Ira L. Reeves

Ira L. Reeves was a hard-line, teetotaling army colonel appointed to be the Prohibition administrator in the very "wet" state of New Jersey. He plunged into the job with the intent to dry out the district. The first thing he did was remove corrupt officials. Then he went straight for the source of the problem by raiding underground breweries and stills, as opposed to speakeasies. But Reeves found the public as well as local police agencies to be uncooperative and even hostile to his tactics. Some of his agents were even arrested by local police for firing their guns into the air when an angry mob threatened them. A frustrated Reeves resigned from his post four months later.

The following chapter is from his book Ol' Rum River in which Reeves advocates the total repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment...