The Lever Food And Fuel Control Act

Back in August 1917, the government passed the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act. This measure was passed, in theory, to control food and fuel during the First World War. It passed with the support of prohibitionists. What the act did was prohibit the use of food to make distilled spirits. It also gave the government the authority to take steps to initiate other measures to control food and fuel production.

This Act of Congress virtually shut down the whiskey industry and is the main reason you don’t find whiskey from the Prohibition era that was made in 1918 or 1919. It was also called wartime prohibition. The distilling industry was still making high proof alcohol to support the war industries, but they were prohibited from making beverage distilled spirits. The war ended in November 1918, but the Prohibition amendment had passed through congress and was being ratified by the States when the war ended, so they extended the prohibition of beverage spirits indefinitely.

The Prohibition amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified on January 16, 1919 and was to take effect one year later. President Woodrow Wilson vetoed the Volstead Act, that was to enforce Prohibition, but Congress overturned the veto. Wartime prohibition was extended until the Volstead Act came into law. Prohibition was now in effect.

The government set up the Prohibition Bureau in 1920 to enforce the new law. It was part of the Internal Revenue Department until President Hoover, with congressional approval, transferred authority to the Department of Justice in 1930. The Bureau was ineffective with agents being paid low salaries and corruption was rampant. Smuggling of spirits from Mexico and Canada, as well as offshore, kept a flow of distilled spirits coming into the country. Moonshining was a national industry and organized crime was leading these operations. Prohibition was a doomed law.

Prohibition came to an end on December 5, 1933. Because of the Lever Food and Fuel Act, it lasted 25 years ceasing the production of beverage spirits, even though you could still legally purchase spirits up to January 16, 1920. Even during Prohibition, you could purchase one pint of 100 proof spirits every ten days with a prescription from a doctor. Alcohol was a vital part of the economy and this fact doomed Prohibition.