Prohibition Movement Research Paper

Beecher and Willard established schools for women in Connecticut, Ohio and New York (Lapsansky 276). Women started using their voice to gain support from the society not only in the school reforming movement but also the temperance movement. The temperance movement focused on reducing the use of alcoholic beverages. Since the widespread use of alcohol occurred, it led to many social problems such as crimes, disease, poverty, violence and a separation of a family relationship. The response to these temperance problems was the creation of the American Temperance Society that had thousands of people from several states took part in. The Society quickly developed and spread across the country. Many reformers tried different ways to prevent people

This paper discusses one of the most significant events of the 1920s and 1930s that still affects life to this day, the prohibition. Throughout the modern American, who may be interested in the prohibition and why organized crime was so powerful, discover just that as well as why the prohibition was implemented, who had the most influence, how people viewed one another at the time, and the factors that lead to the prohibitions lack of success. It was a time of struggle between law enforcement, organized crime and the citizens caught in-between. Overall the main question the collective research intends to answer is “who held all the power, the police, organized crime, or the citizens and how did that shape the prohibition?” The answer to the question will be discovered through research and facts. Topics such as motivations behind the prohibition, police efficacy, citizen involvement, organized crime, the morals of America, and multiple views on the prohibition will be covered in hopes to fully understand what the prohibition was and the roles specific groups had in the outcome.

Prohibition was undertaken to reduce crime, reduce corruption, and solve social problems in America but it failed on all accounts. Prohibition had the exact opposite effect on people than its original purpose was. Instead of removing alcohol from society, Prohibition actually instigated a national drinking spree that held constant until Prohibition was repealed. Felix Von Luckner said, “My observations have convinced me that many fewer would drink were it not illegal” (Von Luckner, 2). He believed that the law against alcohol manufacturing just instigated more drinking. The people during this period in time were so rebellious that they would do the opposite of anything that they were told to do. This had a huge contribution to the failure of Prohibition. Due to the failure of Prohibition, America’s society had fallen spiral to a drinking spree (Batchelor, 1). Many believed that the main cause of the failure of Prohibition was the breakdown of the enforcement agencies. In Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia said, “The Prohibition Enforcement Unit has entirely broken down. It is discredited; it has become a joke…” (La Guardia, 2). The Roaring Twenties’ prosperity was lost due to the failure of the Prohibition Enforcement Unit. If the law was stronger and better enforced, Prohibition could have succeeded. This was very detrimental to society because it showed the

In the beginning of the Prohibition Era, the supporters of the alcohol ban were met with a pleasing decline in arrest for drunkenness, hospitalizations related to alcohol and the fall of liver related medical problems that were caused by the consumption of alcohol. These statistics seemed to support the tireless campaigning done to prohibit alcohol. This decline in alcohol

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

Throughout history, the drug war has always targeted minority groups. “At the root of the drug-prohibition movement in the United States is race, which is the driving force behind the first laws criminalizing drug use, which first appeared as early as the 1870s (Cohen, 56)”. There were many drug laws that targeted minority groups such as the marijuana ban of 1930s that criminalized Mexican migrant farm workers and in the Jim Crow South, reformist wanted to wage war on the Negro cocaine feign so they used African Americans as a scapegoat while they overlooked southern white women who were a bigger problem for the drug epidemic (Cohen, 57). Instead of tackling the root of the drug problem they passed the blame to struggling minority groups within the United States.

Prohibition formed much organized crime, but the drug war is completely out of hand in multiple ways. Most people today think that the prohibition of the 1920’s and the current war on drugs has many different points. the points that do contrast are more opinion-based than fact proven. The following will show a comparison and contrast between America’s Prohibition era and

In 1849, the Daughters of Temperance, created by Susan B. Anthony, was formed. These few enterprising women referred to alcohol as “The Unclean Thing” and began one of the many quests for Prohibition. They strove to shut down saloons or at least regulate their hours, closing on Sundays, the day of rest, in order to protect their families and their finances from the horrors of men under the influence.6 However, this proved to be a difficult endeavor because by 1875, one third of the total federal revenue was a result of the manufacturing, purchasing, and distribution of alcohol.7 The multiple Prohibition groups that had sprung up by this time did indeed recognize that their goal of “destroying the demand of the consumer” of alcohol related items would jeopardize over one thousand million dollars worth of income, without compensating those who would become indebted by their proposition. Supporters of the temperance movement then realized that their efforts must be extended beyond the realm of the church in order for them to achieve their arduous goal on a national level.8

