The Weekly Winston: Thoughts on Prohibition

Will Rogers quipped, “Well, Prohibition is better than no liquor at all.”  Churchill took a similarly jaunty view of this ridiculous experiment in progressive legislation (which is making a comeback today with people like Nurse Bloomberg).  Anyway, a couple of Churchill’s observations on the matter:

It is possible that the dry, bracing electrical atmosphere of North America makes the use of alcohol less necessary and more potent than the moist, humid climate of Britain. . .  I must confess that on one occasion I was taken to a “speakeasy.”  I went, of course, in my capacity as a Social Investigator. . .

It was explained to me that nothing in the laws of the United States forbids the convivial consumption in a private house of any stores of liquor which happened to be in the host’s private cellars before Prohibition became effective in 1920.  Many people must have had very large and well-stocked cellars in those distant days, and these supplies have lasted extremely well.  Indeed one might almost believe that, like the widow’s cruse, they miraculously replenish themselves.

Heh.

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