by Steven Doyle
In 1919 the 18th amendment was ratified into the Constitution of the United States. In the following years the government would spend $310 million enforcing Prohibition, and lose $11 billion in tax revenue.
Herbert Hoover would say, “Our country has deliberately undertaken a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose.” That noble experiment would eventually fail, creating more crime and poverty than it had originally set out to eradicate.
H.L Mencken said, “Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic, but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished.”
To celebrate the 83rd anniversary of the 21st amendment ratification, Victor Tangos is hosting its annual “Repeal Day” party on Monday, December 5.
For those inclined to knock a few back in honor of our constitutional rights, the night will feature cocktails under a buck. From 5 to 7pm (or until the booze runs out) Victor Tangos will feature 83-cent classic cocktails. And if the prices don’t take you back to 1933, the selection of Prohibition-era cocktails will.
