Talk:Repeal of Prohibition in the United States

2008 Congressional Resolution

Added a link to the US Congressional Resolution, September 17, 2008, which "celebrates 75 years of effective State-based alcohol regulation since the passage of the 21st Amendment". Interesting to read this replacing "alcohol" with "cannabis". 12.27.190.248 (talk) 17:57, 28 December 2008 (UTC)

I've reorganized the article to read better and tried to improve its encyclopedic manner. It still needs some work, but it's close to what I think it should be. Editors, you can take it from here and adjust it as appropriate. Dr. K, 2005 Nov 4 Fri 1:39 AM ET

Vandals

WTH is this page a target for vandals? :/ pfctdayelise 14:31, 24 December 2005 (UTC)

Irrelevant image

This article discusses the repeal of national prohibition in the USA in 1933. The image included is of a consignment of liquor for Canberra in 1928. I will therefore delete it.

Agemegos 02:19, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Source

Hi Wham- When I created this page (Repeal of Prohibition) on 6-10-05, I used Repeal of Prohibition in the U.S. as the source. Therefore is not spam. Thanks. David Justin 18:18, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

Source information

Hi Wham- When I created this page (Repeal of Prohibition) on 6-10-05, I used Repeal of Prohibition in the U.S. as the source. Therefore is not spam. Thanks.David Justin 16:23, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Documentation information

Hi Wham- Please note that the material in bold is from “Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S.“ The Wikipedia entry is clearly sourced from that page and reporting it does not constitute spam. To the contrary, it is proper documentation. Thank you for recognizing this. David Justin 01:16, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

In 1919, the requisite number of legislatures of the States ratified The 18th Amendment to the Federal Constitution, enabling national Prohibition within one year of ratification. Many women, notably the '''Women’s Christian Temperance Union''' , had been pivotal in bringing about national Prohibition in the United States of America, believing it would protect families, women and children from the effects of abuse of alcohol.

The proponents of '''Prohibition''' had believed that banning alcoholic beverages would reduce or even eliminate many social problems, particularly drunkenness, crime, mental illness, and poverty, and would eventually lead to reductions in taxes. However, during Prohibition, people continued to produce and drink alcohol, and bootlegging helped foster a massive industry completely under the control of organized crime. Prohibitionists argued that Prohibition would be more effective if enforcement were increased. However, increased efforts to enforce Prohibition simply resulted in the government spending more money, rather than less. Journalist '''H.L. Mencken''' observed in 1925 that respect for law diminished, rather than increased, during Prohibition, and drunkenness, crime, insanity and resentment towards the federal government had all increased.

During this period, support for Prohibition diminished among voters and politicians. '''John D. Rockefeller Jr.''' , a lifelong nondrinker who had contributed much money to the Prohibitionist '''Anti-Saloon League''' , eventually announced his support for repeal because of the widespread problems he believed Prohibition had caused. Influential leaders, such as the du Pont brothers, lead the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, whose name clearly asserted its intentions.

Women as a bloc of voters and activists became pivotal in the effort to repeal, as many concluded that the effects of Prohibition were morally corrupting families, women, and children. (By then, women had become even more politically powerful due to ratification of the Constitutional amendment for women's suffrage.) Activist Pauline Sabin argued that repeal would protect families from the corruption, violent crime and underground drinking that resulted from Prohibition. In 1929 Sabin founded the '''Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform''' (WONPR), which came to be partly composed of and supported by former Prohibitionists; its membership was estimated at 1.5 million by 1931.

The number of '''repeal organizations''' and demand for repeal both increased. In 1932, the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party's platform included a plank for the repeal of Prohibition, and Democrat '''Franklin Roosevelt''' ran for President of the United States promising repeal of federal laws of Prohibition. By then, an estimated three fourths of American voters, and an estimated forty-six states, favored repeal.

In 1933, the state conventions ratified the Twenty-first Amendment , which repealed Amendment XVIII and prohibited only the violations of laws that individual states had in regard to "intoxicating liquors". Federal Prohibitionary laws were then repealed. Some States, however, continued Prohibition within their jurisdictions. Almost two-thirds of all states adopted some form of '''local option''' which enabled residents in political subdivisions to vote for or against local Prohibition; therefore, for a time, 38% of Americans lived in areas with Prohibition. By 1966, however, all states had fully repealed their state-level Prohibition laws.

