A Long December

The Noble Experiment. The Volstead Act. The Eighteenth Amendment. Call it what you will, the amendment that would become the National Prohibition Act was passed by the House of Representatives on December 18, 1917. On December 5, 1933, the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified and repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, the first and only time in U.S. history that an Amendment has been repealed.

What happened in between? Innocent people suffered, organized crime grew into an empire; police and politicians became increasingly corrupt and disrespect for the law grew; and the per capita consumption of alcohol increased dramatically, year by year, while Prohibition was in place.

Prohibition banned only the manufacturing, sale, and transport of alcohol - but not possession or consumption. If you bought or made liquor prior to the passage of the 18th Amendment you were able to continue to serve it throughout the prohibition period legally. Alcoholic drinks were still widely available at "speakeasies" and other underground drinking establishments. Large quantities of alcohol were smuggled in from Canada. Ships outside the three mile limit were exempt. Limited amounts of wine and hard cider were permitted to be made at home. Some commercial wine was still produced in the U.S., but was only available through government warehouses for use in "religious" ceremonies. "Malt and hop" stores popped up across the country and some former breweries turned to selling malt extract syrup, ostensibly for baking and "beverage" purposes. Whiskey could be obtained by prescription from medical doctors.

The Noble Experiment was deemed a failure by many. Experiments are the way to test the scientific method. An observation is made, a question is asked or a problem arises, a hypothesis formed, experimentation used to test that hypothesis. Results are analyzed, a conclusion is drawn, perhaps a theory is formed, and results are communicated. Prohibition may not have worked, but without trying the answer would still be unknown.

Experiments follow the laws of logic; truth is sought for its own sake. Experiments find out what works and what doesn't, stretch mankind's knowledge, allow all of us learn from the past so we are not doomed to repeat it. Try something new today; experiment and find truth for it's own sake.