Freedom Fries
President Calvin Coolidge introduced the Volstead Act on Jan 17th, 1920, thereby introducing prohibition in the United States.
There were a coupla reasons for this.
One of them was predictable considering Coolidge's party affiliation (Republican) - The 1920's were one of the periods of heavy immigration into the US, with a good portion of Europe still in tatters after World War I. Most of the immigrants were Irish, German and Italian. Coolidge claimed that prohibition would be one way to protect the US against the "pollution" of the beer and wine drinking immigrants !
Also, prohibition had been made into a patriotic issue during the elections - There was a heightened sense of patriotism due to the war and intense hatred for Germany and Italy whom the US fought against, in the war. And so the second reason for prohibition was this:
The Germans drink beer, and so, in order to be patriotic, we must not drink beer
The Italians drink wine, and so, in order to be patriotic, we must not drink wine
Of course, prohibition was a colossal failure and indirectly gave a huge amount of financial clout to the mafia, including Al Capone.
The "Don't drink beer because we hate the Germans" thing reminded me of something more recent - The renaming of French Fries as Freedom Fries !!
There were a coupla reasons for this.
One of them was predictable considering Coolidge's party affiliation (Republican) - The 1920's were one of the periods of heavy immigration into the US, with a good portion of Europe still in tatters after World War I. Most of the immigrants were Irish, German and Italian. Coolidge claimed that prohibition would be one way to protect the US against the "pollution" of the beer and wine drinking immigrants !
Also, prohibition had been made into a patriotic issue during the elections - There was a heightened sense of patriotism due to the war and intense hatred for Germany and Italy whom the US fought against, in the war. And so the second reason for prohibition was this:
The Germans drink beer, and so, in order to be patriotic, we must not drink beer
The Italians drink wine, and so, in order to be patriotic, we must not drink wine
Of course, prohibition was a colossal failure and indirectly gave a huge amount of financial clout to the mafia, including Al Capone.
The "Don't drink beer because we hate the Germans" thing reminded me of something more recent - The renaming of French Fries as Freedom Fries !!
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