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First time, an open invitation to explore the wide range of activities we offer at smithsonian associates. Now is the perfect time to silence your cell phones. We are thrilled tonight to welcome author garrett peck back to the smithsonian. In addition to the many tours he leaves at the smithsonian, his temperance tour of prohibition sides has been featured on cspan. He was featured on a twohour documentary about prohibition on the smithsonian channel. Key is the author of seven books, including prohibition in washington, d. C. , how dry we werent. And the great war in america, world war i and its aftermath, which was published in 2018. Before we get started, i want you to invite you to join us in the lobby to sample a prohibition era cocktail. Please join me in welcoming garrett peck. [applause] good evening everyone and thank you for coming out for our wake. Our dry wake. 100 years ago today, about six hours from now, that is the exact moment the National Prohibition began. Today, yes i know. We are going to commemorate this afterwards we will a chance to celebrate our right to drink with a french 75 cocktail. I appreciate everyone coming tonight for cspan. To come out here tonight and to film for a national audience. Thank you very much. This is, i may have to worry you about this image, it is rather triggering if you are a beer drinker like myself. They are pouring beer into the sewer. It is so tragic. It is one of the most famous shots from prohibition. The Police Commissioner in the hats overseeing them pouring the break beer down the drain. We will look at how prohibition came to be. And why it didnt last white lasted less than 14 years. And why we ended up appealing that. Most of us now drink and we dont really think anything of it, prohibition didnt just appear magically on its own. There is actually a giant movement in American History that push this on the country. That movement was the Temperance Movement. They have these beautiful al frescos inside, and the Temperance Movement was this century long social movement, that was part of the progressive era, intended to make americans better people and more middle class, and sober. Their idea initially was they would try to get people to drink moderately, stop drinking so much whiskey, have beer or wine, but by the 18 thirties more radicals decided that no one could drink anything at all. If you drink at all you are on a slippery slope to becoming a drunkard. It is one of those things, they demonized drinking. See from this propaganda poster from 1872 king alcohol and his Prime Minister. You see the king standing on a barrel of spirits and the Prime Minister next to him who is deaf. You may notice a few things in the foreground showing the tragedy of this. You see for example the family to the right, minus their father, and the weeping widow in the foreground. Women were so important to the temperance union, because oftentimes women were victimized by their husbands who are drinking so much, the Temperance Movement didnt come out of nowhere. There was illegitimate response to the heavy drinking. They just took it to the extreme, that no one should drink at all. For we should change the constitution to ban alcohol which we did. In 1873 was the beginning of the womens christian temperance union. This was the ground zero for temperance, you had such allow large number of german immigrants who controlled the breweries. And also the anti saloon leak was headquartered there as well. Francis willard was this incredible woman in American History. The first woman to get a statue in the u. S. Capital. She is a big deal. She is from illinois. She is one of the leading proponents of womens rights in our history. I take my hat off to her, even if i dont agree with her on the alcohol stance. Her model was do everything. They took up everything for family rights. Domestic violence, children working in factories, it is incredible the Different Things they took up, unfortunately women did not have the vote yet. Women could only have influence but they couldnt vote on these issues. It is pique the was a very strong movement. They taught children to be ashamed of alcohol. I come from a longlived of methodists and my grandma felt shame. They have a lot of heavy moralizing. They also built numerous water fountains all around the country. Here in d. C. We have a water fountain not put up by the wta see you, here in d. C. We have the cause well temperance fountain which you have all walked past. This is our temperance fountain it once was an active water fountain, the symbolism is to tell people to drink water instead of whiskey. This was erected in the 18 eighties. Right when the Temperance Movement was becoming a National Movement. And again trying to use moral persuasion to keep people from drinking alcohol. After about 20 years or so of the wta see you, the moral persuasion was not working. People were still drinking, americans hand shifted after the civil war to drinking whiskey and now they are drinking beer and now since the civil war beer has been our national beverage. In 18 thank the three they founded this Organization Called the anti saloon bleak, they pay