The Repeal Movement, pt. 2 - Pierre Du Pont

My post last week was about Pauline Sabin, a key figure in the movement to repeal the 18th amendment. This week, I'm writing about another person who was instrumental in the repeal cause, but for very different reasons.

Pierre Du Pont was also a prominent society figure, thanks to the fact that he was the chairman of his family’s massive chemicals company as well as the chairman of the General Motors Corporation. Du Pont’s interest in the repeal cause appears to have been driven by different motivations than those of Ms. Sabin. While he was, in many ways, a classic Republican who believed in the importance of individual liberty and individual decision-making, Du Pont’s primary interest in repeal was financial. Like Sabin, Du Pont initially had positive feelings about Prohibition, as he thought that it might make American workers more productive. However, with time this position shifted; he saw that productivity had not increased, Americans were still drinking, and the government was inserting itself into the lives of citizens in a way that made him deeply uneasy. He joined and became hugely influential in (and bankrolled) the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment (AAPA), an organization made of up mostly prominent American businessmen that was dedicated to the repeal cause.

Du Pont was disturbed by what he perceived to be overreaching and over taxation by the federal government. As not only the leader of giant, profitable American businesses but also a very wealthy man who enjoyed a high compensation on an annual basis, he had a vested interest in reducing his tax burden and the tax burden on his companies. This was the primary driver of his commitment to repeal. Du Pont at one point explained the AAPA’s stance on repeal by saying, “the object of the Association is not merely to return the use of alcoholic beverages in the United States…Another important factor is the tremendous loss of revenue to our Government through the Prohibition Laws”. He went on to say that after repeal, “The revenue of the Government would be increased sufficiently to warrant the abolition of the income tax and corporation tax.” Du Pont believed that if the government were again able to tax the sale of intoxicating liquors, there would be no need for other burdensome taxes, and Du Pont and his companies would enjoy the benefits of additional cash in the pocket. He threw himself almost full time into advocating for the repeal cause, and used his significant personal wealth and the stature of the AAPA’s membership to rally politicians and other leaders to support full repeal of the 18th Amendment.