I found this to be very interesting on a lot of levels.
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1920/rutherford1.htm
Some exerpts:
Recently the President of our Association, responding to a question concerning the Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which prohibits the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquor within the United States and which is known as the prohibition law, said: "Prohibition is a scheme of the devil," referring of course to the law above mentioned. Some of the brethren have made strenuous protests against this statement. Because of the seeming misunderstanding we deem it proper for The Watch Tower to state the Scriptural view of the matter.
In the outset it must be conceded by all fair-minded people the prohibition is either the result of God's will being done on earth or else a scheme of the devil. Let each one judge which it is in the light of the undisputed facts.
A desire to eliminate intoxicating liquor and all other evils is a proper and laudable desire. All Christians should be in accord with that desire. But how to accomplish that end is a different thing. The devil has a way of appearing to accomplish it, and his way is that of fraud and deceit.
God's way of accomplishing that end is righteous and complete. In his own due time he will completely eliminate intoxicating liquors and all other evil influences. He has said to man: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9.
....
It is well known that the ultra-rich, the politicians, and even many clergy are supplied with all the intoxicating liquor they can consume, while they are making the greatest noise for the enforcement of the prohibition law. As an illustration: One influential clergyman, who led the fight in his vicinity for prohibition, shortly after the enactment of the law had his house burglarized. The burglars found his cellar stocked with liquors, and indulged in same so freely that they broke up his furniture. The clergyman refused to prosecute the guilty ones because it would expose the fact that he, an advocate of prohibition, had stocked up well in advance, that he might not need to deny himself things that he was willing to take away from his neighbors merely for show.
...
Intoxicating liquor is a great evil, and the saloons a curse to humanity. The good American people do not want either. They are also sick and disgusted with pious-faced frauds, who parade in the name of Christ, hypocritically claiming to be representing God and righteousness, who join hands with the conscienceless politicians and profiteers to enact and enforce a law, and claim it to be the carrying out of God's will. When Jesus was on earth he denounced above everything else fraud and hypocrisy. God's Word admonishes Christians to abstain from every form of evil. Fraud and hypocrisy are amongst the greatest evils.
...
No Christian advocates the use of intoxicating liquor.
...
The Lord Jesus is now present. His kingdom is at hand. Satan, in his desperation to deceive the people, has appeared as an angel of light and has put forth a thing, to wit, prohibition, which appears to be good but which in truth and in fact is a fraudulent scheme to turn the minds of the people away from Christ and his kingdom.
...
The Lord could prohibit intoxicating liquors at any time, but it is not yet his due time. It follows, then, that the scheme put forth at this particular time in the light of the evidence is not God's plan or scheme but that of the devil.
...
So intoxicating liquor is evil but Prohibition is evil too and the Clergy are hypocrites...and oh yeah - the end is soon.