spanned it in 1933, this is the organization that gives us the 18th prohibition amendment. One of the early hires was this call urge student, Wayne Wheeler, probably the most powerful lobbyist in American History. He and created pressure politics. He knew how to squeeze politicians to make them to vote dry even if they were wet in their personal lives. Every politicians first job is to get reelected. So he made sure that if anyone bucked him on the prohibition he would make sure they would not get reelected. He really leveraged the base of the anti saloon lake. This was their base the Temperance Movement was a white evangelical protestant faith based initiative. It was a progressive initiative, we think today in terms of counties as being very conservative, this was a progressive movement. This was about making americans better people. Very importantly the anti saloon lake formed an alliance and this alliance finn gendered to massive constitutional amendments, obviously one of them is prohibition. The other one you can probably guess from this photo, which is the suffrage amendment. 18th and 19th advent. This is from january 1970 showing the suffrage from the National Womans Party who are protesting in front of the white house, because Woodrow Wilson would not come out supporting the suffrage amendment. Wheeler had this alliance with the Suffrage Movement so that both of them could get their way. This alliance then fell apart after 1920, after women got the right to vote. They want to go visit the speakeasy to. There is one thing in American History that really makes prohibition come about, back this up quickly, the Anti Saloon League recognized in a Public Statement that 1917 was we need to change the constitution really quickly because this is our last chance. This is where the country was this is going to be where the census is taken, they can see how much the citys are starting to teeter totter, the cities were starting to outnumber the countryside. They expected the majority of americans would be in cities, and that would outweigh the Temperance Movement, which was more rule based. We had leading up to 1920, the highest proportion ever in our history of immigration. One third of americans were foreign born or a parent that was born overseas. Hice portion ever in history. In many ways the Temperance Movement was a native movement. Many of these immigrants that were coming in in the 18 eighties and beyond our catholic overwhelmingly, or they are russian jews. All of these people are bringing in their drinking habits, which protestants that are living were shaking their finger we do not recognize these people. We need an amendment to conform to how we are living. They should not be drinking alcohol. A lot of ways prohibitionists target it at these immigrants. In the late 1800s and mid 1900s. What makes prohibition reality, the event that leads up to this poster, world war one. We declare war against germany on april six 1917 and you all know who the biggest ethnic group was german americans. And the brewers were germans. They were the biggest blow of the biggest anti saloon link. Right away as soon as we declared war wayne real or any other agencies in the begans by using an awful lot of propaganda so for this was the very good propaganda poster because it tucks at your heartstrings. They did all kinds of things, the Brewers Association had funny newspapers and so on, they brought out a lot of the shenanigans through senate hearings. This was all about embarrassing the brewers and the wet cars, and marginalizing all of the drinkers. Eventually they spun drinking into treason. In 1917 they brought forth a 19th amendment, most of the American Public as the polls were going to ratify the amendment, which took 13 months, which took 13 months during the war itself. Part of the selling point was we need to save frame, to feed our soldiers during the war and these need to be soldier sober soldiers which ignores the fact that the german army. The english army was drinking everything. That was all part of the propaganda of selling the dry cause and this emergency of the war effort. Everyone was like yes we need to do this. We need prohibition to win the war. Most people thought when they voted for this that there is simply outline liquor, not realizing that year and wine were also going to be outlawed. It was a brute surprise. Everyone here has a hand out of eight prohibition cocktails. Lets talk about the first one which we will sample after, one of my alltime favorites, the french 75. It has a couple of different origin stories behind it, one of which features a British Army Unit getting together with a french unit and they blended it together their champagne and their gym and meet this cocktail. Other people say it was invented in new orleans. Who really knows . I was an artillery officer myself and i was in the army. This was an incredible top secret project for the french, the french german called it the devil gun. But it could fire off about six shots at minute and every shell woodland in the same spot. Very very effective. Because the u. S. Had no arm and capabilities during the war had to borrow everything from the french all the tanks we had to borrow from