Research Paper On The 1920's

January 29, 1920 the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” was put into effect until 1933 (history.com). Making alcohol totally illegal was an attempt to enforce sobriety. World War I also aided in the prohibition because food was very scarce. The Lever Act of 1917 outlawed the use of grain to manufacture alcohol (Carnes and Garraty 644). Arrests for public intoxication went down drastically, as well as deaths due to alcoholism. Although, more lives were saved many people violated the law in order to consume alcohol. Smuggling alcohol became a huge business. Wine was still legal for religious purposes, but Carnes and Garraty explain that the consumption of sacramental

Not everyone in the United States agreed with the Nineteenth Amendment being passed. Two months after the Federal Government declared that the Amendment had been incorporated to the Constitution in August of 1920, Oscar Lesser “sued to stop two women [Cecilia Street Waters and Mary D. Randolph] to vote in Baltimore, Maryland. Lesser “believed the Maryland Constitution limited the suffrage to men”. He said that Maryland had refused to vote regarding the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, and should not be subject to its application.. In 1922, Leser v. Garnett, was argued before the United States Supreme Court. The plaintiffs of the case argued that the Nineteenth Amendment was not passed constitutionally. They claimed there were “three principal grounds” to their argument, which were: that the power to amend the Constitution did not cover this amendment "because of its character"; that several states that had ratified the amendment despite the fact that their state constitutions prohibited women from voting; and that, in particular, the ratifications of the states of Tennessee and West Virginia were were invalid because they were adopted without following the rules of legislative procedure in place in those states”. In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that the amendment was passed constitutionally. In their decision, the court responded to each of the three arguments. Lesser’s first argument claimed that if Amendment’s are added without the State’s consent, it

The 18th amendment, or the prohibition law was a good and a bad thing for America in many ways. Prohibition was enacted to stop the derotation and violence of men against their wife and kids with the use of alcohol, and many people thought that alcohol was an ungodly corrupted thing in America which is why the 18th amendment was enacted to try to eliminate and dangers of alcohol. Alcohol was prohibited in many states before it became a law in the 1920’s for the whole state. Even though the government and women enacted the 18th amendment to prohibit alcohol to make things better in the US only made things worse and some things good that America’s wouldn’t even know would happen.After America saw what this 18th amendment was doing to the country they saw that it was silly to prohibit alcohol in the first place just to cause a lot of problems in the future which America did unintentionally.

Congress voted and approved of the amendment in January 1919, and enacted it in to law as the National Prohibition Act of 1920. After the Eighteenth Amendment was passed, Congress had to make a maximum amount of alcohol that beverages could contain. They then passed the Volstead Act. This act was far more severe than anyone expected. “The Act put the maximum alcoholic content at 0.05 percent. By comparison, today's beers have between 4 and 6 percent alcohol, 100 times more than the Volstead Act allowed. Whiskey had around 50 percent alcohol” (Noble). Most people were very shocked at how low the act actually put the alcohol limit. “A Literary Digest poll taken in 1922 found that 40 percent of respondents favored allowing light beer and wine. The poll also found that 62 percent of working men favored lenient enforcement of prohibition” (Noble). Prohibition was a main topic of discussion for politics. Presidential candidates were either “wet” or “dry.” “Wet” meant that

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.

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 Prohibition Amendment took effect on January 16, 1920. The eighteenth Amendment outlawed the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol in the United States until it was repealed on December 5, 1933. The excessive amount of alcohol consumed primarily by men often resulted in violence, poor work performance, and wasteful spending of wages on alcohol, which were needed to support their families. Although the Prohibition Amendment did decrease alcohol-related felonies it created more organized crime and an increase of economic problems.

After World War 1, America had to demobilize and revert back to a peace time economy. During the 1920’s, it was viewed as a prosperous economy since there was a new labor force due to demobilization, new inventions, and a new infrastructure. Also moral spirits were high since America along with the Allied Powers defeated Germany and the Great War was finally over. However, America began making many economic policies and decisions that will eventually lead up to the Great Depression.

