Question

Why didn't the federal local governments collect an excise tax on alcohol during prohibition

Answer 1

For decades prior to the Prohibition (i.e., the legal ban of alcoholic drinks) made possible by the Eighteen Amendment, different Christian churches and organizations had been objecting to the consumption of alcohol since they considered it as the source of most debauchery and moral decadence. Their goal was made clear to the federal government: alcohol should be completely banned in order to clean society up. An excise tax on alcohol would have been rejected by all the moralistic groups advocating for prohibition as a mild and ineffective measure