the french the very first artillery shell is at the Woodrow Wilson house. But the here is the french 75 artillery shell. Wilson felt such a responsibility for sending off these soldiers to fight in the trenches of france that he kept it there in france for. He felt that responsibility descending that nation to war. Another famous american commanded a battery of french 70 fives during world war one, and it is this man. The only future president to fight and world war one truman from kansas city. He was 35 years old when he led his battery of kansas city mid fits. A lot were catholic and came out of reform school, a very disciplined group and whip he whipped them into shape. He let them very effectively during the war. He let this battery of french 75, his unit was both sly catholic for but he became lifelong friends and political supporters of him. They are getting to talk and they saw amendments had passed, 36 state of nebraska ratified this. Five days later harry writes his fiancee and says food, and anyway, it looks to me like the moonshine business is going to be pretty good in the land of liberty loans in Green Trading stamps and some of us want to get in on the ground floor, at least we want to get there in time to lay into the supply for future consumption i think a court of bourbon with last me about 40 years. He was talking with his soldiers that were already making plans to bootleg. You know how wet that city was like new york, detroit, chicago were. How is this ever gonna work, what were they thinking . The 18th amendment was ratified by the state of nebraska on 1919. It has three parts of the amendment. So you can read it, i highlighted the most important parts of it. The manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating with hers is hereby prohibited. That is what the amendment states. You have to have a lot to define most people thought they are going to outlaw only distilled spirits, but wheeler said no, anything with alcohol is going to be made illegal. He helped crack with this minnesota congressman, andrew vail state of minnesota, and he chaired the house judiciary committee, he was in charge of writing this bill it had 67 parts. Four he went he went down in ignominy for having written this law. They took a hard line against any alcohol. Anything above 0. 05 was now illegal. It was considered to be intoxicating. They forbade anyone from calling near beer, so they came up with names like devil. This act had a lot of number of loopholes, many of which are famous. Youve all heard of medicinal whiskey . Before prohibition they said alcohol is not medicine. During prohibition on the other hand all the doctors could prescribe, 100 prescriptions of a pint of whiskey per month. All the doctors wanted to get on on this game. So this is one of the major loopholes of being widely abused. You had sacramental wine, the catholic church, the jews, the lutherans still needed to have wine for their services. So that was one of the loopholes many of the people were declaring himself to be jewish rabbis, so they could give wine. They gave a huge license to midwestern farmers who fought take 200 pounds of fruits, take up all the fruit you wanted and make preserved fruit, if you preserve fruit it is going to ferment. For its a natural process. You might notice that even with an old banana. Its a natural process fermentation. Of course that was a carve out for the bid western farmers and the italian immigrants. You could make your own line and not. Oh bunch of loopholes got written into the act and were widely used. Widely abused. President wilson himself actually vetoed the volstead act three weeks after his stroke. He was trying to sell the treaty of versailles to the nation. He was having missed barnstorming tour. He had these terrible headaches. It effectively ended his second term as president. He vetoed the volstead act because wilson believed that wine and beer should still be legal, but Wayne Wheeler believed otherwise, and he was so in control of the politicians that congress overrode wilsons veto, thus we got this very strict interpretation of prohibition. It is kind of amazing, once people woke up, that is what we signed up for. Yeah. When wilson left the white house on march 4, 1921, he actually had a wine collection. He did not want to leave it behind because his successor Warren Harding was a known heavy drinker and a party boy. Wilson got a permit from the Prohibition Bureau to transport his wine collection. If you had alcohol in your possession before prohibition, it was yours to keep. They were not going to take that away from you. Personal possession was not outlawed, but you could manufacture, sell, or transport it. Wilson had to get special permission to transport his wine collection from the white house to his new estate. Come by the Woodrow Wilson house is appointed we have a prohibition tour that i lead sometimes. We have a prohibition era wine cellar. It is really unique. How many other houses in the country have original bottles . It is amazing. Look right up front. That is quantro. The packaging has hardly changed. Many of the bottles we believe the wilsons got from the french ambassadors house, which is effectively three blocks away. We had saved france from world war i. We believe wilsons got a perpetual resupply from the French Embassy during prohibition. Embassies themselves were considered for territory, and therefore they could supply their own alcohol. Another thing i wanted to point out to you was more time prohibition, which was wartime prohibition, which was an oxymoron. This gets attached to the prohibition bill 10 days after the war ends. Senator Morris Sheppard attaches this on to the appropriations bill, effectively outlawing the sale of distilled spirits for the rest of the war. Until we have a peace treaty, we can have no more distilled spirits sales. Come july 1, 1919, all beer must be under 2. 