January 17,1920 was a turning point in our country’s history. The significance of this day was the initiation of the 18th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol. The decision to pass this law eventually left our economy and tax revenues at an all-time low. In addition, the 18th amendment led to an outbreak in crime and defiance, leaving many lives unsafe. Specifically, criminals found ways to disregard the law and smuggled home brewed alcohol over county lines to illegal buyers. These criminals made large profits covertly without the government knowing.

more. Life was high paced and things that you could experience but this was all after the war.

The 18th Amendment was removed from the Constitution and replaced by the 21st Amendment on December 5, 1933. It was added because the government was also suffering from the Great Depression at that time. By removing Prohibition, the government would get taxes from alcohol sales, jobs would be created, and it would decrease the costs of law enforcement for Prohibition. The 18th Amendment was the only amendment that was ever abolished in the U.S. Constitution. An amendment is supposed to stay in the Constitution forever and acts as a law that is protected by the federal government. When the 18th Amendment was removed, it shows that the government thinks that it wasn’t effective. Organized crime made money from selling the alcohol and increased crime throughout U.S. After years, lawmakers agreed that prohibition was not effective but also dangerous to many laws and caused many crimes concerning the safety of the citizens. Thousands were called back to work for alcohol companies. More than 5,000 new jobs are predicted as a result of repeal and many celebrated the downfall of Prohibition. After 13 years trying to stop use of alcohol among the citizens, Prohibition was not success, but rather

The making of homemade alcohol, also known as bathtub gin or bootleg alcohol, increased during Prohibition. During prohibition, no one could produce, manufacture, transport, or sell alcohol; so people began making their own, and it wasn’t always the safest thing to drink. People would put any kinds of ingredients in their bootleg alcohol, “bootleg liquor is so concentrated and almost invariably contains other and more deadly poisons than mere ethyl alcohol.” Because no one could produce alcohol, anyone who wanted to could make their own. Homemade alcohol started becoming increasingly popular, and it resulted in many deaths because most of the time it was dangerous to ingest. Deaths because of homemade alcohol started climbing more and more, “the death rate from poisoned liquor was appallingly high throughout the country. In 1925, the national toll was 4,154 as compared to 1,064 in 1920 (Thornton).” Thus, the new trend of homemade alcohol was not a good one. Prohibition influenced this unlawful behavior, and it resulted in an increase of deaths. The approval of the 18th amendment produced many problems that could’ve been

As a result of this new law, a new social problem arose. “Seldom has law been more flagrantly violated. Not only did Americans continue to manufacture, barter, and possess alcohol; they drank more of it.” Americans who supported prohibition, argued that if drinking alcohol was illegal, the public would recognize and respect the law, and in turn, would give it up. During the start of prohibition, it appeared as though it was working. But, what was really going on, was that since the transportation and production was not allowed, bootleggers had to find ways to do it without being caught. The price of beer rose, because it had to be transported in large barrels, which was more difficult. As a result, people started drinking more potent hard liquor. It took less to get drunk, therefore it was easier to transport, thus, it was cheaper. Americans would drink this potent liquor and get drunk a lot faster, for less money. As a downfall, however, the liquor had no standards. The rate of alcohol related deaths due to poisoning drastically increased from 1,064 in 1920, to 4,154 in 1925.

The 1920s was a time of rapid change in the United States. The mood was optimistic as revolutions of manners and morals took place across America. On December 17, 1917 the 18th Amendment was approved by the House of Representatives and the United States Senate a day later. Prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States, this was called Prohibition. This amendment in the coming years would cause more that ¾ American states to declare themselves dry in 1920s. With prohibition of alcohol spreading congress passed the The Volstead Act which made and drinks with more that 1% alcohol illegal. Years later, after seeing the detrimental effects of Prohibition Congress? Appealed the amendment legalizing alcohol in the United States. America changed it mind of Prohibition for three reasons crime, enforcement and respect for the law, and economics.