The Failure Of Prohibition In The 1920's

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.

On December 16, 1919, however, prohibition became the law of the land in the passing of the 18th Amendment which stated "...the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors ... for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited." (Constitution). This created a mixed bag of reactions by the citizenry.

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.

The 18th amendment stated that the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors was prohibited. Prohibition was a nationwide ban on all alcohol. The 18th amendment had three main goals. One goal was that they wanted to eliminate drunkenness due to it resulting in abuse of family members. Another goal was to shut down saloons because they attracted prostitutes and housed lots of gambling. The last main goal of the 18th amendment was to prevent on the job accidents and absenteeism. Were they successful?

The Prohibition goes by several names; The Volstead Act, the Eighteenth Amendment, and Nobel Experiment. However, those names mean nothing if one does not know what the Prohibition is. The Prohibition officially put into place on January 16th 1920 one year and one day after it was ratified. According to Annenberg Classroom for the National Constitution Center, implementing this Amendment deemed “the

With industrialization, big businesses thrived off of the underclass and left a trail of social consequences for their actions. “Poverty, crime, slavery, prostitution, and alcoholism were seen as blights on the face of a young nation, and the middle classes were keen to define a morality and sense of society that they felt could be described as American.” The emerging industrialist and financial aristocracy lived in palatial homes while the rest fought and worked hard to survive everyday. Epidemics of destructive drinking has historically been analyzed to occur when one wants to relieve stress. Families were destroyed as men would rather stay in saloons than go home. Supporters of Prohibition believed alcohol was a nations curse and banning it would lessen crime, strengthen families, and generally improve national character. “Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article 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.” The 18th amendment did not ban the consumption of alcohol rather the manufacture and distribution. People bought more bootlegged alcohol, illegal liquor, which was lesser quality and potentially dangerous. “One thousand Americans died every year during the

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.

Answering how the Prohibition failed is a lofty question with many answers and components of answers. Even daily life during the Prohibition had was shaped by illegal alcohol making and trading. You would regularly hear of people being gunned down in the street due to a bad deal or a falling out. The combination of crime and disobedience at such a high rate spelled for the inevitable repeal of Amendment 18, but what were some of the specific factors? This paper will try to examine what led to the passing and repealment of The 18th Amendment + 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.

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

In the 1920’s the prohibition of one substance controlled the people of the United States along with many businesses causing the economy to plummet. This particular substance was alcohol. In 1926, William H. Sayton argued that prohibition was a failure rather than a success (Dudley 94). William Sayton was the founder and leader of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment which began in the year 1922 (Dudley 94). Mr. Sayton noted that prohibition was not effective due to the increase of alcohol usage and the decrease of economical growth (Dudley 96). One should concur that the illegalization of alcohol impacted the United States in a negative way, and was a failure.

“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,

Ratified on January 29, 1919, the 18th Amendment went into effect a year later. By that time, about thirty-three states had already enacted their own prohibition legislation. In October that same year, Congress had passed the National Prohibition Act. This provided guidelines for the federal enforcement of Prohibition. The Representative Andrew Volstead of Mississippi championed this. He was the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The legislation was more commonly known as the Volstead Act.

Prohibition created more crime because it was leading to corruption and the “cure” was worse than the original problem (Sifakis 725). The number of crimes increased during the Prohibition which caused organized crime to be very “popular”. Many criminal groups had a regular income of money through illegal actions such as drinking and selling alcohol (Organized Crime and Prohibition 1). Alcohol increased the organized crimes during Prohibition through loopholes in the 18th Amendment, speakeasies, doctor’s prescriptions, and bootlegging.