End of Prohibition Locally, York County, South Carolina

End of Prohibition Locally
By: Louise Pettus

The 18th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution, passed in 1919, went into operation on January 16, 1920. It prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. The Volstead Act, passed by Congress on October 28, 1919 was designed to enforce the 18th Amendment. That is the way it was for the nation but the textbooks don’t tell that in S. C. statewide prohibition took effect in 1916, a full three years before the 18th Amendment became the national law.

The 18th Amendment proved to be unenforceable and was repealed February 20, 1933. A month later the Volstead Act was amended to permit the sale of 3.2 percent beer and wine. This provision would only last until the 21st Amendment was ratified (which came about in December of 1933).

So, what happened locally in that time period between February and December 1933 related to alcohol consumption? The South Carolina legislature, as soon as the 21st Amendment passed, passed a “beer and wine tax.” In South Carolina the state's liquor law reverted to 1895 Constitution, which allowed beer to be sold in taverns but not liquor.

The state was to get 40 per cent of the beer and wine tax, the county 40 per cent and the town it was sold in would get 20 per cent. The state taxes were reserved for the school fund. A 15 cent bottle of beer was taxed 2 cents.

Taking the months of July, August and September (state checks to the county were paid quarterly), York County received $1,653.81. This indicated about 200,000 bottles of beer were sold in York County in a three month period.

None of the beer was manufactured in South Carolina. The brewers were in Northern or Miidwestern states. It was noted that $30,000 left the county in the three month period and that $30,000, if it had stayed in York county would have bought 275,000 lbs. of flour or enough to feed 2,000 tenant families for a month.

The average taxes of York county farms was around $45 a year in 1933. It was calculated that the $30,000 spent on beer in the three months and sent North would have paid the taxes of 666 York County farmers. “Sending our money North” still rankled. Memories of the Civil War were still vivid in 1933. Every community seemed to have one, or more, old Civil War veterans.

In November South Carolina voters overwhelmingly voted against repeal of the Prohibition Amendment. The only county in the state to vote “wet” (in favor of repeal) was Charleston. York county was dry two to one. Lancaster county was dry over two to one and Chester county was dry three to one.

Some people, noting that in this election as many women voted as men, concluded that all, or nearly all, of the women voted dry and that tilted the election to the dries. But an analysis of the vote made this assumption questionable. The Yorkville Enquier editor wrote: “After the ballot count is over, it is very evident that many men talking like they would vote wet voted dry, and hundreds of them who talked wet did not do so, but simply stayed away from the polls willing to talk for repeal, but not caring to vote that way.”

One of the predictions had been that the mill workers would turn out heavily and would vote wet. That didn’t happen.

The state legislature, which had been confident that the wets would win the state, rushed a bill through that was dubbed the “Quart a Month” bill. The bill allowed all men over 21 and all women over 21 who had families to order a quart of whiskey each month for medicinal purposes. No student, even if over 21, would be issued a permit. Wine permits were issued only to ministers and church officers for the purpose of not more than a gallon of wine per month to use for religious purposes.

The permits were to handled by the probate judge’s office in each county.

The judge was the one to order the blanks. York’s Judge Nunn said that he had already spent all the money allotted to him on supplies and would not order any.

However,Munn said if the York county delegation would provide them he would accept them and would issue the permits. Less than a month later the question was moot. The 21st Amendment went into effect.