Rat Pack Repeal: Willys Warns of Ruin

June 14, 1932, was a day of reckoning for the Prohibition era. In a bombshell statement, John N. Willys, motor car magnate and former ambassador to Poland, announced his support for the repeal of the 18th Amendment. Willys, a self-proclaimed abstainer, returned from Warsaw to declare his stance, echoing the sentiments of John D. Rockefeller Jr., who had recently come out in favor of repeal. The 18th Amendment, which banned the sale of liquor, had been a thorn in the side of the nation for nearly a decade, and Willys was not afraid to speak his mind. ‘This country will go to wrack and ruin if it is not changed and changed soon,’ he warned. Willys lambasted the Prohibition laws, claiming that they were ‘losing so much by taxes that we don’t collect and we are spending so much money in trying to enforce a law that nobody will obey.’ The nation was on the brink of chaos, and Willys’ words were a wake-up call to the politicians and law enforcement agencies that had failed to stem the tide of bootlegging and organized crime. As the nation struggled to come to terms with the consequences of Prohibition, Willys’ statement marked a turning point in the debate, paving the way for the eventual repeal of the 18th Amendment in 1933.