Publish Date: Dec. 4, 1933
Cover Story: Rum Rush
How TIME Covered the News: The U.S. eagerly prepared to wet its whistle once again beginning December 5, following a 13-year dry spell mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment. Leading this unprecedented influx of booze was Seton Porter of National Distillers, a major player before Prohibition who leveraged his company to ensure he’d have a 50% stake of the U.S. whiskey market when the the ban fell, thanks to the 21st Amendment.
“The new liquor business is not a rebirth of the old. Clearing the two is more than Prohibition. The War and post-War period so rusted the old machinery that even the base castings had to be scrapped. Liquormen know they will be exposed to fierce public criticism. What got under their skins at the code hearings last week was Washington’s bland assumption that they were totally incapable of self-discipline.”