A Few Thoughts On Repeal Day

“I’m from the government. I’m here to help you”.

Not to get too political, but an over-reaching government that restricts freedom of a law-abiding citizenry is not what the Founders had in mind. Prohibition is an example of the government infringing on the rights of the governed ending in failure. Temperance supporters believed that alcohol abuse would disappear and that money previously spent on booze would go to support the growth of other industries like household goods and theaters. They were wrong on both counts.

By the end of the 1920s there were more alcoholics than there were at the beginning of the decade. Thousands of jobs in the alcohol and related industries vanished. Government revenues dried up as well since taxes were no longer flowing in to Washington and state capitols (talk about shooting yourself in the foot). By 1929 the country had entered The Great Depression.

The 18th Amendment was ratified in 1919 and went into effect in January 1920. It was the Volstead Act, however, that gave muscle towards enforcing Prohibition. The success of this enforcement seems at best to be a mixed result. They could bust up Papaw’s still that was hid behind the chicken coop, but they did little to stop the well-financed bootleggers. Enforcement officers were out-manned and under-equipped to give them a chance at stamping out the illegal whiskey underground.

The 21st amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933. After 13 years, this poorly-conceived government experiment ended as a complete failure. The societal ills Prohibition was to rid us of mostly worsened. The economy was in the midst of The Great Depression. And unforeseen consequences such as the rise in violence and organized crime infected America. John D. Rockefeller said, “Drinking increased, the speakeasy replaced the saloon and a vast army of lawbreaksers has been recruited and financed on a colossal scale”.

So as you celebrate Repeal Day you are not just celebrating whiskey. You are celebrating freedom. You are celebrating economic power. You are celebrating support of law and order. Of course, as you celebrate do so responsibly, which is part of the spirit of Repeal Day (it was alcohol abuse that led many to support prohibition in the first place). And if you are looking for a little light reading, might I suggest George Garvin Brown’s “The Holy Bible Repudiates Prohibition”? We certainly would have been better off had Mr. Brown been listened to in the first place. Cheers!