The Moderation League of New York was an organization founded in 1923 in opposition to prohibition.

History

The Moderation League was founded in 1923 by Austen George Fox and "six other wealthy residents of New York City" to change the

Volstead Act The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was an act of the 66th United States Congress, designed to carry out the intent of the 18th Amendment (ratified January 1919), which established the prohibition of alcoholic d ...

's legal definition of the "intoxicating liquors" prohibited by the

Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Eighteenth Amendment (Amendment XVIII) of the United States Constitution established the prohibition of alcohol in the United States. The amendment was proposed by Congress on December 18, 1917, and was ratified by the requisite number of ...

establishing

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

. This seemed to its members to be an achievable goal, whereas the

repeal of prohibition The repeal of Prohibition in the United States was accomplished with the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 5, 1933. Background In 1919, the requisite number of state legislatures ratified the Eig ...

seemed at that point an impossible achievement. The League worked closely with the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutu ...

and the Constitutional Liberty League of Massachusetts. In 1926, the League conducted a survey of 602 police departments that found that Prohibition law violations had dramatically risen over time, and that the "increase in arrests was up more in those states that were already dry before National Prohibition". While the Moderation League was unsuccessful in its battle over the alcohol content, it helped win the repeal of National Prohibition with the

Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution The Twenty-first Amendment (Amendment XXI) to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide prohibition on alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment was proposed by ...

Directors

Besides Fox (a close ally of

Elihu Root Elihu Root (; February 15, 1845February 7, 1937) was an American lawyer, Republican politician, and statesman who served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War in the early twentieth century. He also served as United States Senator from N ...

), the others involved were E. N. Brown, James A. Burden (father of James A. Burden Jr.), John G. Agar,

James Speyer James Joseph Speyer (July 22, 1861 – October 31, 1941) was an American banker based in the city of New York. Speyer was a well-known figure on Wall Street and the firm of Speyer & Co. was well respected. It closed in 1939. Speyer was actively i ...

and Martin Vogel of New York and Thomas D. Stokes of Long Beach.

References

Prohibition in the United States 1923 establishments in New York City Political organizations based in the United States Organizations established in 1923 {{Activism-stub

History

Directors

See also

References