Monday, July 22, 2019

Tuesday July 22, 1919. The Motor Transport Convoy makes Iowa, Volstead Act Passes the House.


The Motor Transport Convoy made 90 miles on this day in 1919, besting their previous record set yesterday, arriving in Clinton Iowa after 10.24 hours on the road.

On the same day, in Washington D. C., where riots had finally been stopped, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Volstead Act, the bill to provide for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment.

Andrew Volstead.

The act was named after Andrew Volstead, who introduced the act.  It was actually largely drafted, however, by Wayne Wheeler of the Anti Saloon League.   Volstead, a lawyer and a Congressman from Minnesota was chairmen of the House Judiciary Committee at the time, and supported the goals of the bill.

Wayne Wheeler.

Volstead would go down in defeat in 1922, when he failed to secure an eleventh term in office.  He would, however, go on to work for the National Prohibition Enforcement Bureau in the role of its chief legal adviser.  Upon Prohibition's repeal, he returned to private practice.  He lived until 1947 and died at age 86.  Wheeler, also an attorney, would not persist as long, falling into criticism as Prohibition proved rapidly unpopular, and dying at age 57, just two weeks after his wife died in a tragic fire.


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