FACTS ABOUT THE WARTIME PROHIBITION ACT

                            NORMAN   V.  KELLY

President Woodrow Wilson and his ‘boys’ decided that America should conserve…gasoline…coal…wheat…corn...and of course raise taxes on everything in America. Also increased income taxes in some case of the rich to 68%.

There was a lot of Anti-German sentiment in America...of course…America declared war on Germany etc April 6, 1917. 

 

The Temperance jerks   (Wayne B. Wheeler )  thought that was open season on Germans as well…and decided that now would be a good time to further their idiot cause...attack the Germans as a Patriotic ploy and take down BEER at the same time. Most of the breweries were owned by Germans…so what a great opportunity to enhance their stupid “Dry Cause” and hide it under the smoke screen of a patriotic hatred of the ‘Hun.’  Good idea huh?   Well hell, it worked.

It all came about because of the Wartime Prohibition Act…section 15, that said in order to save FOOD…the distilling of Booze would stop…Of course beer was a target too…but decisions on that had yet to be completed.

                                 SEPTEMBER 8, 1917

 

In Peoria the distillery companies are closing up shop. Those that were in Business on 9-8-1917 were:

 

l. CLARKES   WOOLNERS  CORNING  ATLAS   GREAT WESTERN…(Globe was in Pekin, Il.)

Whiskey was $2.30 a gallon but prices leaped.

September 8, 1917   President Wilson Orders Herbert Hoover to close down the distilleries. All of this was Under the Prohibition Clause of the War Time Food Control Act…the idea was to save coal…gasoline…food products…for the war effort. He also raised taxes as high as 67% on the rich, and taxes on many other things.

All  a ruse  Prohibition jerks….Wayne B. Wheeler   and the CAUSE

The distilleries raced like mad to produce all they could once they heard the word in August of 1917. People hoarded and when the last fire was put out there was an estimate that around the United States they had enough whisky to last “At least three-years or more.”

Peoria, Illinois lost about 1,000 men out of work…but the new factories in town would adsorb many of those men for the Wartime and War products manufacturing.

 

Our 6 distilleries produced about 1/3 of all the Booze in the USA.

The members of the Whiskey Trust   two of the distilleries had agreements with the US Government to produce Alcohol for wartime use…so called straight alcohol…Medicinal Alcohol and denatured alcohol…whatever the hell that was.

Denatured…alcohol…but the government ordered 26 different kinds of Toxins to be used so that ti could not be drunk…or drank…but of course they drank it anyway…what it really did was kill people.

                                USA     DISTILLERIES

 

America had 600 distilleries going strong when they heard in August of 1917 that because of the Wartime Prohibition Act they would have to be closed by September 8, 1917. Places like Peoria…the Alcohol capital of the Worlds were stunned by the news. The answer was to work like hell and store all the whiskey they had…before and since the ruling. That brought on insanity and the folks began to hoard as well.

Whiskey…NONE in Peoria, Illinois…Bullshit that can’t happen…but it did.

It would cost at least 10,000 men their jobs…and that did not take into account the thousands that worked indirectly for the beer and booze people…from the farmer to the trucker…the bartender to the

Suppliers of the tavern…it would be a bleak…sad…anxious time…but it would all end when the war ended…WRONG.

THE  government stated that this Prohibition act would save:

                          40 Million bushels of grain

Thousands and thousands of bushels of COAL…save gasoline…and

Other resources…they didn’t  mention the lost of jobs…and the Millions upon millions of tax dollars the gvt would lose by not being able to tax BOOZE…idiots.

The men who knew said that already before the deadline was announced that there was 232,404,870 gallons of whiskey STORED in warehouses across the USA> Also how many gallons were already stored in homes…taverns…liquor retailers and wholesalers…Nobody knew for sure but they had a hell of a lot of it that was for sure.

So all of this under the auspices of   SECTION 15 of the FOOD CONTROL LAW…the Wartime Prohibition Act.

Peoria…Distilleries could stay open for medicinal and government needs…but that was not enough business. They would also make  white vinegar…denatured alcohol…malted milk products and other food products…also Straight alcohol…a hell of a lot different than distilled Spirits..

So it statred from a order from Herbert Hoover on August 10, 1917 giving roughly 30 days to  Close.

Prices rose… 

 

                            THE DISTILLERIES USED

 

The distilleries bought from the farmer so much that the poor farmer had to die a thousand deaths looking at the new law.

 

15     Million bushels of corn…350 bushels of coal…paid real estate taxes, state, city taxes and about 314  Million to Uncle SAM…What a bunch of idiots thanks to the do-gooders…the religious idiot temperance jerks. Loss of jobs.

The corn growers stood to lose 50 million dollars.

Peoria paid 1/17^th of the governments income in 1917 when this all came about even in 1905 era that meant 35 million bucks.

                                     THE NATIONAL SOUSE

This great  pasttime began to get readership when the Wartime Prohibition Act should have ended…remember Prohibition the big P…was coming and the WETS wanted a moratorium between the DRY period and the Wet Period to begin…NOW…

So on June 30-1919  it looked like they were going to extend the DRY Period..

Remember the wartime act ALLOWED the sale of booze…the sale…not the manufacturing of Booze…so it looked like June 30 it would all end.

So…America decided to have one last BOOZE fling…or that’s what the papers said…so that is how the title National Souse Night began.

 

The War ended 11-11-1918  so get rid of the damn Wartime Prohibition Act…it wasn’t that easy because the congress had to pass the laws to do this…if they didn’t the question was…would the wartime prohibition act END///

 

The fine was $1,000.00 plus a year in the PEN for violators...so the open taverns etc./.stood to get arrested...so the Last big night came to Peoria, Ill.

 

What happened?

 

Well in Peoria the newspaper reported that it was just boring…a few “whoops and hollers, a few serious drinkers pondering the fate of booze, and although the bars were pretty well packed…that was pretty much the nature of the beast anyway. Only 25 people got arrested 13 for public disorder and 12 for being  drunk…Wow.

 

So the next day it was July 1, 1919 and some tavern owners went about business as usual…Our attorney general and the US Attorney General came out with statements that the War Prohibition Act was still the law…No more alcohol was going to be manufactured…so the 1917 law was still in effect…so what really happened was the price of booze went up…the order was NOT to shut down the taverns…all the other laws of the Wartime Period were still in effect UNTIL Congress met to reconvene and fix it or screw it up.