Sunday, December 8, 2013

This Week Marked the 80th Anniversary of Utahns Vote Against Prohibition

   There was a time, you know, when Utah cast not only a vote, but the deciding vote, in allowing alcohol to flow freely through the streets of our nation.
   This week marked the 80th anniversary of that moment. It was Dec. 5, 1933 when Utah became the 36th and deciding state to vote for changing the Constitution to allow for alcohol, and, with that vote, on that day, the Prohibition ended.
   Repeal Day, it is called. It even has a name, although it is not widely marked.
   And, is it true the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opposed the 21st Amendment? It is. Of a certain, it is. President Heber J. Grant was vocal and unequivical in his stand. Later he would say, "With the help of the Lord to the very best of my ability, I warned this people not to vote for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment." (Conference talk in the spring of 1937)
   "I have never felt so humiliated in my life over anything as that the state of Utah voted for the repeal of Prohibition," President Grant would say about a year after the vote. (Conference talk in the fall of 1934)
   His arguments remain arguments strong.
   Is it a matter of agency? The 89th Section of a book of scripture called the Doctrine and Covenants does say the Lord's Word of Wisdom was given "not by commandment or constraint. To that, President Grant replied, "I think one of the weakest excuses I ever heard in my life is that one -- 'not by commandment or constraint' -- when before the verse ends it tells you that it is the will of God."
   Today, the accepted wisdom is that the Prohibition just did not work. It was a failure. I do not know that that accepted wisdom is true. President Grant did not believe it so. In the 1937 Conference talk, he said,  "I warned them against lies that were being circulated to the effect that there was more drunkenness and more use of liquor than there had been when we did not have Prohibition."
http://kristacook.blogspot.com/2010/08/prohibition-heber-j-grant-and-same.html


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