ABSTRACT
The third decade of the twentieth century dawned on an American brewing industry that had been stabbed in the heart. Several generations of temperance efforts had finally achieved what appeared to be total success. The predominant German-American ownership of America’s breweries had run headlong into the anti-German hysteria of the First World War. Temporary brewing restrictions for the war-time purpose of saving grain were, step by step, converted into a permanent banning of beer. With thirty-three of the forty-eight states already dry, National Prohibition, the final step in banning alcohol, lacked the strong, sudden impact that might have been expected, but it ensured that no post-war reanimation of the brewing business was possible. The Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution outlawed the manufacture, sale and transportation of intoxicating liquor, yet failed to define liquor. The enforcing legislation, the Volstead or National Prohibition Enforcement Act, was so extreme that even President Wilson, who favoured the prohibition concept, was forced to veto it. Congress over-rode that veto, and, on 28 October 1919, the stringent 0.5 per cent of alcohol by volume standard became the demarcation point to define ‘alcoholic beverage’. The date the amendment officially came into effect was 16 January 1920, and the few remaining saloons closed.
