Prohibition / Noble Experiment

The Noble Experiment, better known as Prohibition, was the national ban on the manufacture, sale and transportation of alcohol in the United States. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1920 put the ban in place and it was repealed in December 1933.

How an alcohol loving American populace allowed the passage of this law is somewhat of a mystery, but the genesis of the bill seemed to be the Wartime Prohibition Act of 1918. The Wartime Act was an effort to save grain during the war so it was met with little protest, but it was called the "Thirsty-First" when it took effect in 1919.

The American Congress got the notion that prohibiting the sale of alcohol would reform the behavior of some elements of society so they passed the Volstead Act, which is the popular name for the famous Prohibition Act, which was vetoed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919.

President Woodrow Wilson understood the folly behind the Act, so government did little to enforce the law. By 1925, New York was filled with speakeasy clubs that sold liquor illegally. Some historians say there were 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs operating in the city. In fact, several of them were well known watering holes for government officials. Prohibition was an attempt to control and reduce the amount of liquor sold in the states, but like most laws, all it did was drive up the price of the regulated item and stimulate the growth of a well-organized underground black market.

One of the most famous names associated with bootlegging liquor at the time was Joseph P. Kennedy – the successful investor, businessman and political leader. After prohibition ended, Kennedy traveled to England with President Roosevelt's son, James, and made a deal to be the exclusive distributor of Scotch, gin and bourbon from Scotland and England. Kennedy had the connections, the warehouses and the money to make the deal, which became a cash cow for him and the family.

One of the reasons that the Kennedy bootlegging stories seem real is Joe's association with Samuel Bronfman, the founder of Distillers Corporation based in Montreal. Bronfman specialized in cheap whiskey and he took advantage of the Prohibition in the United States by bootlegging his whiskey to cities like Boston, New York and Chicago.

Kennedy and Bronfman became business partners of sorts when Bronfman bought Joseph E. Seagram & Sons in 1928, but some kind of relationship developed a few years earlier when Danny Walsh and his crime syndicate bought liquor from the Bronfman-run group. Kennedy had contacts with every Irishman in Boston at the time and Danny was on that list. Some historians say Kennedy didn't have to be a bootlegger; just about every other Irishman in Boston was.

The history of the Prohibition is the history of every other government prohibition: It failed miserably while creating a vast amount of crime and criminals. In fact, the Anglosphere power elite behind the current drug prohibition regulations are well aware of the detrimental impacts of such laws. These laws destroy society and morality. They make good people bad and bad societal conditions worse. As the Anglosphere revels in chaos – which allows for further governmental centralization – there is no doubt additional prohibitions shall be pursued for as long as possible.