Jouett Shouse - Liberty League

Liberty League

After Roosevelt's election, Shouse left his leadership position to become president of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment. That organization played an important role in bringing about the repeal of prohibition in 1933. In this campaign Shouse worked together with Roosevelt's people.

Shouse broke with the liberals and became the president of the American Liberty League, 1934–40, a new conservative organization formed by leading businessmen to oppose parts of the New Deal. Roosevelt received him in the White House for a generous amount of discussion concerning the group's values and concerns, and he left Shouse charmed. Later, however, Roosevelt told the press that Shouse's organization put "too much stress on property rights, too little on human rights." The League, he said, was sworn to "uphold two of the Ten Commandments".

Regarding the controversial National Recovery Administration, Shouse was ambivalent. He commented that "the NRA has indulged in unwarranted excesses of attempted regulation"; on the other hand, he added that "in many regards has served a useful purpose." Shouse said that he had "deep sympathy" with the goals of the NRA, explaining, "While I feel very strongly that the prohibition of child labor, the maintenance of a minimum wage and the limitation of the hours of work belong under our form of government in the realm of the affairs of the different states, yet I am entirely willing to agree that in the case of an overwhelming national emergency the Federal Government for a limited period should be permitted to assume jurisdiction of them."

In 1936 Roosevelt built his campaign on crusading against the American Liberty League as a band of economic royalists.

Shouse practiced law in Kansas City, Missouri as well as in Washington, D.C. In 1953, he was appointed chairman of the Board of Directors of New York City-based Anton Smit and Co. Inc., now part of 3M.