In 1929, the Great Depression hit the United States, and overnight, the superpowers were on their stomachs, the Americans were starving, factories were closing, banks were bankrupt, and it seemed that only drinking alcohol could save the economy.
Wine can save a country! It's crazy in normal times, but the United States during the Great Depression was very special.
The bankrupt people need spiritual comfort, the liquor dealers want to turn positive, the federal needs taxes, and the opening of alcohol prohibition has become a national strategy, and this time, the alcohol prohibition faction in Congress has lost a mess.
Drinking alcohol is an individual's freedom, so why bother with the legislative interference of Congress? If you don't know the history of alcohol prohibition in the United States, you really can't tell.
As early as the 19th century, the women's movement and religious radical forces in the United States joined forces to fight monsters, and by the beginning of the 20th century, they finally won steadily.
Protestants believe that alcohol is contrary to God's precepts, and that it was Protestants who created America so the country must ban alcohol, while the women's movement argues:
"Men will beat their wives when they drink, and women are easy to take advantage of when they drink, so they must abstain from drinking!"
After years of hard work in Congress, the two forces finally gave birth to the "Walster Act" of 1919, which went too far.
"Beginning in 1920, it was illegal to manufacture, transport, or sell all alcoholic beverages in the United States.
The bill, which was supposed to be gradual and took into account the interests of both the Prohibition and non-Prohibitionists, played a one-size-fits-all game, which dealt a devastating blow to the ecology of the American alcohol industry.
Only one year after the bill was passed, 500,000 drunkards were arrested, and 300,000 of them were convicted and sent to prison to serve their sentences, and the entire society was shocked.
Counting on the fingers, humans have been associated with alcohol for 7,000 years, and they want to sever the genetic link between the two with a single decree?
It took more than a decade for the federal hierarchy to realize that the bad idea was only a bargain for the liquor dealers, and that it did not benefit the country in the slightest.
In order to drink, the American people show their talents, because without alcohol, there is no way to make mistakes in love, and no one sleeps in the hotel.
Without alcohol, the dinner party will have less soul, and business will not be negotiated.
Without alcohol, the workers are exhausted, and the rough men cannot show their masculinity.
The worst thing is that at the federal level, there is a lack of alcohol taxes, cheap liquor dealers, and a lot of law enforcement efforts need to be invested to maintain the law, which makes everyone very unhappy.
As a result, the game moved from Capitol Hill to the fields and turned into a people's war.
Ordinary people began to make their own wine, which gave birth to the popularity of winemaking tutorials.
"This booklet is very comprehensive, only $3, and teaches you how to make low-alcohol cider and wine, which the police can't control."
Since the prohibition decree stipulates that alcohol content is legal under 0.5%, a home-brewed pale beer "near beer" has also become popular, but for the handicapped party, they risk arrest to go to the "speakeasy".
"If you drink, you will drink real wine, and you will not be an American if you are afraid of death."
It's that just!
As a result of the law, "speakeasies" are everywhere, and products that could have been sold openly have been forced into contraband under the intervention of the law, so strange goods can be lived.
The rise of speakeasies has led to the growth of criminal organizations, which sell alcohol, buy weapons, and engage in other organized crimes, and the moonshiners have become rich.
Whether it is the east and west coast or the western town, there are a large number of secret speakeasies, and if you want to enter, you must be introduced by an acquaintance, otherwise you will be treated as a police undercover agent.
In the twenties, there was always something like this in the neighborhood where the speakeasy was located:
The man in the trench coat pressed the brim of his hat so low that he couldn't see his face clearly, and passers-by sneakily came to him, and after looking around, he reported to himself:
"Mickey sent me!"
The man in the trench coat looked around vigilantly, and the other party did not have a tail, so he mysteriously glanced at it, and the door opened.
The most ironic thing is that, according to federal law enforcement agencies, from 1920 to 1933, the total consumption of alcohol did not decrease, but increased, especially from 1929 onwards, and the increase can be described as earth-shattering.
The Great Depression was the last straw that overwhelmed Prohibition, and the hypocrisy and unreality were abolished by Roosevelt, and drinking was a personal freedom that should not be interfered with, and besides, the economic situation no longer allowed the law to continue.
Black Thursday in 1929 triggered a stock market crash, a banking crisis, a corporate crisis, and then a full-blown crisis!
Workers are unemployed, wandering the streets in search of food, white-collar workers are unemployed, they have become criminals in the blink of an eye, the rich have jumped off buildings, the self-confidence of Americans is gone, the state needs taxes, the people need alcohol!
Unlike Hoover, Roosevelt was a pragmatist who understood how to expand federal revenues as soon as he came to power, and on March 22, 1933, Roosevelt signed the "Karen Harrison Act," a transitional bill to relax Prohibition, allowing 3.2% wine and beer to be sold on the market.
This was an unprecedented victory for the Prohibition repealers, who continued their efforts to pass a bill on December 5 to completely repeal the annoying prohibition law: the "Walster Act"
This was the only good news for drunkards during the Great Depression, they were allowed to drink openly, and there was no regulation, and alcohol was cheaper to sell in public.
"It's not scary to have no job, at least we still have whiskey!"
Roosevelt certainly wasn't for the sake of the drunkards, and the repeal of Prohibition was crucial to reducing the effects of the Great Depression, and the people needed spiritual comfort, otherwise there would be trouble, and federal taxes would suddenly be abundant.
Just twelve months after the abolition of Prohibition, the liquor industry has doubled its already collapsed federal revenues by providing $1.35 billion in tax revenues! The Federation was saved.
As a result, drinking became a patriotic act of economic promotion during the Great Depression, a national strategy, and at the same time, wineries and plantations were also pushed hard.
In 1934, 250,000 new brewers were added to the country, not counting the jobs that would be created by the cultivation of cereals.
Beginning in 1934, the brewing industry in the United States flourished, and the general loss brought on by the Great Depression led to more Americans to start drinking heavily.
Under the dark clouds of the Great Depression, in the face of the irritable crowd, religious organizations did not dare to mention that "God does not allow drinking", and women's organizations suddenly felt that it was not so intolerable to occasionally "beat wives" after drinking.
The 1919 Prohibition, which lasted 13 years, 10 months and 19 days, was defeated by the Great Depression, and in the blink of an eye it became a joke, and the mention of it is still ridiculed by Americans today.