The 18th Amendment, which ushered in Prohibition, had forced an estimated 250,000 alcohol industry employees out of work. Lifestyle adjustments made by women and families were definitely a contributing factor that helped close the gap in the final years of the crisis. "If FDR's New Deal Didn't End the Depression, Then It Was World War II That Did," Accessed April 22, 2020. That’s what should be, but isn’t, in every history book. “What is history but a fable agreed upon?” Napoleon said. Countering ISIS is not a jobs program. Other historians believe that the amount of spending the government did only masked the effects of the Great Depression. Though Roosevelt, a martini drinker, just like his opponent Hoover, had previously waffled on the issue of lawful booze, he embraced it during the campaign, saying the legalization of beer alone would “increase the federal revenue by several hundred million dollars a year.” The Democrats—perceived as the “wet party,” Peck explains—even inserted repeal of Prohibition into their party platform, which, no surprise, stressed economic relief above all else. Roosevelt ended up trouncing the Republican Hoover with 57.4 percent of the popular vote. ), READ MORE: The Improbable Prohibition Agents Who Outsmarted Speakeasy Agents. War in self-defense might be necessary to protect our families, but any economic growth derived from it is far less beneficial than growth derived from free people making individual decisions on what to consume and in what to invest. History >> The Great Depression When did the Great Depression end? But a war is no way to fix an economy. The Great Depression didn't just end one day and everything was all better. - Stephen Moore is chief economist at the Heritage Foundation. By that time, though, the Great Depression was in full swing, and the nation’s mood had changed. On Temporary Leave | Stephen Moore is the Distinguished Visiting Fellow for Project for Economic Growth at The Heritage Foundation. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Then the economy collapsed, and the “noble experiment” crumbled along with it. But it did fund much of the New Deal, with alcohol and other excise taxes bringing in $1.35 billion, nearly half the federal government’s total revenue, in 1934. As for the legislative branch, one prominent bootlegger estimated that he supplied two-thirds of Congress with liquor. It is true that, as the war started, economic output surged, and unemployment fell. Politicians continued drinking as everyday people were slapped with charges. The real reason [Hoover won] is the economy was doing very well at the time, and people didn’t want to vote for a Catholic, especially in the Southern states.”, As late as 1930, Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, the so-called “Father of Prohibition,” declared: “There is as much chance of repealing [Prohibition] as there is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail.”.