Posted on 12/05/2017 12:05:58 PM PST by harpygoddess
Prohibition began on January 16, 1920, which was the effective date of the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution: it was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States. An outgrowth of the temperance movement, which had been gathering momentum during the entire 19th century, Prohibition got a final impetus from World War I, which prompted the Congress to pass the 18th amendment in December 1917. Ratification (by 36 of the 48 states) came on 16 January 1919, and the Volstead Act implemented the measure a year later.
Prohibition - highly unpopular - was only weakly enforced by the federal government, and thousands of "speakeasies" - many controlled by organized crime - quickly appeared to satisfy the nation's thirst. The illegal importation and distribution of booze soon became a major source of income for "the Mob" and led to the infamous gang wars of the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Several states had banned alcohol prior to the federal ban, and in Illinois there was an organized attempt by a group of women to use telepathy to influence the outcome of local votes: the Temperance Thinkers mobilized some 500,000 women to dress all in white and to direct thought waves at voters. “Women arrayed in white will assemble at the polls,” described one paper, “and by concentrated mental effort endeavor to influence the men."
On December 5th, 1933, prohibition in the United States of America came to an end with the ratification of the 21st Amendment. After 13 years, the country's attempt to ban the booze had ended.
(Excerpt) Read more at vaviper.blogspot.com ...
December 5th 1933 a date which will live in happiness. I am sure that my grandfather was singing “Happy Days are Here Again”. He owned a bar and prohibition ruined him.
A toast to your grandmother!
Strong Drink is a Mocker. It Mocks families to death and folks into the grave and worse.
Was she cheerful or sour?
Did you know her?
What did companies like Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Busch and other do during Prohibition?................
Winston Churchill wrote a lot about that in a collection of magazine length articles called “The Great Republic”. It’s funny as hell.
Basically there were all kind of loopholes.
Beer makers made malt beverages and near beer. Winston talked about how there were many manufacturing accidents that caused the near beer to spike in alcohol content.
Wine makers were allowed to make sacramental wine. He toured one vineyard in California and talked about his awe of the deeply pious American people and the amounts of wine needed to sustain their worship.
Then also, when prohibition passed, one was allowed to keep and use the liquor you had in possession at that time.
He commented how the average American must have kept vast stocks of whiskey on hand because 8 years into prohibition the were still well supplied and not running low.
A very good book about his travels in America. Lots of fun.
This is a cool article:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/saved-from-prohibition-by-holy-wine-88250788/
Also that was the origin of “Medicinal Whiskey”. The distillers got to make whiskey strictly for use by doctors.
Ken Burns has a very good series about prohibition.
I didn’t realize it was 13 years.
And how did the “roaring” twenties roar with booze?
The fact is, there was plenty of booze around. In some ways, prohibition was the best thing to happen to the industry.
Spike Jones’ “Cocktails for Two” was a celebration of the end of Prohibition.
After 1933 my grandfather went on making homemade wine & hard cider for family & friends. He was a WWI vet who was tired of the myth that drunken Yanks did more damage to Paris than German artillery and then brought their new found thirst back to these shores.
“How you gonna keep ‘em down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paree?”
O.K., I didn’t see it yet:
Always cheerful, and gentle. :-)
My family had to decide which was the biggest Christmas present that year, prohibition ending on December 5th or me being born on November 26th.../s
Ignorance speaking there. The "War on Drugs" began with the "Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906". Accurate labeling of ingredients revealed that most patent medicines employed either a cocainoid or an opiate as it's main ingredient.
This was followed by the Harrison anti-narcotics act of 1914.
1933 - was also the year Ukraine’s bountiful grain harvest was exported to the West in exchange for the hardware required to “protect socialism”.
[Harvest of Despair - Music Video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxwIKqqEd2k
Yes, it was a precursor to the "war on drugs", except that in 1917 when Congress wanted to declare war on alcohol, they realized that the Constitution would have to be amended first to grant themselves the authority,
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