Prohibition advocates did an impressive job of convincing the American public that alcohol was the root and cause of all their problems. Alcohol was the reason why families were destroyed, why women and children were beaten and why cheques never arrived home. Pro-prohibition posters were used to target men who knew they had a responsibility to look after their families. The news of prohibition also gave the chance for women to defend themselves and preach their rights since many felt that they had been victimized by alcohol. Not only was prohibition trying to target family members but it also challenged the patriotism of fellow Americans. When WWI came about, although it was at that moment a major topic to discuss, prohibitionists saw the war as an opportunity to give back to their brave soldiers by giving up alcohol. Slogans such as “Booze or Coal?” and organized efforts to preserve grain were used to persuade Americans to believe that patriotism and abstinence went hand in hand (Michael Lerner). In fact of August of 1917, the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act put a hold on beer and wine production, as well as prohibiting the sale of beer that contained more than 2.75 percent of alcohol (Michael Lerner). Many prohibition advocates, such as Reverend Billy Sunday, were effective through their speeches in convincing Americans that alcohol and the establishments associated with alcohol were pure evil and went against the morale of the American people.

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.

Prohibition was also favoured by many women’s groups, such as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, who identified alcohol as a means by which men oppressed them. Religious groups also identified alcohol as the work of the devil, responsible for the moral downfall of America. Perhaps more significantly it also had the influential backing of several big business tycoons, most notably John D Rockafeller who gave his personal support and a large amount of money to the League, seeing drunkenness as leading to danger and inefficiency in the workplace. Supporters of Prohibition tended to be white, middle class, overwhelmingly protestant, from small towns in the South and West and generally voted Republican.

Charles Stelzle believes that saloons serve a good purpose in American societies. “[the saloon-keeper] had access to sources of information which were decidedly beneficial… Often he secured work for both the working man and his children.” [Doc E]. Stelzle makes an important claim. Once prohibition passed, many people were put out of work. Anyone employed in the alcohol-production industry lost their jobs as distilling, transporting, and consuming alcohol became illegal. These now unemployed Americans needed a source of income, and many turned to theft and other methods of illegal activities to survive. Stelzle also notes how saloons were a center of attraction by many citizens. News about the nation, local town, or anything important was passed along. With all of the saloons in America closing, important information would not travel to all of America very easily. Reverend John Haynes Holmes, in Why Not into Other Fields, says, “Why, in short, must the churches restrict their political and social activities to such traditional evils as gambling, liquor selling, and prostitution, and remain indifferent to these other more recent but no less terrible forms of injustice and distress?” [Doc L excerpt]. Holmes is identifying his opinion that although alcohol abuse is a terrible evil and does herald greater evils, he believes that equal attention should be paid to other

Especially with the brewers policing themselves and cutting down on saloons that were not selling approved types of alcohol by them, or were opened using the revenue of a saloon. Kerr acknowledges the Brewers Association for trying to get their message out in DC, because they assumed that is where the act was being voted on, but they were wrong. Individual states had been convinced of the moral, ethical and economic issues associated with the saloon and because of the Brewers Associations misguided efforts, they lose the battle against prohibition. Kerr’s finding establish a new line of thought that many people inside the Anti-Saloon league did not agree with the “legalistic, coercive approach to prohibition.” Instead many leaders including Cherrington thought that if the ASL provided outreach, reform and educational services than people would voluntarily choose not to drink. This split in ideals is what ended the Anti-Saloon League. In the end despite the illegal trafficking of alcohol, Prohibition work at the end of the day. In the high of Prohibition consumption of alcohol was lowered from one-third to

In “Scaring a Nation Dry: Propaganda in Prohibition,” Kimberly Hickey provides a detailed essay about the distribution of misleading information about alcohol in the United States during in the twentieth century. Hickey affirms that prohibition groups emerged decades prior to the law’s enactment. (2) Hickey states, “The enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment marked the beginning of the era of “the noble experiment.” The experiment, as President Herbert Hoover referred to it, was an attempt to limit the production, transportation, and sale of alcohol in the United States.” (4) By referring to the law as the “noble experiment” implies that this law set a standard as to how citizens should act. Therefore, making ethical claims that intoxication

Beginning in the early 1800’s, the Temperance Movement greatly impacted the United States. Through the creation of various unions and the emergence of activist speakers, an awareness on the effects of alcohol spread across the country. One person in particular, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, pushed for epic changes and became the common voice of the people. The Temperance Movement had major impacts on the United States and changed how alcohol was viewed in epic proportions.