de once more by supporting the antiprohibitionist national German-American Alliance. The industry could not stop the banning of distilled beverages, but they did gain a compromise allowing production of beer and wine (Mendelson and Mello 77-78).
The debate in California was heated in the era just before the passage of the Volstead Act. Different states created their own version of Prohibition and sought to gain passage in the years before the national law was passed. The Anti-Saloon League opened chapters in different stages, including California in 1897 (Timberlake 129). Temperance movements and prohibition movements were part of the Progressive era trend toward reform. Progressivism derived certain elements of is program from the philosophy of pragmatism as elucidated by William James and John Dewey in the nineteenth century: 1) a commitment to social justice; and 2) a search for order and for the restoration of the social order. The goals of the Progressive movement involved specific needs in society at
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