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At random: John Philip Holland built several submarines before the USS Holland, which became the first undersea craft commissioned by the U.S. Navy. The Holland was purchased on April 11, 1900 for a price of $150,000. It was commissioned into the US Navy on October 12, 1900.

When the beer flowed again (legally) Moderators: Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page]
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Sid Harrison

Posted 2008-04-07 6:29 AM (#14721)

Great Sage of the Sea

Posts: 590

Location: Colton, NY

Subject: When the beer flowed again (legally)

The article from the LA Times below reminds me of when I was a teenager in the early 1950s in
Ohio. The law at the time allowed 18 year olds to purchase 3.2% beer. Also the liquor stores sold a
low alcohol content of wines and booze.

I recall one time this guy (who was barely 18) bought some of the "low grade" Gin and we took it to
a party. Whereupon we proceeded to replace the poor girl's dad's "real" gin with the low alcohol
stuff and we mixed the hi-test gin with 7-up. What a mixture.

I was 16 and It was the first time I ever got drunk. As we couldn't go home, four or five of us spent a
very rough (sick) night in the barn of one of my buds. Followed by a bad, bad hangover. Then
having learned a valuable lesson from our sinful ways we all swore off demon booze.

I think our abstinence lasted for all of about a month.

Sid

==================================================================

SOURCE:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-ogle7apr07,0,7182866.story

The day the beer flowed again

Seventy years ago, legal beer returned to the U.S. and provided a
spark of hope for a country in a depression.

By Maureen Ogle

April 7, 2008

At 12:01 a.m. on April 7, 1933, sirens, fire alarms and train whistles shrieked. In Chicago, harried
bartenders scrambled to serve crowds that stood 12 deep. At Pabst Brewing Co. in Milwaukee,
thousands of onlookers cheered as company employees hoisted barrels and crates onto trucks.
About 800 people stood in the rain outside the White House, watching as a man hopped out of his
vehicle and unloaded two cases of beer. Secret Service agents accepted the goods, a gift for the
chief executive from one of the nation's brewers. "President Roosevelt," read a sign on the side of
the truck, "the first real beer is yours."

After 13 dry years, legal beer had returned to the United States. It may seem silly to commemorate
that day's 75th anniversary. After all, it's only beer, and we've got bigger things to think about. War.
Global warming. Soaring gas prices. Crashing home prices. But that's all the more reason to
celebrate. We could use a reminder of the way action inspires hope, and hope inspires action.

In early 1933, the height of the Depression, nearly 25% of adults in this country were out of work.
Foreclosure and bankruptcy plagued every community. A cascade of bank failures had destroyed
the savings of millions of people. Children skipped school for lack of clothes and shoes. Men and
women stood in soup lines, and the homeless and jobless marched in angry protests.

On March 4, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was inaugurated. He had campaigned on the promise
of a "new deal" to repair the economy, a vague plan that was short on specifics but long on
ambition. But he had also made one definite pledge: to repeal Prohibition.

Today, we look back on Prohibition as an exercise in temporary insanity, but the 13-year experiment
in sobriety was rooted in our quintessentially American faith that we can perfect the world. A broad
cross section of people -- men and women, urban and rural, young and old -- supported the ban on
alcohol because they believed that it would reduce crime, alleviate poverty, strengthen the family
and nurture a more perfect union.

That lofty vision collapsed under the weight of reality. Prohibition spawned an underground
economy devoted to making, shipping and selling booze. The officials trying to enforce it earned
more from bribes, kickbacks and the resale of confiscated alcohol than from their meager salaries.
The poison of such corruption permeated daily life. It undermined respect for the Prohibition
amendment and, by extension, for the Constitution itself. Worse, Americans realized that in banning
the production of alcoholic beverages, one of the nation's largest and most heavily taxed
industries, they had closed the spigot on a significant source of both jobs and revenue.

By the early 1930s, most Americans were done with the experiment. Emboldened by Roosevelt's
election, "wet" members of the lame-duck 72nd Congress managed to pass a repeal amendment
just days before FDR took office. But two-thirds of the states had to ratify the measure -- a process
that would take months.

So on March 13, the president asked Congress to legalize beer right away. The plan was elegant in
its simplicity. The 18th Amendment merely banned "alcoholic" beverages; it did not identify what
those were. That was spelled out in the Volstead Act, which defined an "alcoholic" and
"intoxicating" drink as one containing more than 0.5% alcohol. Solution: Rewrite Volstead to
categorize "nonintoxicating" beverages as ones containing up to 3.2% alcohol -- the same as most
pre-Prohibition beer. Brewers could reopen their doors, hire workers and start paying $5 a barrel in
federal taxes. (Winemakers and distillers would have to wait eight months for the ratification of the
21st Amendment. Even the most creative congressman had trouble labeling 80-proof spirits as
"nonintoxicating.")

Versions of that plan had been proposed and defeated in every Congress since 1920, but
Roosevelt gambled that he would succeed where others had failed. It was not the only risk he
would take. A few days earlier, he'd asked the nation's remaining banks to temporarily shut their
doors, knowing that might spark more panic.

The economic chaos had spawned cynicism, hopelessness and, above all, fear. Roosevelt believed
that bold leadership and decisive action would nurture trust, that trust would inspire hope and that
hope would move the nation. But many of FDR's economic proposals bred their own stew of
unease; no one knew, for example, if the bank holiday would succeed or provoke yet another
financial crisis. The beer bill, in contrast, offered comfort because it would ignite an immediate,
predictable and positive result: jobs and tax revenues.

Congress heeded the call. On March 22, FDR signed a bill legalizing 3.2% beer. Within two days,
brewers in Milwaukee had hired 600 workers. Beer makers in New York announced plans to spend
$22 million refurbishing their dilapidated plants. Detroit automakers scrambled to supply brewers
and their wholesalers with $15 million in new cars and trucks. In the 48 hours after the beer taps
opened April 7, brewers paid $10 million in federal, state and municipal taxes ($155 million in today's
dollars).

Beer alone would not undo the economic disaster or heal the nation's spiritual malaise. But at a
moment of despair, FDR's words and actions inspired Americans to believe the country could steer
a new course. Over the next few months, the president proposed, Congress approved and millions
cooperated in implementing a host of innovative (and untested) projects designed to prime the
economic pump and get people back to work.

So today, let's take a moment to honor the day hope arrived in a glass.

Maureen Ogle is the author of "Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer."

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