When capitalized, the word “Prohibition” refers
to an era of American history, 1920-1933, when commerce in alcoholic
beverages was outlawed, not only by the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
and the federal Volstead Act, but also by prohibition laws in the states.
Not long after the nation was turned legally
“dry,” grumbling began to be heard, and soon there sprang up bathtub
ginworks and basement stills, illegal supply networks, and secret, illegal
bars called speakeasies to which strangers were not admitted. Commerce
in alcohol was driven underground, and commercial disputes were settled
with violence, as suppliers and distributors were denied the services of
lawyers, insurance companies and the civil courts. Prohibition violators
clogged the criminal courts; bribery and coersion corrupted the system from
the beat cop to the highest judges. Alcohol was everywhere, but no one could
be sure of the quality. Many deaths and blindings resulted from poisonous
homebrew.
The stock market crashed in 1929, and the
country soon fell into economic and social depression. In 1932, the Democrats
nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt to challenge the incumbent President,
Herbert Hoover. In his acceptance speech, FDR declared, to the roar
of delegates, “This convention wants repeal; your candidate wants repeal!”
Hoover remained faithful to his dry base.
During the election campaign, FDR made one
unequivocal speech endorsing repeal. Otherwise, both candidates avoided
the issue. Thousands of “wets” and scores of wet organizations moved solidly
behind FDR, who won in a landslide. Wet candidates throughout the country
triumphed.
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When Congress
reconvened in January of 1933, it wasted no time responding to the mandate.
By February 20, it had passed a repeal resolution, and in a remarkable
Constitutional anomaly, referred it for ratification not
to state legislatures, but rather to “conventions in the several states,”
an alternative method of ratifying amendments, authorized by Article V,
that had never before been employed (and has not been since).
Thanks to legal groundwork that had been brilliantly
laid in the states by a group of remarkably prescient lawyers, called
The Voluntary Committee of Lawyers, elections were
held, delegates were elected and convened, and in the flash of nine and
a half months, the 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th, was ratified.
The final roll-call vote in Utah was eagerly monitored by millions over
a coast-to-coast radio broadcast. It is said that a national cheer could
be heard at the moment of passage, 3:32 PM Mountain Time, December
5, 1933.
The principal historian of repeal has likened
the 10-year reform effort to the uncorking of a bottle of champagne: at
first you tug, then pull, and grunt, and it doesn’t move. You tug and
grunt again, but…. once the cork starts moving, there’s no stopping it.
Such was the mode with which national disaffection for the alcohol prohibition
laws coalesced into a sweep of public opinion effectuating their repeal.
Besides the VCL, many organizations were instrumental
in the succesful repeal movement, most notably the Women’s Organization
for National Prohibition Reform, and the Association Against the Prohibition
Amendment.
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The best history of repeal is
Kyvig, David E.,Repealing National Prohibition, University of
Chicago Press, 1979.. This article borrows from a previous one
of the author on on the (new) VCL site, linked to above.
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