75 alcohol. This is a saloon in new york city on june 30, 1919, the last night before people will have to shift down to 2. 75 alcohol beer. Do you notice what they are drinking . Look at what they are all drinking. Do you see a single cocktail . They are drinking beer because that was the only thing that was legal for them to drink at the time. What else is missing from the photo . There are no women in this because women did not go to saloons. Not until the 1920s when the speakeasies came about. Before hand, saloons were mens only culture. Maybe some good things came out of prohibition. Women got about, equal rights got the vote, equal rights. Virginia yesterday ratified the equal rights amendment. [applause] my home state. Prohibition starts 100 years ago today, right as the clock ticks over to january 17. At the First Congregational Church downtown, which is still there, all the leading prohibitionists got together and went through speech after speech. You got to see the guy who dried up the navy. Wayne wheeler was there. William Howard Russell was there. Most importantly, the man who spoke at midnight, William Jennings bryan, the great commoner. He died about five years after this. His career at this point was really waning. He delivers this 45 minute dynamic sermon. He compares king herod, who is trying to kill the baby jesus, and how jesus escaped to egypt with his parents, and he made that analogy to jesus escaping to egypt to the wet cause tried to kill the 18th amendment. At the end of the speech, he declares victory. They are dead that sought the childs life. They are dead. Everyone thunderously applauds this. They believe the country is about to get a lot better. Is thirsty and cranky and wants a drink. [laughter] so prohibition begins. This is one of the very few actual dry congressman. William upshaw from georgia. He is symbolically holding an umbrella over the u. S. Capitol, signifying that we are dry. Of course, Congress Never went dry. Congressman and senators continue to drink. It becomes a Huge National embarrassment when the main bootleggers spilled the beans on all of them. We end up with prohibition lasting nearly 14 years, or as hl mencken called it, the 13 awful years. Mencken is an atheist and a very proud germanamerican. He sees the Temperance Movement for what it is, a Reform Movement trying to make us into better people. He is not having any of it. He is such a hilarious writer. He is one of the leading literary critics of the 19 teens and 1920s. He has a great sense of humor. He is kind of surrendering to the fact that prohibition is not going to be around. He says this is what we have got. He draws this comparison. Back in the day we used to be up have steak, and now is to get all the stuff from our bootleggers. It is basically sandwiches and hot dogs. He writes this really funny article basically saying let us while waiting for the end of the methodist millennium to the best weekend. Lets make the most of what the bootleggers are supplying this. He had a car, which he sold in 1918. He used the proceeds to fill up a seller for alcohol. It he thought that would last to the duration of prohibition. Four months later, the bootleggers were out there supplying alcohol. Prohibition goes into effect in 1920. When tennessee ratifies the 19th amendment in 1920. Women get to vote for the very first time in the president ial election. That elects Warren Harding, one of the worst president s ever. She was a fierce proponent of suffrage. Every time they would get a state, they would add another star to it. She is toasting the fact that the tennessee star is now attached to the suffrage flag. We get prohibition. There is a major question ive been asking myself. We amended the constitution, we only have 27 amendments so far. It is hard to amend the constitution. The framers but that high hurdle in place to make sure we dont willynilly amend the constitution. They expect us to have National Consensus around an issue before we monkey around with the constitution. Did a consensus around prohibition actually exist . Why did prohibition fail . Why did people start bootlegging . I think there are a number of answers. Part of it is the fact that the Antisaloon League took such a decode in measure toward prohibition. They had to have zero tolerance. Thats when they took away beer, long are national beverage. President wilson in 1920 called for congress to reinstate beer. Many of the congressman in 1920 as they were having the conventions, over 300 congressman