During the annual meeting of the North Dakota Women's Christian Temperance Union in 1915, Elizabeth Preston Anderson gave a speech on the accomplishments the WCTU helped achieve. She spoke of how in the US House of Representatives, 207 members were in favor of national prohibition, with representatives from a total of 25 states strongly for it and only 7 states against prohibition. She mentioned how the states of Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, and Iowa had prohibited the production and distribution of alcohol, and that Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Vermont and Alaska would vote on referendums to implement prohibition. Anderson mentioned the initial reduction of crime in the Fargo-Moorhead area after Clay County voted for prohibition, and that what all of the critics said would happen during prohibition didn't happen.
However, to say that Prohibition was a long term success is a complete fabrication. It is common knowledge that national prohibition caused a massive rise in criminal activity, as all aspects of the liquor industry, production, distribution and sale of liquor, were controlled by shadowy figures of the criminal underworld, such as "Lucky" Luciano and Al Capone, and as a result became both extremely lucrative and immensely dangerous. It seems that North Dakota and even a fairly small community like Fargo were not immune to such activities, and With the State enacting Prohibition 2 decades before national prohibition, North Dakota was a perfect place to foreshadow the conditions that would affect the nation in the future. Although there was an initial reduction in arrests and convictions in liquor related crimes, the City and the State soon became overwhelmed by the illicit activities overtaking the region.
With the enactment of prohibition in North Dakota in 1890, there were numerous challenges that made enforcement of the provision extremely difficult.
For one, there were several groups that actively opposed the law, one such being the ethnic Germans in the western part of the state, who largely lived in rural areas that resented the influence the Scandinavians in the Red River Valley had in state politics.
The level of crime that was occurring quickly overwhelmed local and state law enforcement, with many officials either trying to no avail to enforce the law, or others purposefully neglecting such duties. In fact it happened so often that some civilians gathered into their own groups called
It goes without saying many drinker before prohibition found ways to circumvent the law.
When saloon closed on July 1, 1890, many liquor dealers on the border decided to move to Minnesota, as did many of the consumers. An excellent example of this is what happened in the Fargo-Moorhead area. When Fargo became dry with the rest of the state, Moorhead had 47 saloons, for a population of about 3700. However, this avenue around prohibition was closed when Clay County voters approved their own ban of alcohol (the measure was had strong opposition in Moorhead and several other large communities, but rural voters overwhelmingly voted in favor.)
Many former saloon and bar owners rejected prohibition by setting up blind pigs, the regional equivalent to speakeasies, so named by the practice of some owners charging consumers a set price for an attraction, such as an animal, and then serving complimentary alcoholic beverages, thus sidestepping the law. Many of these establishments become so successful, law enforcement turned a blind eye to the blind pigs. It is important to note that it seems most of the blind pigs were maintained in Moorhead rather than in Fargo, due to the longer presence on the Minnesota side. Based on arrest records. It seems most of the liquor activity in Fargo was located near the Red River, and thus adjacent to Moorhead.
Below is an example of a blind pig that was discovered in 1893, a drug store that gained a reputation for being a place that sells alcohol liberally for medical reasons. the article below includes a full list of consumers from Sept. 23 and Oct, 31, which shows their "aliments"; close inspection reveals that many of the costumers came on a daily basis, often multiple times a day for varying aliments
Example of a blind pig as investigated by the Fargo Forum in 1893 "Beats the Blind Pig." Fargo Forum, November 13, 1893. Accessed November 17, 2016.