1920s Prohibition Research Paper

On January 16 of 1920, The 18th amendment went into effect. The 18th amendment restricted the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages. Prohibition, as this time came to be known, did not end until December 5, 1933, when the 21st amendment was passed and ratified, ending National Prohibition. Supporters of Prohibition believed that it would help control social problems and economic problems as well. What Prohibition did was the totally opposite, Prohibition became a failure. Prohibition led to an increase in organize crime because violent criminals rose to powers, alcoholic-related crimes increased, and more politicians and police officials became corrupt.

While temperance organizations praised the passing of the 18th amendment as a moral victory and the result of a long battle, many people were not so happy. Most citizens saw this law as a violation of their civil liberties and freedom and protests quickly began. Almost just as quickly, criminality began taking the law in their own hands as six gunmen hijacked a train and stole $100,000 worth of medicinal whiskey in Chicago.

“For those Americans who did not want to go to the effort of making their own liquor, an army of bootleggers, moonshiners, and rumrunners was available to supply the nation with all the booze its citizens could drink” (Hanson). Americans could just buy alcohol from bootleggers, moonshiners, and rumrunners if they did not want to make it themselves because they could find an alcohol seller anywhere. “The Eighteenth Amendment was intended to reduce drinking by abolishing the businesses that made and sold alcohol: breweries, distillers, winemakers, wholesale sellers, and retail establishments such as saloons” (Hanson). The Eighteenth Amendment was made to stop alcohol from getting on the streets but it did no use so they got rid of the Eighteenth Amendment. The temperance movement and the prohibition on alcohol helped stop most of the drinking in the United States of America.

During the 1920’s there was an experiment in the U.S. “The Prohibition”, this experiment, made by the government, was written as the 18th amendment. The prohibition led to the bootlegging, increase in crimes, and gang wars.

Between 1900 and 1913 more Americans began to drink more and more alcohol with the production of beer jumping from 1.2 million to 2 billion gallons; three times more alcohol than the average American drinks now.1 Prohibition was a movement sparked by women since women thought they were the ones who suffered the most from the cause of alcohol and women though that alcohol was a threat to a happy family. Women wanted to pass prohibition because many men would go to saloons and go home and be abusive towards their wives and children. Women and other groups eventually got 46 of the 48 states to ratify the 18th amendment on January 16, 1919.2 The 18th amendment on article one says, "...the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited."3 The first article on the 18th amendment is saying that the sale, making, or even bringing liquor into the United States or any of the United States' territory will now be illegal. Prohibition began to show its weakness right away when the United Sates government did not show much support. After the first year of prohibition the American people started to show less support and even led to organized crime. In 1933, the United States Constitution was amended to repeal the 18th amendment in the form of the 21st amendment.4 Even

The 18th amendment was the banning of making, selling, distribution, and possession of alcohol. This amendment was ratified on January 29th, 1919(Rebman9). Many people were for the ratification of the 18th amendment, many were also against the ratification. This ratification however caused for the modifying of cars to run faster which would lead into running from the cops. The people who ran from cops were usually delivering alcohol to places or people. There were also secret bars, and places to hangout to drink alcohol without cops knowing known as “speak easies”. Speak easies were hidden on side-streets, or alleyways in underground buildings or dugout buildings. This helped raise the crime rates

The Prohibition Era was a period of time when the entire nation was expected to be alcohol-free, or “dry”. In January 1919, prohibitionists achieved the ratification of the eighteenth amendment to the constitution, “forbidding the manufacture, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquors.” The activists in the Temperance Movement had lobbied and pushed for this ratification for decades. Temperance activists consisted of women, church members, and employers. The main concern was centered around the idea that liquor made alcoholics and irresponsible people. The widespread support for the liquor ban was reflected in its approval by more

