04/09/2006 May Day - Research (Part 4)

‘“What you say we see if we can getta holda some liquor?” Prohibition was not yet. The ginger in the suggestion was caused by the law forbidding the selling of liquor to soldiers’ (page 75).

World War One helped strengthen the argument for prohibition in regards to saving the grain used for making alcohol for food for soldiers. The first nationwide prohibition law to go into effect was the law banning the sale of liquor to soldiers[1]. This is why Key and Rose are unable to drink but the attendees at the Gamma Psi dance are. The prohibition of alcohol in the United States wasn’t as immediate as one may think; in fact prohibition was a gradual change that was eventually nationalized in 1919. The Volstead Act, better known as The National Prohibition Act, was officially enacted in Janruary 1920.

“By the time national prohibition took effect in January 1920, thirty-three states (63 percent of the total population) had prohibited intoxicating liquors” (Answers).

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. “May Day”. Tales of the Jazz Age. First Pine Street Books: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2003.
Answers.com
[1] The Drug Library