The States and the Prohibition Amendment

Report Outline
The Parties and the Eighteenth Amendment
Submission and Ratification of the 18th Amendment
Prohibition Enforcement in the States
Effect of National Repeal on State Liquor Laws
Special Focus

The Parties and the Eighteenth Amendment

The Party Leaders and the Wickersham Report

A decision upholding the validity of the Eighteenth Amendment was handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of United States v. Sprague and Howey on February 24, 1931. The report of the Wickersham Commission proposing a revision of the Eighteenth Amendment was transmitted to Congress on January 20, 1931. During the five weeks that elapsed between the two events lively debates on the social, economic, and political aspects of national prohibition took place in Congress and the state legislatures. Out of the discussion of the political phases of the problem has come the interesting suggestion that one or both parties may stand in 1932 for a resubmission of the Eighteenth Amendment to the states.

The revised amendment drafted by the Wickersham Commission, under which Congress would have power “to regulate or to prohibit” the traffic in intoxicating liquors, has failed to commend itself to the leadership of either party. President Hoover's opposition to the revised amendment was expressed in his special message of January 20 transmitting the Commission's report to Congress. He said:

I do, however, see serious objections to, and therefore must not be understood as recommending, the Commission's proposed revision of the Eighteenth Amendment which is suggested by them for possible consideration at some future time if the continued effort at enforcement should prove unsuccessful.