“If Drinking Die, Luck and Order Will Thrive ”

A Fragment about the Fight against Alcohol during the Postwar Psychosis

Abstract

The anti-alcohol movement in Slovenia had little to brag about in the years after the First World War. On the one hand, the time of postwar psychosis was marked by general indigence and famine prices; on the other, by a rich social life that functioned as a mental factor in creating stability. Alcohol, nicotine and syphilis ruled the world after the First World War. Older generations were particularly concerned about the young, who were growing up immersed in decadence, cruelty, indulgence in pleasures and a lack of ideals. This postwar psychosis pushed people into headless merrymaking, careless debauchery and excessive drinking, which caused considerable damage to the national economy. The most adamant fighters against alcoholism in the years after the First World War were people whose main impetus arose from educational-moral, national-economic and eugenic principles. This article highlights the views of two anti-alcohol fighters who worked in Celje during the postwar psychosis. Emilijan Lilek supported US-style prohibition. Fedor Mikič emphasized that the evil of alcoholism could only be fought with the help of the state and maintained that drunkenness was the main cause of the dire economic situation in the country. However, in spite of the anti-alcohol fighters’ efforts, alcoholism as one of the most serious Slovene folk conditions could not be healed.