complained that they were hearing from constituents that they wanted to have beer again. Its just amazing. It took a lot of people by surprise how are conan prohibition turned out to be. A lot of people said they were going to start drinking. There were bootleggers out there who were willing to supply the alcohol for a price. During prohibition, consumption of alcohol goes down. It is so much more expensive to buy it. There is a myth that people were drinking more than ever, thats actually not true. Its more expensive than ever before. Many of the great bartenders went to paris during prohibition. One of the things that showed up almost right away, right off the coast of the United States was rum row. All of the ship captains were docking their shifts. Call three miles offshore. Speedboats were coming out to that limit, filling up the speedboats and race it back to shore, usually at night time. This became known as rum row. It was up and down the east coast. Out of this idea of the three mile limit came the threemile limit cocktail. This is one of the schooners that the coast guard seized. They are only able to seize about 10 of the different ships. In the mid1920s, the country negotiated an agreement with the british. The british one to keep bringing alcohol in others transatlantic on their transatlantic liners. They could do it if they granted the United States to ask band the threemile limit out to 12 miles, so they could trap the bootleggers. Without telling anyone, the coast guard captured a bunch of ships. Now that we have a threemile limit, the new cocktail is now called the 12 mile cocktail. Those bartenders are pretty creative. Youve got to flooding over the borders from the ocean, through candidate, coming down through detroit at a major point. Alcohol is flooding into the country. Many people are setting up distilleries, often in their bathrooms. Your local bootlegger could burn the house down. The Prohibition Bureau captured this one. Its kind of amazing. Your bootlegger would give you cash money for it. Right away, a lot of people thought about untaxed money. I will start producing alcohol as well. Quickly, people started to break the law, whether they drank or not. We had a major moonshine culture in the country. This expanded it everywhere around the country. Its pretty amazing. One of the more famous photos from prohibition is this slide showing a raid right here in washington dc of the speakeasy. This is very common form of speakeasy. It was carl hamills lunchroom. It was rated three times. He had a legitimate business up front, a lunchroom. If he knew someone, you could say the passcode and they would invite you to the back for a little darkroom. You can go get a pint of beer. They pulled all the kegs of beer out of the cellar. They were rated three times. You might notice the notation, that is now the site of the department of justice. [laughter] this next photo is very heartbreaking for me. Its the Prohibition Bureau destroying 18, 000 bottles of beer. This is in the arlington dump. If were intercepted on the highway coming down from philadelphia and the judge ordered them destroyed. Its an amazing photo. You can see the bottles breaking. That is now the arlington dump, it is now utterly one of the pentagon parking lots. All the bottles are still there. They are just underground. One of the great novels that comes out of prohibition is the satirical novel by sinclair lewis. He got the pulitzer and the nobel prize. It was a novel called babbitt. He wrote it right here in sinclair circle. In 1922, he has this one little statement in the book and i think he captures why prohibition is going to fail. Its an unknown character. It is on a train and he is passing a flask of gin. He makes this statement. He captured why prohibition is going to fail. Everyone says it is for someone else to obey. Not me. Im going to keep resupplying. Those catholics need to stop drinking. Im a protestant, i can handle my booze. It is pure hypocrisy. 1922, only two years into the noble experiment. It already captured why public sentiment is going to turn against it. We become a nation of hypocrites. The next cocktail is one of my alltime favorites. Give it a try sometime. You need real grenadine for it. Its easy to make. Make an equal amount and you have got grenadine. Its a very unusual cocktail. How does that work . It is delicious. Its also bright pink. It looks like a cosmopolitan. It tastes very different. Its one of my alltime favorite probationary cocktails. The scofflaw was invented in 1924. There is a guy named king who is a harvard graduate. He was very upset at seeing all of the drinking going on at harvard. He sponsored the competition to come up with a word to name those lawbreakers. There was a 200 prize. Two people came up with the name. It was announced on the anniversary of National Prohibition. Two people came up with the word scofflaw. It is an ingenious word, someone who scoffs at the law. Two weeks later, the cocktail was invented. This particular word shows you the alliance that broke down between the Suffrage Movement and the Temperance Movement. Now that women had the right to vote, now that it was illegal for everyone to go to a saloon to drink, now women could equally write the law and go to the speakeasies. 