In 1919, The US ratified the 18th Amendment which is declared illegal to manufacture, transport, and sell alcoholic beverages. Between from 1920 to 1933 America has promulgated prohibition who drunk because most men drunk in most times even during break time off work. They gradually lost their control and taking abuse, crime on their children. A lot of problems happened in the family like violence, fighting, and the worse thing is the divorce. Drunken men who did not work at all would not be able to afford, provide, and care for their families. America repealed Prohibition for three main reasons during this time: the Volstead Act because it was a law, the act of Congress that helped to prevent people from selling alcohol, illegal but it failed, Progressive Movement because it showed how many serious problems happened behind drinking that affected to life, and social evils of drinking. While there are three main causes, the most significant cause the repeal of Prohibition in America was social evils or consequences of drinking because in (Doc. B) homicides increased which made crime raised and thousands of Americans killed, the scenes of the US government (Doc.D) because the governor violated the law, and depression (Doc. A) because Uncle Sam, the US government worked with gangsters, racketeer, bootlegger, and dope seller.

In 1917 was the point in history where Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment to amend the Constitution which stated that it prohibited the export, import, manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States. This law sparked rebellion in American citizens across the nation; many people thought this law violated their right to live by their own standards. The implementation of the 18th amendment created a large number of bootleggers who were able to supply the public with illegal alcohol. Many of these bootleggers became very rich and influential through selling alcohol, gambling and using other methods. The prohibition era allowed for organized crime to flourish and these practices are still used today.

Although the temperance movement was concerned with the habitual drunk, its primary goal was total abstinence and the elimination of liquor. With the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, the well-organized and powerful political organizations, utilizing no holds barred political tactics, successfully accomplished their goal. Prohibition became the law of the land on January 16, 1920; the manufacturing, importation, and sale of alcohol was no longer legal in the United States. Through prohibition, America embarked on what became labeled “the Nobel Experiment.” However, instead of having social redeeming values as ordained, prohibition had the opposite effect of its intended purpose, becoming a catastrophic failure.

January 1920, the opening year of the 18th Amendment that sought banning “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” within the United States and its US territories. Many Americans relate this era with speakeasy, public law breaking, and a public disregard for the establishment of prohibition. The 18th Amendment was the first constitutional amendment that sought to limit the rights of citizens and their rights to drink. This would become an attempt that many would soon come to realize as one of the greatest failures in law enforcement in American History. For if an American wants to drink, those with the American spirit for rebellion will surly offer him one.

The 18th amendment was ratified by congress on January 16, 1919 in which the selling and distribution of “intoxicating liquors” was banned. That was the start of what many called the dry decade in the United States. Norman H. Clark’s Deliver Us from Evil: An Interpretation of American Prohibition illustrates the struggles to make the dry decade possible and the consequences that followed it. The 235 page text describes how the Anti-Saloon League was determined to make prohibition possible and the struggles they had to overcome. As well as what directly followed once it was a reality.

The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, declared on January 1920 at 12:01am, outlawed the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors,” (Andersen). America had become officially, dry. Although it was formed to stop drinking completely, it did not even come close. Just 6 minutes later six masked bandits with pistols emptied two freight cars full of whiskey from a rail yard in Chicago (Drink). Prohibition created a large number of bootleggers who were able to supply the public with illegal alcohol. They started the practices of organized crime that are still used today. Women, the driving factor in prohibition, believed that prohibition would make alcohol’s presence in society go away this would resolve the majority

“Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve.” On 16th January 1920, one of the most common personal habits and customs of American society came to a halt. The eighteenth amendment was implemented, making all importing, exporting, transporting, selling and manufacturing of intoxicating liquors absolutely prohibited. This law was created in the hope of achieving the reduction of alcohol consumption, which in turn would reduce: crime, poverty,

The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the manufacture, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquors. This ushered a period in the American history. This was known as Prohibition. Prohibition was difficult to force during the first decade of the 20th century. Bootlegging is the illegal production and sale of liquor. The increase of bootlegging, speakeasies, and the accompanying rise in gang violence and other crimes led to waning support for Prohibition. In 1933, the Congress had adopted a resolution. They proposed a 21st Amendment to the Constitution, which would repeal the 18th Amendment. The prohibition era came to a close by the end of that year.