Ed Helms
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
News of Norris' essay splashed all over the New York papers.
News of Norris' essay splashed all over the New York papers.
And the stories land well beyond the Big Apple. It was news in Florida.
And the stories land well beyond the Big Apple. It was news in Florida.
And with that tsunami of media coverage, Norris and Gettler finally get people to take note. And you know what? Americans across the country were up in arms. One priest in a working class Chicago parish nailed it when he said, quote, they give the good stuff to the sewers and the bad stuff to the people. The outrage reached the Capitol, too.
And with that tsunami of media coverage, Norris and Gettler finally get people to take note. And you know what? Americans across the country were up in arms. One priest in a working class Chicago parish nailed it when he said, quote, they give the good stuff to the sewers and the bad stuff to the people. The outrage reached the Capitol, too.
The wet legislators, long outnumbered by the dries in Congress, had been howling against prohibition from the start. And I do want to be clear about this. A small group in Congress had been directly calling out the government's poisoning practices for a few years now.
The wet legislators, long outnumbered by the dries in Congress, had been howling against prohibition from the start. And I do want to be clear about this. A small group in Congress had been directly calling out the government's poisoning practices for a few years now.
A New Jersey senator went as far as to say the federal government was guilty of, quote, legalized murder for adding deadly poisons to the industrial alcohol supply. He even introduced a measure on the floor of Congress to look into the program. But the dries had steamrolled those efforts.
A New Jersey senator went as far as to say the federal government was guilty of, quote, legalized murder for adding deadly poisons to the industrial alcohol supply. He even introduced a measure on the floor of Congress to look into the program. But the dries had steamrolled those efforts.
They held their ground, believed in the moral superiority of their anti-liquor cause, and mocked the wets as drunkards. And when it came to denaturing, they lectured their wet opponents that alcohol itself was a poison. And as Senator Morris Shepard from Texas put it, You can't poison poisons. I mean, you can't fight that logic. But smug quips were losing their traction.
They held their ground, believed in the moral superiority of their anti-liquor cause, and mocked the wets as drunkards. And when it came to denaturing, they lectured their wet opponents that alcohol itself was a poison. And as Senator Morris Shepard from Texas put it, You can't poison poisons. I mean, you can't fight that logic. But smug quips were losing their traction.
Real people were really dying. Morris Shepard might not care. Hardline temperance advocates like James Duran might not care. Mabel Walker Willebrand might not care. Their coalition was willing to break a few eggs as long as America was a dry omelet.
Real people were really dying. Morris Shepard might not care. Hardline temperance advocates like James Duran might not care. Mabel Walker Willebrand might not care. Their coalition was willing to break a few eggs as long as America was a dry omelet.
Now, in 1929, the Wett lawmakers finally had something solid to fight back with, Norris and Gettler's irrefutable data that the government policies were killing thousands. So the Wett legislators took action. They whipped up a bill. It demanded that government chemists stop using their deadliest poisons. They couldn't reach the hardliners, but maybe they didn't have to.
Now, in 1929, the Wett lawmakers finally had something solid to fight back with, Norris and Gettler's irrefutable data that the government policies were killing thousands. So the Wett legislators took action. They whipped up a bill. It demanded that government chemists stop using their deadliest poisons. They couldn't reach the hardliners, but maybe they didn't have to.