I've been revisiting World War II through the pages of the Transcript. The War was a part of every aspect of life…school, work, play, eating. The newspaper articles reported on which local boys had been wounded overseas, and which had died. The community worked on clothing drives, food drives, and war bond drives. Many things were rationed, including food, gasoline, and rubber. The grocery stores detailed the points needed as well as the cost of foodstuffs.
Uncle Sam was everywhere…promoting war bonds on one page and encouraging everyone to buy chicks from the Golden Mill in the next.
The Colorado Central Electric company cheerfully speculated as to whether Hitler would be electrocuted at the end of the war, then went on to say that if he was, the electricity used would be CHEAP, because electrical power is CHEAP.
My favorite ads were a long-running series called “The Old Judge Says….” The Judge was always having folksy conversations with his fellow townsfolk, explaining the fine points of government policy. Curiously, his conversations always revolved around what a dumb idea prohibition had been. Here’s an example:
Judge, would you mind tellin’ Charlie here what you told me the other night walkin’ home from lodge. I can’t word it just the way you did.
Sure thing, Tim. Here’s what I told him, Charlie. There’s no such thing as votin’ a nation, a state, a county, or even a community dry. We had proof enough of that during our 13 years of prohibition. What you really vote for is whether liquor is going to be produced legally or illegally…whether the community is going to get needed taxes for schools, hospitals, and the like, or whether this money is going to go to gangsters and bootleggers. That’s the answer, boys…simple as A-B-C.
In other conversations, he concluded that
It all goes to prove what I’ve said time and time again, Chet…prohibition does not prohibit. Same thing happens every time…as soon as legal liquor is voted out, bootleg liquor with its crime and corruption moves right in.
and
It’s not hard to figure out. As soon as the distillers stopped making whiskey and devoted their entire facilities to the production of industrial alcohol for the Government…the racketeers muscled in again.
Careful scrutiny of the tiny message printed beneath each cartoon revealed that the series was sponsored by the Conference of Alcoholic Beverage Industries, Inc. I gather they were worried that Prohibition might make a comeback.
