Rockefeller Jr. Joins the Fight against Prohibition
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On June 6, 1932, John D. Rockefeller Jr. did something remarkable. He abandoned his long support for Prohibition in what the New York Times called “the most dramatic single event bearing on the liquor question since the adoption of Prohibition.”
The son of Standard Oil Co.’s founder announced his change of position in a letter to Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler, who had called for a repeal of the nation’s alcohol ban. Rockefeller argued that Prohibition had increased drinking, substituted the speakeasy for the saloon, stimulated a spirit of lawbreaking and increased crime to “an unprecedented degree.”