Thursday, September 14, 2017

Who actually wrote the first draft of the Volstead Act?

The National Prohibition Act of 1919, informally and more famously known as the Volstead Act, was enacted to carry out the intent of the 18th Amendment, which established Prohibition in the United States. The main impetus for Prohibition came from the Anti-Saloon League (ASL), which had campaigned for the measure for some years. The single-minded pursuit of Prohibition to the exclusion of all other goals by the League was the policy of its de facto leader and chief lobbyist, Wayne W. Wheeler. For years, he'd developed a hugely influential brand of pressure group politics, which had allowed the ASL to gain wide support at all levels of government for its tireless campaign against what it saw as the evils of alcohol.
It was Wheeler himself who wrote the Volstead Act's first draft, indicating just how influential and well-connected he was at the time. Though the Act inevitably underwent a number of changes in its passage through Congress, its main provisions, and the principles on which they were based, bore all the hallmarks of Wayne W. Wheeler and his ceaseless crusade against alcohol.

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