O my Gosh! It's 2014 AND….No. 38: Learn Everything There is to Know about the 18th Amendment

O my Gosh! It's 2014
and
No. 38: Learn Everything There is to Know about the 18th Amendment


I'm sure this is not a surprise to most of you, but it is 2014.
A new year.
I expected to be slightly more prepared.
But I'm not.

The last week of 2013 was not bad but certainly not good.
I drove 2000 miles.
I got this...

Beautifully wrapped arm courtesy 

of the nice ER doctor in Amarillo, TX.

...because I slipped on the ice and cracked my elbow.


Bunny got the flu and then I did, too.  (I'll spare you any pictures of that.)
All I can say is, if you start to feel the tiniest bit wheezy, chilly, achey, or fever-y,  then scurry off to the nearest doctor and get some Tamiflu.  That stuff is a miracle drug.

There was Christmas and New Years in there but it all was a bit of a Fever/Ibuprofen/Hydrocodone induced blur. Everything was done that needed to be done; nothing was spectacular or amazing.

I kind of hate that I ended the year on such a blah note and then started the new year in the same tune.

So things are about to change.

Elbow is much better. Another two or three weeks, a few stabs at physical therapy and I should be good as new.   Thank goodness.

And I confess to thinking "Well, I've been lazy so which challenge on my List can I knock out quick and easy?"

No. 38 seemed like the perfect one:
38. Learn all anyone needs to know about the 18th amendment -this amendment was chosen at random while brainstorming with some friends.

*

Liquor down the drain…

I

I had checked previously and discovered that the 18th amendment enacted Prohibition.
Easy-peasy.
The religious right declared war on alcohol and managed to get an amendment to the constitution.
Not much there.
Here it is in its entirety.

AMENDMENT XVIII

Passed by Congress December 18, 1917. Ratified January 16, 1919. Repealed by amendment 21.

Section 1.
After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Section 2.
The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Section 3.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

Then I started doing a little reading.

In order to get to Prohibition, the government needed a way to raise the income that would be lost when liquor taxes were no longer available.
So we got Income Taxes.   (O yay.)

AMENDMENT XVI

Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.

Note: Article I, section 9, of the Constitution was modified by amendment 16.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

And while plenty of men were for banning alcohol, not all of them were.
The sober ones managed to figure out that if women, who were frequently abandoned at home with the screaming children while the men-folk went off to drink, had the right to vote, then there were a lot more voters on their side.

*

So women got the right to vote. First in some states and then nationally.

AMENDMENT XIX

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 1920.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

There was collusion, racism, bribery.
Good Lord! Let's make a movie about all this.

I even learned where the term "Growler" came from.  I've seen it on the menu at the local micro-breweries but never really knew what it referred to.  Now I do.

And the cast of characters:
Carry Nation
P.T. Barnum
Adolphus Busch
and many, many more.
Names we have all heard of.


So I have some reading to do before I can truly say I know everything there is to know about Amendment #18 and it's close relative Amendment #21.
Hard to thoroughly research one without the other.

Here's what's on my bedside table at the moment:

OK. These are actually on my bed. 

But they get to the table at night.

Such an interesting time in history.  

Prohibition wasn't just a force in the United States but also all over Europe. 

And Prohibition was a HUGE failure. 

(Perhaps our government with its "war on drugs" should sit up and take note.)

Which is how we got to Amendment #21.

AMENDMENT XXI

Passed by Congress February 20, 1933. Ratified December 5, 1933.

Section 1.
The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2.
The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.

Section 3.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

Stay tuned. I am not done with this topic.