1920 is really our first sexual revolution. Family planning tools come into effect. Women start cutting their hair. This shot was done in 1925. Women didnt cut their hair before the 1920s. She is showing how the young kids are partying today. You keep a flask in your garter. Everyone does that today. Women started getting in on the game as well. And became fun to break the law. We became a nation of scofflaws. Why did the country turn against prohibition . A couple of things happen. Everyone saw the organized crime that was going on. You saw in cities like chicago more people were getting killed over who was going to control neighborhoods. Very famously on valentines day 1929, al capone eliminates the rival gang in chicago. They are machinegunned by his gang in a garage. That makes national headlines. It really stunned country and showed how violent prohibition would become. So many people were saying this is out of control at this point. The violence, the bribery, agents were horribly corrupt. All of the judges that were getting bribed, it was endemic in society. It was underlying democracy that was going on. People sought is a problem in the 1920s. How did we unwind prohibition . It took a crisis to get us to the 18th amendment, which was prohibition. It took another crisis to enable a political switch in the country. The democrats ran on the repeal platform. That crisis in the country appeared in late october 1929 when the stock market crashed. The Great Depression nailed the coffin shut on prohibition. Suddenly at the trough of prohibition, a quarter of the workforce was out of work. The economy shrank by one third. It was unreal how bad the Great Depression was. The democrats seized on this. The Republican Party owned the 1920s. They own both houses of congress and all three presidencies of the 1920s. Even though prohibition passed as a bipartisan measure, it was up to the republicans to enforce it. They were running the country. The democrats washed their hands of prohibition in 1930 and said were going to call for a repeal amendment. When prohibition went into effect, the country lost quarter of a million jobs. In 1930, it looks good. They called for in and to prohibition. Hearing this in 1930, the leading prohibitionist in the senate, a man who sponsored the 18th amendment, laid down the gauntlet. He made this very famous statement. He said there is as much chance of repealing the 18th amendment as there is for a humming bird to fly to the planet mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail. That doesnt sound like a challenge, nothing is. Right after this, an irishman and a captain in the us army during world war i, he is a real estate guy. People might remember the 1980s. He gets together data points. I can take all the police data from all the raids and put them on a map and embarrass the dry cause. He does this in 1930 and 1932. This made global news. Washington dc was considered the model dry city. During prohibition, there were 3000 speakeasies. I do thats nothing compared to new york city, which had 50, 000 speakeasies. In 1932, this is the speakeasy map. He marked the spot where booze had been bought. This is pretty incredible. This was put together by the crusaders. They were crusading for the wet cause. I will point out some of the stuff. There are 1155 dots. Where they found alcohol. There were another 600 in 1931 where they did not find alcohol. He put up here those are federal offices where raids took place. He put up the methodist building. He put up there the antisaloon offers in the christian temperance union. Temperance union. This is a piece of what propaganda, wet propaganda. It was very effective. He published this in 1930. About a month later, the main bootlegger for Congress Comes forward with an incredible story. Everyone thinks about watergate being the first great scoop for the Washington Post. The first was George Cassidy. He had bootlegged for congress for 10 years. The first five years, he worked on the house side. They like him so much, they gave him an office in the basement. He hauled liquor in a suitcase everyday. They would buy alcohol, play cards. It was great. He shifted over to the senate. And they would send their secretaries down to get the booze. Part of the plea agreement with the judge, he agreed he would not bootlegged again. He did later on. The Washington Post approached him. He published six frontpage articles in the Washington Post. The last one was published a week before the Midterm Election of 1930. That was a seismic election. This was a wave election. Congress was an openly wet democratic and republican majority. Its incredible. The wets had taken over congress. Cassidy helped make this happen. I did not realize this hadnt shifted. There is George Cassidy right there. That is him in october, 1930. Some journalists pointed them out and said that guy in the green hat, he just got arrested. We have a local distiller that opened up in 2012, that named gin after him. A gin after him, it is called green hat gin. The role of women is so important in undermining prohibition. In the late 1920s, this organization got together