Talk:Volstead Act

Source

Hi Wham- Please note that the material in bold is from “Temperance Movement Groups and Leaders in the U.S.” With every word of this entry being from that page, it is clearly sourced from it and indicating so is not spam. To the contrary it is proper documentation. Thanks. David Justin 01:18, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

The Volstead Act (officially, the National Prohibition Act of 1919) was designed to provide for the implementation of the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which established National Prohibition of alcoholic beverages.

The law was popularly named after congressman Andrew J. Volstead who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee that oversaw its passage. However, Volstead served as the legislation’s sponsor and facilitator rather than its author. It was the Anti-Saloon League’s Wayne Wheeler who conceived and drafted the bill.

The bill was vetoed by President Woodrow Wilson but overridden by Congress on the same day, October 28, 1919. The Volstead Act specified that “no person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized by this act.” It did not specifically prohibit the purchase or use of intoxicating liquors. The act defined intoxicating liquor as any beverage over 0.5% alcohol and superseded all existing prohibition laws in effect in states with such legislation.

In January of 1933, The Blair Act legalized "3.4 beer" (i.e., beer 3.2% alcohol by weight or 4% by volume). Ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment and with it, both National Prohibition of alcohol and the Volstead Act in December of the same year.

Circular Link

I removed the link to National Prohibition Act, since it just redirects here. Would it be better for this article's text to be in that location itself, with Volstead Act redirecting there, since the National Prohibition Act was apparently the official name? Bassington 21:20, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Unrelated information.

Unless the Volstead act is responsible for Utah's restriction on beer with more than 3.2% ABW, I don't think it belongs here.

Removed text:

An interesting sidenote: Utah still prohibits the sale of beer with greater than a 3.2% alcohol content. We affectionately refer to it as "Utah Beer" and often drive to Colorado to buy "Real Beer", which we consume in that state. Transporting "Real Beer" into the state of Utah is still considered "Bootlegging".

Perhaps this should (once rewritten in a more encyclopedic tone) go under Prohibition or Utah? --Benjamin Geiger 18:41, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

From what I just read in this article, a lot of it needs to go to Prohibition in general. This article goes too far into the general effects of Prohibition on the nation. I think it needs to be revised to concentrate on the Act itself, maybe with more details about its wording and its specific history.--Donovan Ravenhull 13:25, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

The Agency

A paragraph near the end of the article began 'In 1968, with the passage of the Gun Control Act, the agency changed its name again, this time to the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division of the IRS and first began to be referred to by the initials "ATF."'. This was the first reference to 'the agency' (though the previous paragraph introduces the Federal Alcohol Administration) and the first reference to anything 'changing its name'.

I presume that this paragraph was left behind by successive edits, and have changed it to 'In 1968, with the passage of the Gun Control Act, the FAA became the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division of the IRS and began to be referred to by the initials "ATF."'. I'm guessing that the 'again' which I have expunged indicates that the agency had other names in between, but not knowing anything about the subject, I thought I would ask here if there was information which should be added to Federal Alcohol Administration? --ColinFine (talk) 07:16, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

What happened to violators after repeal?

Would anyone have info on what happened to sentenced violators of the Volstead Act after its repeal? Were those still serving a sentence exonerated? Were convictions expunged? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aforementioned (talk • contribs) 00:39, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

Contradiction

There seems to be a contradiction in the 'procedure' section of this article. Specifically, the page reads "it did not define "intoxicating liquors", and two paragraphs on it states "The act defined intoxicating liquor as any beverage containing more than 0.5% alcohol by volume". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.189.144.67 (talk) 01:41, 15 October 2013 (UTC)

President's Opposition and Response - Celmency

Should the article discuss how Wilson and FDR used presidential pardons to 100s for alcohol convictions. The Atlantic summarized alcohol clemency in a July article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Timetraveler3.14 (talk • contribs) 05:44, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

Women's View on Prohibition

(I am new to Wiki so excuse any errors in my work) I had wanted to add information as to women's view of prohibition during the time by using the following sources...

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/volstead-act http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?id=347 https://daily.jstor.org/feminist-history-prohibition/ Sierrawiley2 (talk) 19:39, 8 February 2018 (UTC)

First line says “enact the intent”

That is wrong. The intent was to make liquor sales illegal. This act perverted the intent to make all (or most) alcohol illegal. This is a good example of progressivism. Shouldn’t that be noted in the article. Solri89 (talk) 16:14, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

Find a reliable source for this and maybe. Britmax (talk) 17:18, 25 December 2018 (UTC)

Valentine Act?

In the summary information section, "Valentine Act" is listed as another nickname, however no attribution is given, and it is not mentioned elsewhere in the text, and I have not found any other reference to this name online. Can anyone back this up? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.102.97.26 (talk) 09:46, 14 January 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Hist401

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 23 January 2023 and 12 May 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Historynerdd22, History323, Ela0521, Megatron888 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Ujoive23, CaseyChoCSULB.

— Assignment last updated by AliResen (talk) 05:17, 11 May 2023 (UTC)