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1932 › Herbert Hoover (Republican) › National Prohibition
Resubmit the Eighteenth Amendment so each state may decide, with constitutional guarantees against the saloon and against interference with dry states; enforce the law meanwhile
pledge_forwardspecific_pledgecandidate_directevidence A Prohibition & AlcoholSociety & Rights⚡ National Prohibition similar solutions · similar reasoning
Solution
Support a constitutional change giving each state the right to deal with liquor as it determines, subject to federal guarantees protecting dry states from invasion and forbidding the saloon's return anywhere; continue enforcing existing law; oppose the Democratic plan as destroying 'every vestige' of federal control.
Rationale
Laws opposed by majority sentiment 'produce degeneration and crime,' but the old saloon 'debauched the home' and corrupted politics — 'either of them are intolerable, and they are not the only ways out.'
Statements (6)
We therefore believe that the people should have an opportunity to pass upon a proposed amendment the provision of which, while retaining in the Federal Government power to preserve the gains already made in dealing with the evils inherent in the liquor traffic, shall allow the States to deal with the problem as their citizens may determine, but subject always to the power of the Federal Government to protect those States where prohibition may exist and safeguard our citizens everywhere from the return of the saloon and attendant abuses.
We do not favor a submission limited to the issue of retention or repeal, for the American nation never in its history has gone backward, and in this case the progress which has been thus far made must be preserved, while the evils must be eliminated.
It is my conviction that the nature of this change, and one upon which all reasonable people can find common ground, is that each State shall be given the right to deal with the problem as it may determine, but subject to the absolute guarantees in the Constitution of the United States to protect each State from interference and invasion by its neighbors, and that in no part of the United States shall there be a return of the saloon system with its inevitable political and social corruption and its organized interference with other States and other communities.
The first duty of the President of the United States is to enforce the laws as they exist. That I shall continue to do to the best of my ability.
Our opponents pledge the members of their party to destroy every vestige of constitutional and effective Federal control of the traffic.
Characterization of the Democratic plank that Roosevelt called a deliberate misrepresentation at Sea Girt.
I would be glad if you would reply to any such misrepresentations that my position is unaltered. In that address I set forth my conclusions clearly and unmistakably.
Denying reports that he had shifted toward the drys after the acceptance speech.
Follow-through
superseded
The lame-duck Congress proposed the Twenty-first Amendment on February 20, 1933 (Hoover neither signed nor could veto a constitutional amendment); it contained the Section 2 protection of dry states Hoover demanded but no anti-saloon guarantee. Ratified December 1933.
Mechanisms
| Date | Type | Name | Effect | Consistent? | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1933-02-20 | other | Congress proposes the Twenty-first Amendment | Submitted to state conventions during Hoover's last two weeks. | partly | Message to Congress on Repeal of the Volstead Act. |
Assessments
Repeal proceeded on the Democratic plan (outright repeal with dry-state protection) rather than Hoover's constructive-change formula.
Enacted by others
| 1933-12-05 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | other Twenty-first Amendment ratification | Repeal with dry-state protection; the anti-saloon clause was left to states. source |
Other positions on this issue
- Repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment as a matter of states' rights — Albert C. Ritchie, 1932 specific_pledge
- Outright repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment — the issue Roosevelt was downplaying — Alfred E. Smith, 1932 specific_pledge
- Repeal the Eighteenth Amendment by state conventions; legalize beer now; states control liquor and bar the saloon — Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 specific_pledge
- Repeal the Eighteenth Amendment — the candidate preferring a binding national referendum — Norman Thomas, 1932 specific_pledge
1932-hoover-prohibition-resubmit-to-states-no-saloon · created by claude-fable-5-1 · review: unreviewed