"Who does not love wine, wife and song, will be a fool for his life long!" - from a vigorous 1873 assertion of cultural values of German-American immigrants
January 16, 1919 - 18th Amendment Ratified -Prohibition
Temperance, or the "dry" movement had been gaining traction in the United States during the middle of the 19th century. After the Civil War, the Women's Christian Temperance Union was founded in 1873. In spite of its name, the WCTU did not promote moderation or temperance, but rather out-right prohibition of alcohol. In1881, Kansas became the first state to outlaw alcoholic beverages in its Constitution, with Carrie Nation gaining notoriety for enforcing the provision herself by walking into saloons, scolding customers, and using her hatchet to destroy bottles of liquor.
On this day in 1919, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited the sale and transportation of alcoholic beverages, was ratified. On this same date a year later, 1920, National Prohibition went into effect in the United States.
The 18th Amendment and Prohibition accomplished much less than expected, failing to curb the country's thirst for alcohol. Inspite of Prohibition, the decade was known as the Roaring 20's. It is an era remembered for Flappers, Zoot Suits, Boogie Woogie, the Speak Easy, and Bathtub Gin and Bootleggers!
Prohibition would later be repealed by enactment of the 21st Amendment in 1933.
Quote for ToDay:
Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself. -Henry Adams, American writer and historian.
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