The Ball State Daily News Online

Section: NEWS
Originally published: 12/5/07 at 12:54 AM EST
Last update: 12/5/07 at 12:54 AM EST

Students planning to go to a "Wasted Wednesday" party tonight can do so knowing this is the day America repealed its great experiment of Prohibition.

The 21st Amendment was ratified Dec. 5, 1933. It repealed the 18th Amendment, which was passed 14 years earlier. It outlawed the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Without the 21st Amendment, not only would liquor store chains be non-existent, but legal-aged alcohol consumers could still be thirsting for a drink that they could not legally have.

74th anniversary of repeal remains uncelebrated

The thought of millions of people meeting in their favorite pubs to celebrate "Repeal Day" can be quickly squashed by a call to a Muncie bar.

Tim Jenyk, a manager for Scotty's Brewhouse, said the restaurant has never celebrated the repeal of Prohibition.

"I didn't even know that happened [on December 5th] until I was told [today]," Jenyk said.

Staff at Dill Street Bar & Grill, Doc's Music Hall and the Locker Room all said their bars would not celebrate the day.

Some Ball State students said they were equally uninformed about the day in American history.

Steve Roberts, a sophomore business major, said although he realizes the U.S. once tried Prohibition, he had no idea what day it was repealed.

"People should be having parties or something," he said.

History professor Kevin Smith said he thinks people do not think of Dec. 5 as important because of society's views on alcohol.

"The country is still trying to decide what kind of things the government can legislate," Smith said

There are several social issues that speak to America's inability to settle on what the government should restrict, such as the legalization of marijuana, Smith said.

"Some people see [Prohibition] as a failure," he said. "Other people look at it and ask, 'Why did this fail?'"

Smith said the apathy of the public toward Prohibition can be attributed to the status of drinking laws.

"People have made their peace with [age] 21," he said. "The only people who really don't like it are 19- and 20-year-olds, and that's a pretty small part of the population."

Why America Went Dry

America, at the turn of the 20th century, was a country in the midst of great changes.

"There was strong belief of scientific progress; that the more technology we have, the better we can make our lives," Smith said. "A notion that we could engineer society to be better."

The passing of the 18th Amendment was during a perfect storm of social conditions, which would soon pass.

The conditions were evidenced by the low life span of the amendment, Smith said. One aspect of these conditions, he said, was the increased importance that Americans were placing on industry.

"Going in drunk to a factory filled with huge machinery would be a big problem," he said.

Prohibition gained a large portion of its support from women, Smith said, who had multiple reasons to back the movement.

"Prohibition happened before women had the right to vote," he said. "In supporting it, they were able to act politically while being supported by other people."

Smith said other issues factored into support of Prohibition, including some less obvious things.

"Beer was heavily associated with the Germans, and this was right after World War I," Smith said. "There were people at the time who thought our enemies were sending alcohol into the country to undermine our production."

Looking at the big picture of the times, Smith said, America was in a state where it wanted to improve society by using the government to regulate people's behaviors.

Smith said several amendments were passed in a small span, four from 1913 to 1933, that stood to change society from the top down, including suffrage for women and the founding of the national income tax.

Most of the country's 27 amendments are spread out over time and several are much more political in nature, such as the clarification of presidential succession, Smith said.

Muncie during Prohibition

Smith said students who studied Prohibition know it was unsuccessful.

Resistance to the 18th Amendment began immediately as ordinary citizens throughout the country joined organized crime in producing alcohol, Smith said.

James Connolly, director of the Center for Middle Town Studies, said resistance to the movement in Muncie, however, was not as strong.

While most of the country was pressing for a 21st Amendment that would end what Herbert Hoover called the "Noble Experiment," Connolly said, Muncie was much more split on the issue.

"There has always been a strong evangelical presence in Muncie," Connolly said. "Muncie used to be a fairly open town, at one point in the 1890s, when the town was still small, 8,000 or so people, there were 41 saloons. I think people viewed Prohibition as something that had cleaned up the town."

That's not to say Muncie did not see its share of opposition to Prohibition.

Connolly said the town experienced a plethora of illegal alcohol distribution places, also known as "speakeasies."

"Not so much organized crime," he said, "but on a personal level, especially in the working class part of town."

History
1917: U.S. Congress proposes 18th Amendment
1919: States ratify 18th Amendment
1919: U.S. Congress passes the Volstead Act banning the manufacturing, sale and transportation of alcohol
1933: U.S. Congress proposes 21st Amendment
1933: States ratify 21st Amendment and repeals Prohibition

Recipes
Acid Bomb
2-3 oz Limon rum
1 bottle extra lager
1 slice lemon

Chocolate Cake
1/2 oz hazelnut liqueur
1/2 vodka
sugar

1964 Car Bomb
2 oz bourbon whiskey
12 oz lager

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