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18 the Great Depression. e "wets" finally got their wish on December 5, 1933, when the states ratified the Twenty-first Amendment, repealing the national prohibition on liquor sales. Individual jurisdictions, though, were able to extend the ban, and Washington, DC, with its complicated role as the capital city, delayed legalization. And once authorized liquor was available, it generally cost more than the bootlegged variety. 41 A full year aer repeal, a liquor lobbyist pleaded his case before Congress. Ammon McClellan, executive director of the League of Distilled Spirits Rectifiers, argued that high taxes and a "scrambled" legal system kept the bootleggers in business. In fact, he had information that the Man in the Green Hat still oper- ated on Capitol Hill. And not just Cassiday, but "gray hats and green hats and brown hats and even derbies are hangers-on at the Capitol." 42 McClellan blamed the ease of tax evasion, as well as "people who would 'stoop' to buy from a bootlegger." He certainly had a point. In the post-repeal environment, bootleggers offered a tax- free product. But they also provided something a little less tan- gible: a "general spirit of good fellowship and conviviality." Aer all, no legitimate whiskey peddler could ever replace the Man in the Green Hat, a man who went door-to-door, led sing-alongs and poker games, and made a Washington office building feel like home, not just for himself, but for all of his customer friends. JANE ARMSTRONG HUDIBURG, M.A., is a regular contributor to e Capitol Dome. She is the Student Programs Coordinator for the Maryland General Assembly and a freelance writer specializing in the history of the Senate and congressional biographies. Formerly, she worked as a tour guide for the Capi- tol Guide Ser vice, as a writer/researcher for the U.S. Senate Historical Office, and as an American history college instructor. is photograph of the congressional "wet block" was taken aer a meeting to discuss "wet legislation." It includes Rep. John Phillip Hill, chairman of the wet block ( ont row, fourth om le in dark coat), and some of the 61 wet members. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION