On January 28, 1920, the 18th Amendment was passed into law. This was the Prohibition amendment and declared manufacturing, selling, or transporting alcohol for beverage use illegal.
Later that year, investigators found a farmhouse that was producing 130 gallons of whiskey a day. This farm was owned by Senator Morris Shepherd.
Sen. Shepherd was the author of the 18th Amendment.
I think that pretty much sums up the entire history of Prohibition.
The amendment may have been drafted to drive up the profits from alcohol. Makes one wonder about the modern prohibition of drugs …
This reminds me of something Thomas Sowell once said. Talking about his gradual turn away from Marxism:
“What [my time in the Labor Department] said to me was that the incentives of government agencies are different than what the laws they were set up to administer were intended to accomplish. [It] was a revelation for me. You start thinking in those terms, and you no longer ask, what is the goal of that law, and do I agree with that goal? You start to ask instead: what are the incentives, what are the consequences of those incentives, and do I agree with those?”
Context here:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/66to2w
Prohibition, and the power to enact prohibition, now as before creates the incentive for corruption among police and politicians.
Great anecdote, but I believe it was later determined to be run by his cousin on land the Senator happened to own.
(Granted, police during prohibition days could ‘determine’ many things for the right price.)
The idea of Prohibition was started and pushed through congress by Rockefeller who wanted to stop the use of alchohol in vehicles, which was a common practice at the time, especially in rural areas.
Rockefeller used the womens temperance movement as his trojan horse. The temperance movement preached against the drinking of demon alchohol and made it a national issue.
If you can imagine an all male congress who drank and smoked cigars passing a law like that its easier when you realize they were paid the equivalent of a few hundred thousand dollars apiece to do so.
And the use of alchohol in vehicles went away for 80 years.
It might be making a comeback now though.
This web site and book are an excellent source for renewable fuels in the 21st centurty.
http://www.alcoholcanbeagas.com/
The source for alchohol?- THE SUN!, Pretty renewable!
Every citizen should read/listen to the afore mentioned book/CD.
It includes the mentioned history and how every person can at least know how to end our dependence on foreign oil through practical manufacturing, selling and use techniques. Even if you have just a few acres of land. The key to economic growth is in decentralization not sending everything to Wall Street.
@murrowcronkite:
Where do you get that from? Link please–to verifiable, reputable sources.
The Temperance movement was essentially a women’s rights movement. Rockerfeller memorably argued against continuation of prohibition on the front page of the New York Times.
As a Baptist, Rockerfeller doubtless supported the idea on principle, but a few years in he clearly reconsidered over concern that the law was being made an ass of.
In the intervening seventy years since the Noble Experiment alcohol–cheaper than oil and easily distilled from waste products such as wood chips and slash–has failed to displace gasoline, distilled with difficulty in a rather hazardous and pricey industrial process requiring immense infrastructure comittment on the part of fuel companies.
I’d say it was engineering considerations, such as the potential for engine-destroying pitting, or the fact that alcohol attacks rubber and plastics, that kept it from being widely used as a motor fuel.
It also doesn’t make economic sense that Rockerfeller or any other oil magnate, would prefer to continue sinking money into expensive exploration, development, assaying, cracking, processing and refining if he could outcompete by offering a simply distilled fuel cheaper than his competitors.
Just as, if you had the patent on a water-fueled engine, you’d rush it to market to bankrupt Ford and GM rather than hide it in whatever industrial analogue to Area 51 exists in order to keep using the current outmoded technology.
But if you can point me to reputable information I’d like to learn more about this apparent conspiracy.
I was recounting from memory the CD by David Blume on reply #4. I have now loaned it out so can’t review it.
David Blume is a total ecological systems consultant and professor from Berkely. He consults countries and governments around the world on ecological systems that produce zero waste.
The day after he appeared on CNN to talk about his book, was the day of the biggest drop in the price of oil ever, which occured this past summer.
He looks kind of hippy-dippy but don’t be fooled, he knows his stuff.
Rockefeller already owned huge amounts of oil wells and contracts. He was putting the competition out of business, not embracing the competition no matter how much better or efficient it might be. Ever hear of being Beta-Maxed? It’s called market manipulation.
Prohibition put the Italian Mafia in a huge position of power which the FBI and others saw was getting out of control.
This might have helped Rockefeller change his mind.
The historical record is there . The Government was complicit with business more than once in discouraging farmers use and production of alchohol, sometimes with armed force. this happened years before prohibition.
Sorry I can’t quote word for word from the CD/book. It’s worth a look though, in a humble opinion.
The book “Alcohol can be a Gas” by David Blume, is documented and footnoted.