According to his own account, humorist H. Allen Smith was the first American to legally consume alcohol after the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. Smith claimed to have bribed a telegraph operator to send a three-click advance warning signal just before sending out the message that Prohibition had been repealed. Smith used the signal to take a quick sip of his drink at the party he was attending.

Today, there are about 18 million Americans living in the hundreds of counties across the United States that maintain Prohibition. However, in most of the nation, alcoholic beverages remain legally available to adults of a certain legally-prescribed age with varying other restrictions.

References

• Blocker, Jr., Jack S. Retreat from Reform. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1976.
• Kyvig, David E. Repealing National Prohibition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1979.
• Pollard, Joseph P. The Road to Repeal: Submission to Conventions. New York: Brentano's , 1932.
• Rose, Kenneth D. American Women and the Repeal of Prohibition. New York University Press, 1997.
• Tietsort, Francis J., (ed.) Temperance -- or Prohibition. NY: American, 1929.
• Willebrandt, Mabel W. The Inside of Prohibition. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1929.

MADD

I'm removing the link to MADD in the links section because I really can't see its connection to the repeal.

Caveat

Prohibition wasn't technically abolished per se. Persons under the age of 21 are still prohibited from purchasing or consuming alcohol. Now under 18 this falls under the category of merely being a minor, but persons between the ages of 18 and 21 are not minors. Perhaps something should be said in either this or the Prohibition in the United States article to reflect this. James Callahan 02:13, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, even if we accept that that still constitutes Prohibition, it wasn't until the 1980s that the legal age of consumption started going up from eighteen to 21, so Prohibition certainly was abolished in 1933; that some might argue it was reinstated in the 80s doesn't change that. But even beyond that, the article makes clear that it's dealing with the repeal of federal Prohibition and the process by which drinking laws reverted to the states; while every state now has the same drinking age (I believe), that being 21, those are still fifty individual state laws rather than a single federal law. Binabik80 03:02, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Removed potsdam.edu website link

Please see a discussion here as to why this website does not meet WP:RS as an objective, third-party source or inclusion as an external link without a disclaimer that this .edu site is funded by the Distilled Spirits Council. Flowanda | Talk 05:50, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Increased Insanity?

Are we sure that prohibition increased insanity, as is claimed in the beginning of this article? That seems like a rather far fetched and unsupported claim. As we know now, insanity is a mental/ neurological problem, not one brought on by drinking alcohol. Source or delete, please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.16.102.151 (talk) 07:49, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

The article doesn't say that; it says that Mencken said it. --Orange Mike | Talk 18:56, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Not ENTIRELY correct. Alcoholism CAN cause some psychiatric conditions, such as dementia and delirium tremens. That said, certain religious groups tended to blame alcohol and diet for all manner of psychiatric issues that have now been thoroughly disproved.

Of interest is, even today, there are those who seek to reinstate prohibition and recycle the same disproved arguments.Wzrd1 (talk) 20:55, 7 August 2011 (UTC)

women's involvement

Hello all, I'd like to edit this article to include more about women's involvement, specifically that of the WONPR. Women were a large part of the repeal movement, as the article currently states, but I think a more detailed explanation of their political approach is necessary. What motivated them to become involved? How did they ultimately affect legislation? Also, I've gone through and added inline citations to some of the claims already made within the article. Rapscallion21 (talk) 03:56, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Maybe you could start a new entry for the WONPR itself first. Right now Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform goes to Pauline Sabin.

Also, I don't see any evidence of those inline citations you say you made. Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 20:23, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Income tax

An anonymous user posted this text today directly to the entry. I reversed that edit but post the note here. Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 19:47, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

This article fails to explain the coincidental relationship between the repeal of prohibition and the introduction of a personal income tax. This vastly expanded the tax base, as well as re-introducing whiskey and alcohol taxes. I understand these tax proposals to be critical for winning political passage of the repeal of prohibition.

The 16th Amendment (income tax) was ratified on February 3, 1913, 20 years earlier, and income taxes were imposed promptly upon its ratification.

The importance of the revenues lost because of prohibition are already covered under "Impact of prohibition". Bmclaughlin9 (talk) 18:34, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

I agree, it's already covered under Impact, so it is redundant. If the poster wished to add to the "Impact of prohibition" section in an appropriate manner and provide citations, that would be more appropriate. For the main prohibition article, it may also be of interest to expand on the economic impact, especially during the Great Depression. Wzrd1 (talk) 20:58, 7 August 2011 (UTC)