Volstead Act Totalitarianism, II-23

 

That among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness

Section 23 of the National Prohibition Law expanded on the then-popular ideals of a planned economy by force of arms. Many of these ideas are being recycled right now. 

SEC. 23. That any person who shall, with intent to effect a sale of liquor, by himself, his employee, servant, or agent, for himself or any person, company or corporation, keep or carry around on his person, or in a vehicle, or other conveyance whatever, or leave in a place for another to secure, any liquor, or who shall travel to solicit, or solicit, or take, or accept orders for the sale, shipment, or delivery of liquor in violation of this title is guilty of a nuisance and may be restrained by injunction, temporary and permanent, from doing or continuing to do any of said acts or things.

In such proceedings it shall not be necessary to show any intention on the part of the accused to continue such violations if the action is brought within sixty days following any such violation of the law.

For removing and selling property in enforcing this Act the officer shall be entitled to charge and receive the same fee as the sheriff of the county; would receive for levying upon and selling property under execution, and for closing the premises and keeping them closed a reasonable sum shall be allowed by the court.

Any violation of this title upon any leased premises by the lessee or occupant thereof shall, at the option of the lessor, work a forfeiture of the lease.
* * *

The first paragraph is the overreach one expects from totalitarians. The 18th Amendment empowered the Political State to threaten and coerce for manufacture, sale or transportation. Yet the first law enacted, in advance of the date it could be put over by force, added "keep." Any child understand that to keep is to possess. Indeed, Americans desperate over the impending ruin of the nation's economy came back to contest this overreach--but it was too late. By November 15, 1928, Bert Hoover was elected, the Increased Penalties Act was being written up, murder victim Arnold Rothstein's drug empire was revealed and liquor millionaires like Terry Druggan and William Harr of Georgia had been indicted for income tax evasion. The steel trap was again closing around America's ankle, as in 1920, but this time with the Bill of Rights a dead letter and the NY and Chicago stock markets showing record losses at record volume of trading

Possession?! (link)

The Volstead Act is clearly a criminal law, with chain-gang prison terms and confiscatory fines, yet the second part of title 23 waives normal jurisprudence stare decisis requirements for criminal indictments.

Just as nowadays legalized thugs may confiscate your money, goods, auto and home without bothering to file charges, way back then in 1919 the legal language was already in place... recycled from the Civil War income and property tax so ably condemned by Lysander Spooner in "No Treason." That tax, by the way, was published under another forbidding bartenders to serve liquor to soldiers, many of whom, in Washington DC, were black. The next paragraph reinforces the Civil War tax precedent by deputizing privateers as robbers and murderers with instructions to loot, kill if resisted, and help themselves to an extra share for their troubles.(link) Asset forfeiture was the primary cause of the 1929 Crash and Depression, the 1987 Crash and recession, and the Bush Jr. faith-based Crash of 2008. Suicide rates increased all over the world when that 2008 crash hit. Look it up in the charts.(link

Find out the juicy details behind the mother of all economic collapses. Prohibition and The Crash–Cause and Effect in 1929 is available in two languages on Amazon Kindle, each at the cost of a pint of craft beer.

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Brazilian Sci-fi from 1926 featuring the usual beautiful daughter of a scientist touting prohibition and racial collectivism in America’s Black President 2228 by Monteiro Lobato, translated by J Henry Phillips (link)

Three dollars on Amazon Kindle

Brazilian blog


Tagged: 18th Amendment, altruism, collapse, Constitution, libertarian, political clout, prohibition, pseudoscience, repeal, spoiler votes, superstition, totalitarianism, Volstead Act, war,






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