Bootleggers’ Grip on Washington: A Taxing Problem

December 13, 1933, will go down in history as the day the government finally acknowledged the elephant in the room: the bootlegger’s stranglehold on Washington, D.C. For weeks, members of the legitimate liquor industry, eager to pay taxes and put the bootleggers out of business, had been pleading with officials to develop real competition. But it seemed like a lost cause, as mixed and conflicting purposes plagued the government’s policy-making process.

David Lawrence, a keen observer of the situation, noted that a group of officials wanted to curb excessive drinking by introducing a new kind of federal prohibition, while another faction focused on limiting the activities of the lawful industry rather than driving out the bootleggers. The bootleggers, those unfair competitors of lawful liquor makers, had been running amok, evading taxes and undermining the government’s revenue collectors.

The men from the legitimate industry, who had come to Washington to cooperate with the government, pleaded for a low tax, especially the first. They knew that the key to driving out the bootleggers lay in developing real competition, not in half-hearted measures that would only serve to further enrich the illicit trade. But their pleas fell on deaf ears, as the government’s priorities seemed to be elsewhere.

As the debate raged on, it became clear that the government’s approach was woefully inadequate. Rather than tackling the root of the problem – the bootleggers themselves – officials were content to nibble at the edges, imposing restrictions on the lawful industry that only served to drive it further underground. It was a recipe for disaster, and one that would only serve to embolden the bootleggers and further undermine the government’s authority.

The men from the legitimate industry knew that they were up against a formidable foe, one that had been built up over years of corruption and exploitation. But they refused to give up, even in the face of overwhelming odds. They knew that the only way to put the bootleggers out of business was to develop real competition, and they were willing to fight for it.