off bars, sweep cell floor, fold table and seat against the wall, wash themselves and dress.

6:50 AM: Inmate Count. If all is in order, cells opened.

6:55 AM: Whistle signal given by Deputy Warden or Lieutenant; all inmates step out of their cells and stand facing the mess hall. Upon the second whistle, all inmates on each tier close up in a single file upon the head man.

7:00 AM: Breakfast

7:20 AM: Work detail signal from the Deputy Warden.

7:25 AM: Inmate Count on leaving mess hall.

7:30 AM: Inmate Count on arriving at work detail.

9:30 AM: Rest period inmate count.

11:30 AM: Inmate Count on leaving work detail.

11:40 AM: Dinner

12:00 PM: Inmate Count

12:20 PM: Single file line to recreation yard.

12:30 PM: Inmate Count

2:30 PM: Rest period; another Inmate Count.

4:15 PM: Work stopped; the procedure and count are the same as 11:30 AM.

4:20 PM: Prisoners into the gate, Inmate Count.

4:25 PM: Prisoners marched into the mess hall, Inmate count.

4:45 PM: Prisoners returned to their cells.

4:50 PM: Final lockup.

5:00 PM: Inmate Count.

8:00 PM: Inmate Count in the cells.

9:30 PM: Inmate Count, lights out.

12:01 AM: Inmate Count.

3:00 AM: Inmate Count in the cells.

5:00 AM: Inmate Count.

Thought for the day: In what ways is our war on drugs similar to and different from Prohibition?

CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

Prohibition and the Drug Trade

While writing about Port of New York yesterday I touched on the manner in which the drug trade is addressed today in Hollywood is much grittier and dark than the film noir period pieces. Another film comes to mind that could have been cited as well: Traffic.

This questions remain, however: Can prohibition work? Can the war on drugs ever really be won without also taking away another value vital to the American people, their freedoms? Are there better ways of addressing this problem?

If someone were to ask me what my political stance was, I would not say Republican or Democrat, Liberal or Conservative per se. I lean Libertarian. The pork barrel politics of our past fifty years are a natural outgrowth of Machiavellian power games and party politics. When it comes to government, less is more.

For this reason we have been long time subscribers to Reason magazine, which takes a reasoned libertarian approach to government, society and culture. Occasionally I have found myself at odds with the Libertarians on certain key issues. They have historically favored drug legalization. But the arguments they make are good ones, cogent and persuasive.

It wasn't alcohol that made Al Capone a powerful gangster. It was Prohibition. After prohibition was repealed where did the gangs and moonshiners go?

To get some wheels turning I wanted to share this article which I stumbled upon in the last couple days, "The Drug Laws Don’t Work," by Michael Huemer. A philosophy professor at the University of Chicago, Huemer's logic is easy to follow here though I do have some questions.

Earlier this summer our waitress at Blackwoods in east Duluth told us she used to work at Falk-Newman's Pharmacy until an armed robber came in, held the manager with knifepoint on throat, and insisted on taking all the Oxycotin. The waitress, I forget her name, then went to work in the sister pharmacy in Lakeside, a safer neighborhood. Two weeks later she was working while another armed robber came in and demanded all the Oxycotin. At this she quit pharmacy work and took up waitressing to put herself through college.

I relate this story because I do not know how ending prohibition will stop these kinds of robberies? Nor do I think drugs like Oxycotin should be sold on the streets as freely as bubble gum.

Which leads to the next question... where do we draw the lines? Maybe there are answers to these things which smarter people than I have already proposed.

Another article (with video clip) I'd like to point out this morning is the interview of Glenn Greenwald by Reason editor Nick Gillespie which appeared in the June issue of the mag, "Drug Decriminalization In Portugal." Greenwald is a civil rights attorney and author of a Cato Institute study titled, "Drug Decriminalization in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Policies." Portugal's drug problems had been escalating and were out of control when the nation conducted a policy experiment out of desperation, decriminalization. The results were surprising. Be sure to check it out.

I agree with Huemer when he cites Voltaire's dictum, "The best is the enemy of the good." It would be nice to eliminate all social problems, but an overtly meddling government often only serves to make them worse. What do you think?

1919: Events with Unintended Consequences

Could 1919 have been the worst year in history? Many people were thinking, "Peace at last!" no doubt. The Great War was over. But with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles events were set in motion that would give Adolph Hitler a receptive hearing and the fuel that propelled his mad, devastating career.

Certainly John Maynard Keynes foresaw this. In his Economic Consequences of the Peace Keynes severely criticized the Versailles Treaty for its vindictiveness, especially as relates to the impossibly high reparations levied against the Germans among other things. Keynes anticipated the ruin of Europe that would devolve from the economic hardships that were being set in motion.

The war reduced the German economy to shambles and a British enforced blockade made it impossible for Germany to feed its own people. With imports squelched, tens of thousands of Germans were starving, with more every year. When Berlin appealed for 2.5 million tons of food to feed her people, they were denied and the death tolls continued to rise straight through into the post-war peace. The cruelty of this hardship alone was such that British soldiers in Germany after the war pleaded for assistance from Britain. Even when the U.S. Congress approved 100 million dollars in food aid in 1919, it never reached the hungry and starving.

The great flu pandemic of 1918-19 undoubtedly distracted Americans from being overly concerned about Germany's woes. The global communications infrastructure was not in place as it is today. There were no network news broadcasts, though I am sure some of this reached the paper. No Yahoo Buzz or Twitter to follow trending topics such as Germany starvation or Armenian genocide.

Wait, it would appear I have my dates wrong. The Armenian genocide which resulted in 1.5 million deaths at the hands of Ottoman Turks took place from 1915-1918. (Slaughter of Armenians did continue into the 1920's.) The rest of the world had been distracted at this time by its own Great War. Could this slaughter have occurred had it been during another period of time? Or were the Ottoman's just being opportunists?

On the home front, in 1919 Prohibition kicked in with the 18th Amendment, thus giving birth to the gangsterism of Al Capone and all the rest. More unintended consequences.

Even Einstein's proof of the Theory of Relativity had unintended consequences as the notion of relativity was eventually mis-applied, with corrosive effect, into the realm of morals and ethics.

Maybe it wasn't the worst year in history, but it has a lot of reason to get nominated to this ignominious honor.

What year would you call history's worst? And, of course, why?