Cause Of Prohibition Research Paper

From January 16, 1919 to December 5,1933, the Volstead Act made it illegal to sale, manufacture, or transport alcohol. Although the Volstead Act was to stop drinking completely, it did just the opposite. People were willing to drink alcohol illegally which gave way to bootlegging, speakeasies, gangsters and organized crime.Mark Twain summarizes this time by saying, “Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and does not cure it, or even diminish it.”

“The act gets its name from Andrew Volstead, who was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee that engineered the passage of the National Prohibition Act.”(Wallenfelt 14) “The act then was conceived by Anti-Saloon League leader Wayne Wheeler and passed over the veto of Pres. Woodrow Wilson.” (Wallenfelt 13). Neither he Volstead Act and the Eighteenth Amendment were successfully enforced. Illegal economies such as bootlegging, speakeasies, and distilling operations flourished.

The amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol in the United States, and the prohibition era began. Many believed that the 18th amendment violated their civil and personal liberties. They felt that government intervention was wrong and that they should not have the power to dictate what people could consume. After the ratification of the 18th amendment, the government had to find a way to enforce prohibition. In 1919 Congress passed the National Prohibition Act, also known as the Volstead Act, named for Andrew Volstead, a congressman from Minnesota who was the pushing force for its development and passage.

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

Imagine that you’re having a gathering or party. Everything is ready to go and then you remember that the 18th amendment prohibits you from buying liquor/alcohol. The party was supposed to be a blast, but how can you have a blast without alcohol or liquor. Prohibition was the 18th amendment. It stated that it was illegal to manufacture, transport, and sell alcoholic beverages in the United States. The Volstead Act added to the 18th amendment almost 9 months after. It added that when the 18th amendment went to affect, it was against the law to barter, import, export, deliver, furnish, or posses intoxicating liquor. Of course, drinking/usage was also banned, except for authorized purposes. Then it was repealed. It was the first, and only amendment in U.S history to be revoked.

In the 1920s, America began to experience a lot of modernization with the era of prohibition, lively spirited flappers, and a clash between science and religion. Just after World War I, Americans had to make the hard transition from farm life, to work in the cities. Life in the cities was very different from the small life in small towns. With many immigrants in America, city life offered Americans change socially with its tolerance with drinking, gambling and dating life. Just after World War I, prohibition to manufacture, sell, and transport alcohol took place because of the Eighteenth Amendment.

Prohibition Act During the 1920’s, the consume of alcohol was outlaw, prohibiting the sell manufacturing and transporting alcohol in to the United States, forming the Eighteenth Amendment in the Unites States Constitution and becoming effective on January 16th 1920. Hopes to give better guide lines to illegal actions involving alcohol. Enforcing the Volstead Act, which did not expressly forbid the consumption of alcohol. By the 18th trough the 20th century, movements from all over the country, as for example “The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, (WCTU), pledged to root out the use of alcohol in the United States, also achieved less than its reputation suggests.”

On October 28th, 1919 congress passed the Volstead act, over President Woodrow Wilson’s Veto. The act stated that no alcohol over 0.5 % could be sold or consumed. The National Prohibition Act of 1919 was commonly called the Volstead Act because of the member of Congress, Andrew Volstead, who successfully guided the act through the legal processes. The Act made it illegal to manufacture, import, export and sell alcoholic drinks Prohibition was meant to lower crime and corruption, reduce social problems, lower taxes needed to support prisons. It was also meant to get rid of sins and make America more civilized and increase the quality of goods made because people would focus more on work rather than

The Volstead Act was a demonstration to boycott inebriating drinks, and afterward to manage the assembling, generation, use, and offer of high-proof spirits for other than refreshment purposes, and to protect an abundant supply of liquor and advance its utilization in experimental exploration and in the improvement of fuel, color, and other legal commercial enterprises. The issue was that the Volstead Act didn 't particularly specify the genuine drinking or utilization of liquor, and forbid the buy of liquor. The deals for restorative liquor went up 400% amid the forbiddance. A large portion of the provisos in the eighteenth amendment were in the Volstead Act (inside the eighteenth amendment. The Volstead Act didn 't particularly

prohibition damaged the U.S. economy to the point it had a part of triggering the great depression. with

This was a controversial move for the Congress to make, it certainly did not go off without consequences. The Volstead Act, even as concrete as its rules seem, had many loopholes that the American people could abuse. One of the largest and most obvious loopholes was that medicinal alcohol could still be prescribed by physicians. Many people would feign sickness in order to obtain whisky legally and reliably. This caused the sale of medical alcohol to insanely spike in sales, but even with the obvious implications these stats held, the government did not remove whisky as a prescribed medicine. Many farmers would also profit off of alcohol made of grapes and other juices. Since the government couldn’t ban fruit juices, they would mix those fruits with a certain dry fruit used to create alcohol. Supplies in which you could easily brew your own alcohol could also be found in common groceries. People even went as far as to joining the congregation to obtain sacramental wine. If one wanted to enjoy their drinking with others, they could just enter one of the many “Speakeasies,” popping up underground. These secret bars had secret entrances, which could only be accessed with a spoken password. It was said that ‘with every legitimate bar closed, six speakeasies would take it’s place.’ While some made the use of legal loopholes to get their alcohol fix, many turned to crime and subterfuge. People who didn’t want to directly get their hands dirty called upon the

“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,

Because of the passing of the Volstead Act in 1920, production and distribution of alcohol became an extremely profitable business. With this also came a noticeable rise in organized crime in many of the big cities. Even worse, the crimes committed by members of these gangs became more violent. Soon prisons were overcrowded and were merely hold facilities.

Bootlegging quickly proved to be a problem for the United States as operations became more organized, and gang related. During this time, one of the most notorious gang bosses and bootleggers, Al Capone, thrived during prohibition. Al Capone was able to control a large protion of alcohol production, and was able to use his enormous profits to payoff law enforcments. Al Capone also used his profits to take out his compettion by paying off law enforments again to go after them, or for others to

By 1925 there were at least 3200 speakeasies and stores who sold liquor in order to get some extra income in New York. The smuggling of alcohol was a very good business that involved money. Some of the direct distilling and home brewing were secretly installed in garages, tenements, and warehouses. With the fear of being hijacked, the bootleggers hired gunmen to protect the goods; so illegal gun market was a side effect of the Prohibition that brought big amounts of money. The illegal alcohol and gun market brought gangs to everywhere, these gangs fought constantly to maintain the territory and respect. Chicago and New York where the cities where the Mafia gain more power, gang wars and assassination became an everyday thing. On May 11th, Jim Colosimo was the first of the Chicago mafia bosses to be assassinated.