Wayne Wheeler lives
- Thread starter Hades
- Start date
I think he'd always be a staunch Prohibitionist, but it would make no difference, because the Anti-Saloon League's influence was bound to wane, with the Great Depression making repeal inevitable.
(Even the 1928 election incidentally was not really the victory for Prohibition that it seemed to be. In Montana, only 40 percent of the voters voted for Smith--but 54 percent voted against a state Prohibition enforcement law. In Massachusetts, Smith won barely fifty percent of the vote but a state enforcement repeal measure passed 2-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=MJbBqn3XWqAC&pg=PA308)
(Even the 1928 election incidentally was not really the victory for Prohibition that it seemed to be. In Montana, only 40 percent of the voters voted for Smith--but 54 percent voted against a state Prohibition enforcement law. In Massachusetts, Smith won barely fifty percent of the vote but a state enforcement repeal measure passed 2-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=MJbBqn3XWqAC&pg=PA308)
His influence would decline with time since he was essentially a 19th century man. What surprises me, though, is that nobody of real note in the '20s spoke out against prohibition on practical (i.e., it was unenforceable) and/or economic (i.e., the futile effort is costing millions that could be better spent gainfully) grounds, as far as I know.
Huh? People like Mencken argued against Prohibition on "practical" (as well as philosophical/libertarian) grounds all the time. E.g., in 1925, "Five years of prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeal_of_Prohibition_in_the_United_States
What about practical politicians? Well, it is true that in 1928 Al Smith did not technically advocate the repeal of Prohibition--because the idea of repealing the 18th Amendment seemed unattainable then. But he did make it clear that he regarded Prohibition in it then-current form as unenforceable and urged modification of the Volstead Act. It's sort of hard to say that a presidential candidate of one of the two major parties isn't of "real note."
A shame there isn't a smiley for a face-palm accompanied by "D'OH!" because that's what I need right now. How I could have forgotten H. L. Mencken (since I'm from Baltimore originally) is beyond me. Likewise how I could have forgotten Smith's stance, especially in '24 (he got squeezed out by the watery John W. Davis compromise) and '28 is equally inexplicable. Call it a double-barreled senior moment. Thanks.
By the way, that Mencken quote may be the one and only time I've ever seen "usufruct" in a sentence.
By the way, that Mencken quote may be the one and only time I've ever seen "usufruct" in a sentence.