The Controversy Of The 18th Amendment In The United States

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.

“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.

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eighteenth Amendment outlawed the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol in the United States until it was repealed on December 5, 1933.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.

Prohibition was passed as the 18th amendment, that importing, exporting, transporting, and manufacturing of alcohol was to be put to an end. Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems that it intended to solve. It was expected that the decrease in alcohol consumption would in turn reduce crime, poverty, death rates, improve the economy, and the quality of life.

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.

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 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

In 1919 the Constitution of the United States issued the 18th amendment, enforced into law as the National Prohibition Act of 1920. Prohibition is the banning of the manufacture, sale, and possession of alcohol, including beer and wine. This amendment was repealed with the passing of the 21st amendment to the constitution, allowing the possession of alcohol in the United States. In the City of Washington on Monday, December 5th, 1932 the 21st amendment document included the reestablished rights of the citizens restricted by the 18th amendment. (Appendix II) The 18th amendment was the first and only amendment repealed by the constitution, allowing people to possess, sell, and buy their own alcohol.

Sometimes what we believe is right, can become the complete opposite. On January 16, 1919 the 18th Amendment was passed, but did not come into effect until the following year. This prohibited the manufacturing, distributing, and selling of all alcoholic liquor but didn’t prohibit the consumption of intoxicating beverages. When they first passed this document they believed what they were doing was important. To start off, how did history lead up to the banning of alcohol in all fifty states. Then what issues and questions that they had back then, the debate today, and how it let up to a revolution. Finally, what’s my opinion and how I interpret the amendment and what is happening today that can relate to this.

The 18th Amendment dealt with prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcohol. This amendment was ratified by the U.S. government and was probably one of the most futile proposals they could have ever came up with. The 18th amendment should have never been approved because it just gave Americans an alternative to break the law. Also, the government itself lost a great deal . Americans would ,in a sense, never give up alcholol, leaving the American government helpless with no other decision then to repeal the ban.

There were three main reasons which caused Americans to change their mind about the 18th Amendment: during prohibition the homicide rates increased rapidly, the people who made the laws were disobeying it (many who supported prohibition thought it only applied to hard liquor, not wine and beer too, so many people, even Congressmen continued to drink wine and beer), and bootleggers were selling liquor illegally with no taxes were being collected. The first reason Americans changed their mind on Prohibition was the homicide rates increased rapidly. During the 14 years of Prohibition (1919-1933) the homicide rate per 100,000 people steadily

The late comedian W.C jokingly said,” Once, during the Prohibition, I was forced to live on for days on nothing but food and water. Even Though, he said this as a joke it was true for majority of the public. The days before the 18th amendment was passed many depended upon liquor. At one point the use of alcohol became abuse. Then on January 16, 1919 the 18th Amendment was ratified so alcohol could not take over the life of Americans, but it didn't go quite as planned. The Prohibition banned the manufacturing, sale, and transportation of alcohol and the desperate ones found loopholes in this simple amendment. The Eighteenth Amendment was ultimately passed to keep a healthy working society and it was repealed because of the increasing organized crime and illegal activities all over the country.

The 18th amendment made made the manufacture, sale, distribution, and consumption of alcohol illegal. This amendment was a huge failure because it causes people to go behind the laws back and drink illegally. There was a secret drinking establishment called speakeasies and there were also people who provided alcohol illegally and they were called bootleggers. The act that enforced prohibition was the volstead act.

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.

In the same year, the Congress submitted the 18th Amendment. This had banned the manufacture, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquors, for state ratification. Even though the Congress had stipulated a seven-year time limit for the process. The amendment had received support of the necessary three-quarters of US states in only eleven months.