The Impacts of the National Prohibition Act of 1919

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.

Congress passes the Volstead Act over President Woodrow Wilson's veto. The Volstead Act provided for the enforcement of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, also known as the Prohibition Amendment. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, repealing prohibition. The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition on alcohol on January 16, 1919. The Twenty-first Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933.

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.”

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.

The Eighteenth Amendment made alcohol illegal. However, this amendment was not being forced. So congress put out a law, called the Volstead Act, to allow law enforcement to use force to enforce the eighteenth amendment.

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

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.”

The 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act did terminate the production of alcohol, but didn’t stop many from drinking it. Bootleggers bribed many government officials to provide alcohol to the public and to preserve their multi-million dollar business. This shows how disorganized and corrupt the government was during Prohibition. The government was supposed to support the citizens and Prohibition at that time. Instead, they turned against the people of United States and joined forces with people that provided toxic alcohol to the public. Also, bootleggers produced millions of gallons of poisonous alcohol. Drinking it can cause blindness or be poisoned. When Prohibition didn’t exist, alcohol was regulated and checked if it’s toxic before being sold to the public. Even when alcohol was forbidden, people still found a way to get their hands on liquor and sold it to the public causing devastation. During Prohibition, the government ordered industrial alcohol companies to add chemicals to alcohol, fuels, and medical supplies, discouraging people from drinking it as a warning. As a result, bootleggers got access to it, offering these low quality alcohol to the public and more than 10,000 people died from drinking it. It’s critical how the government was supposed to stop people from drinking alcohol, but it actually led people to illness or

A lot of things happened in 1920 – USA was one of the victors in the first World War, and had a good period. Soon that was changed and USA suffered from many things, the great crash, prohibition and gang wars. But not only bad things happened – there was also the new deal, new cultures, new poets and writers.

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

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.

1919 - The states ratified the 18th Amendment, barring the manufacture, sale or transport of intoxicating beverages. Congress passed the Volstead Act, which gave the Commissioner of Internal Revenue the primary responsibility for enforcement of Prohibition (Internal Revenue Service, 2013)

The Prohibition was the time period in which the 18th amendment was in order. The 18th amendment prohibited the sale, manufacturing, and transportation on intoxicating liquors. Many people were upset with this law but very few people listened to the law. This law caused many problems including bootlegging, organized crime, smuggling, and trafficking of alcohol. With all these problems the law caused more problems than it solved.

The Volstead Act was the prohibition act and was passed on July 22, 1919. Even though many people disagreed with the Volstead Act, it was still passed. It was passed because Americans started to be concerned about the effects of drinking alcohol. For example, “Would stop husbands from spending all the family income on alcohol and prevent accidents in the workplace caused by workers who drank during lunch” (Rosenberg, 2017). This was one of the main reasons why the Volstead Act was passed, women hoped that their husbands would stop spending all their money on alcohol instead of spending it on something important like their family. Also, they were many accidents in factories because men would drink during their break, so they weren’t sober and that caused many accidents. Another reason was because when men were drunk sometimes they would hit their wives and children. Many people were against the Volstead Act, however many people were in favor of the Volstead Act, especially women. For instance, “Women played a strong role in the temperance movement, as alcohol was seen as a destructive force in families and marriages” (history.com). This explains that the main reason for women to be against alcohol was that they saw as if it was the main reason that their

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.