called the National Organization for National Prohibition reform. It was headed up by the heir to the morton salt family. She got this organization together to counter balance the womens christian temperanceunion with claims they spoke for all women nationally. Pauline morton satan had supported the dry cause. She realized it wasnt working. These are all very famous women. They were very ecumenical. They were workingclass women. They were targeting women of every stripe to get them involved in this. Younger women got very heavily involved in the organization. It was a National Movement to reform prohibition. They endorsed the democratic appeal. Morton herself was a republican. She said this is not working, support the democrats. That formed a counterbalance to the wctu. Love this poster. This is that depression era are. To young women are pointing out that they should be supporting all the women should be supporting the repeal. Prohibition and the Great Depression is underway, prohibitions days are numbered. The idea that the Antisaloon League had and the Temperance Movement had shattered on reality. The country turned out to not be in support for this dry cause. There was so much lawbreaking going on it. The country got cynical about it. Lets stuff this genie back into the bottle and get control and repeal this amendment. The recall movement erupted once roosevelt ran on the repeal platform. The democrats have seized control of the government in the 1930s. They are running on the repeal platform. Before he is sworn in, congress has already debated and passed the 21st amendment. That goes on to the states. It gets ratified in astonishingly short time. The first state to ratify is michigan. This is a couple of days after roosevelt signed a law which declares 3. 2 beer is not intoxicating. He had run on a platform of making beer legal again. It did not violate the amendment. On april 6, the country when out and party. Prohibition was coming to an end. The states were lining up to ratify. The democrats now controlled the country. They put into the 21st amendment language that it would be ratified by a state convention. The states were lining up and voting one by one. How long do you get took . How long do they get took for us to ratify the 21st amendment . The 18th amendment took 8 months during the war. How long did the 21st amendment take . It took a little bit longer than that. It took eight months. This is going to stun everyone. The state did put it over the top was utah. The 36th state in 1933. That is known as repeal day. My button says party like its 1933. I know we want to get to a q a session. Ive got a couple of more slides to talk about. Some of my Upcoming Events for the smithsonian associates, ive got a tool cool tour in maryland. We have a day long tour on april 18. We get a bus to go out there area and we start off seen the castle. We get to see the quarry itself. Lunch is at a winery. Ive got my very first we clung to her for the smithsonian. Its where i grew up in california. It is a five day tour of the California Gold rush. That is in october. Thats going to be a lot of fun. That is really beautiful countryside. You get to be with me for five days. Ive got a me for five days. Ive got a quick announcement. I have a book coming out on june 2. Its a contemporary history called a decade of disruption. Its a history of all the stuff we lived through from the. Com meltdown to the Great Recession and everything in between. Its been a decade now. Its an opportunity to see what happened. That is coming up here in a few months. If you want to read more, these books have the topic of prohibition in them. The most recent one, if you or local history, prohibition in washington dc. That has 11 cocktail recipes in it, including the scofflaw and a bunch of others. I want to thank you so much for coming out tonight. [applause] we will be happy to take questions. State the question loudly and i will repeat it back to the audience. Does anyone have questions . Have the bootleggers respond to prohibition . They did not want repeal. They were making so much money taxfree. Al capone and his gang were making money hand over fist. We forget about that. He is the most famous gangster in world history. He made his money being a bootlegger. It was not just the dry cause, many of the bootleggers did not want prohibition to and for financial reasons. What was the penalty for breaking the law . For the speakeasies . For a general person . How stringent was the punishment for breaking the law . Initially, it was fairly strict. You got a fine. You might get 90 days in jail. By the mid1920s, its not proving to be a deterrent. The speakeasies reopened right away because there was so much money to be made. By the mid1920s, dark city decides to padlock the businesses. That spreads around the country. The owners find another spot to reopen. Thats a temporary measure. The one president who really tries to enforce prohibition is herbert hoover. The public is quite cynical about it. Hoover gets into the white house and the public is already opposed. He is sworn in march 4. The country is cynical about prohibition. He says hes going to enforce it. Most of the public is like why . It creates more cynicism. A lot of passes which imposes severe penalties. You have a fiveyear prison sentence and a 10, 000 fine. It dramatically raises the penalty. All this does, most were just reaching plea deals. Now, everyone is getting a jury trial. You can imagine how many thousands of bootleggers there are. There are so many trials have to be held. The judicial system, its overwhelming. Thats the unintended consequence of prohibition. So many people are breaking the law. It shows how unenforceable for whole thing is. It makes the public more cynical. It shows this cannot be enforced. Half of my books are doing with her mission. Its partly family history. I come from a long line of methodists. The methodists were the first church to embrace the Temperance Movement. It was a big deal. Back in 2003, i had my first book idea. The idea came directly from christmas eve. I had brought a really nice burgundy to my grandmothers. I was a with my mother and my grandmother. Three generations. My grandmother taught added tut tutted about the wine. This was a generation of value that did not pass on to us. My grandmother was protestant. They were taught to be ashamed of drinking. There was a stigma that her generation grew up with and that lasted into the 1970s and 80s. The baby boomers are the first generation that did not have a stigma around alcohol. Drinking is just what we do. Its how we socialize. There is no stigma or shame. It is part of our lives. But my grandmother experienced was quite different. She insisted she didnt drink at all. After she died, we were cleaning some stuff out and we found a liquor cupboard. That goes along with the social shame. If anyone sees you drinking, theyre going to think you are a drunkard. Dont let anybody see you doing that. I empathize with that. We all have to deal with that today. Another question in the back . Completely unrelated, you mentioned earlier that a lot of people have misconceptions about speakeasies and what they were like. Could you elaborate on that . My second question, do you see parallels between the move to legalize marijuana and the tradition and how it was made illegal in the first place . Usually only one person asked us question. The speakeasies themselves, we create a lot of mythology around them. People turn their homes into a place for you can buy a drink. You have a legitimate business upfront, if you go to capitol hill to tune in, it was a candy store. They sold liquor out of the basement. You were going there to buy a bottle. It wasnt like veeck on club where there was a jazz band playing and people were dancing. Most places are not like that. They are not good places given the quality of the gin. In the case of scotch, you would add caramel and turpentine to it. Thats with the bootleggers are doing and people were drinking it. The other question we had about the legalization of cannabis, its such an interesting question. You might remember this movie from the 1930s called reefer madness. It created a stigma around cannabis smoking. When prohibition ends, the country turns. Now we have to target pot smoking. They really demonized pot smoking. So does richard nixon. Here we are with being a schedule 1 drug. Its with crystal methamphetamine and cocaine. I am not a pot smoker myself. Many of my friends have come out of the woodwork. I know some conservatives who are as well. The shift that is underway in society, during the Obama Administration. The survey does a poll on this question. Once the Obama Administration saw the majority of americans are in favor of legalization, youre only going to lose the battle politically. There was no win out of this. Thats why you see all of the states legalizing it for medicinal purposes. Its not hard to get a medical prescription. Then the next step is legalization for personal use, which more states are doing now as well. I think you see the writing on the wall. This is where im in favor. Im in favor of legalization. For the fact that somebody people have to buy pot illegally. Consumers have no idea what they are buying. During prohibition, you were buying industrial alcohol. If there were some regulations. Consumers will know what they are buying, they know what that is. If you buy a beer, you know its 4. 5 percent. You know which one to have or not to have. Im all in favor regulations. Consumers can make better decisions rather than picking it up from some guy on the corner. Thats a long answer. Another question . Anyone . I think everyone is thirsty. I know i am. Very good, everyone. Thank you so much for coming tonight. [laughter] [applause] we have cocktails outside for you. We will toast to our right to drink alcohol. Thank you for coming. Author and former Classical Musician Jonathan Rosenberg discusses his new book interest Classical Music in america from the great war through the cold war which explores politics in music in the first half of the 20th century. He describes how music can serve as a tool of outreach and xenophobia depending on the climate of the era. Hello, everyone. On behalf of smithsonian associates, it is my pleasure to welcome you here today for Classical Music and american

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