Prohibition Definition

Prohibition was a failed attempt by the United States government to control alcohol. Groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League spearheaded the temperance movement and made prohibition possible. After the passing of the 18th amendment, the immediate effects were positive, but prohibition quickly turned negative. Prohibition led to the rise of organized crime, such as bootlegging, and without being able to tax alcohol, the government lost a significant amount of money. Alcohol has been a part of American society since the colonial times. During that time the water was always possibly polluted, so the general consensus was that drinking weak beers and ciders was much safer than the water. As a result of
this, alcohol was consumed by both adults and children on a daily basis. These drinking habits changed during the eighteenth century, when imported rum from the Caribbean became widely available. Whiskey also became available during this time, and was very appealing to the colonists. As time passed, the colonists’ drinking habits continued, and public drunkenness was not uncommon. In 1830, the average amount of alcohol consumed each year by Americans was roughly seven gallons of pure alcohol. This is three times the yearly average in 2010. Americans spent more money on alcohol every year than the total amount of money spent by the federal government. Alcohol abuse was widespread and affected many and their surroundings, especially women and children. At the time, women, by law, had few rights, and thus had to depend on men for support. Often times women and children did not receive the sustenance they needed because their husbands would take their paycheck straight to the bar. Children were often neglected, abandoned, and in serious lack of food and shelter due to their father’s drinking habits. The alcohol also contributed to increased violence, particularly domestic abuse. This was during a time without divorce, and there was no police jurisdiction on things like domestic abuse or marital rape. Due to the steep increase in American drunkenness, more and more people began to shift their attention to and focus on the negative side of alcohol. As soon as the late eighteenth century, the negative effects of the abuse of alcohol became interesting and important topics to doctors as well as religious leaders. In 1784, Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and also a doctor, published the pamphlet, An Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits Upon the Human Body and Mind. Rush illustrated the negative health effects of alcohol abuse, and introduced a model for physical addiction, one that is supported by modern physicians. Church officials did not focus on the negative health effects of alcohol abuse, but instead on the social effects. These negative opinions towards alcohol were the beginning of the temperance movement. The temperance movement was caused by the increasing agitation towards alcohol in the nineteenth century, a time of social and moral reform.
The Second Great Awakening was encouraging reform in all aspects of society, and the temperance movement quickly became involved. The temperance movement was based in Protestant churches, and quickly became intertwined with other reforms of the era, such as women’s rights, education, and especially abolitionism. Many of the people in the abolitionist movement were also involved in the temperance movement because they believed they had to remove slavery and also alcohol in order for American society to be free of sin. The first major temperance group was the American Temperance Society, and was founded in New England in 1826. There were some temperance organizations before this, but the American Temperance Society was the first mass organization. By 1835, the American Temperance Society had grown to over 1.5 million members all over the country. The society was committed to alcohol in moderation, particularly by completely removing hard liquors. The temperance movement lost popularity during the 1860s, when the civil war and slavery were the main issues of concern in America. After the war, the movement quickly rebounded and became more popular than ever. With the emergence of more extreme temperance groups like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League, the general idea of the temperance movement
shifted from moderation to complete prohibition. Founded in Ohio in 1873, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union played a major role in the temperance movement and the establishment of prohibition. In the late nineteenth century, “inspired by the rising indignation of Methodist and Baptist clergymen, and by distraught wives and mothers whose lives had been ruined by the excesses of the saloon, thousands of women began to protest and organize politically for the cause of temperance.” The group created an anti-alcohol education campaign that was featured in classrooms all across the country. Their ultimate goal of prohibition, however, would not have been accomplished without the help of the Anti-Saloon League. Formed in 1895, the Anti-Saloon League did whatever it could to help their campaign against alcohol, and “became the most successful single issue lobbying organization in American history.” The Anti-Saloon League made alliances with people from all different groups and organizations, including both major political parties, and was incredibly popular across the nation. The Anti-Saloon League was a major factor in the prohibition on a state level, before the passing of the eighteenth amendment. In 1919, before the eighteenth amendment was ratified, more than half of the American population lived in areas where alcohol was prohibited. On December 18, 1917, the eighteenth amendment was proposed to Congress. A related piece of legislation was already in effect, the Wartime Prohibition Act, which made it illegal to sell liquor during World War I (1914 - 1918). The states were given seven years to ratify the eighteenth amendment, but because of the success of the Wartime Prohibition Act and the popularity of the temperance movement, it was ratified in just over a year, on January 16, 1919. However, the eighteenth amendment did not go into effect until January 17, 1920, because Congress realized the massive effect it would have on the liquor industry. The eighteenth amendment stated that “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.” Along with prohibition, the Volstead Act was passed in October of 1919, which allowed for the federal enforcement of prohibition. The Volstead Act also defined intoxicating beverage as any with more than .5 percent alcohol. This outlawed not only liquor, but beer and wine too. Immediately after the eighteenth amendment was put into effect the temperance movement accomplished what they were out to do; the nationwide drinking rate decreased dramatically. Alcohol consumption in the United States dropped by nearly two-thirds. Crime rates also immediately decreased, mostly because there were no more arrests made for public drunkenness. Prohibition also lowered the amount of hospital visits related to alcoholism, and the amount of liver-related medical problems. The advocates of the temperance movement were satisfied, the future looked promising for sober America. It didn’t take long for Americans to find loopholes in the law and for new sources of alcohol to appear. The national drinking rate soon rebounded to almost pre-prohibition levels. Although prohibition lowered the drinking rate substantially, it did not eliminate the Americans’ desire to drink. By limiting the supply of alcohol while the demand stayed the same, prohibition left a hole that allowed for a wave of organized crime to take over. Gangs started up their own distilleries around the country and bribed the police and government officials to look the other way. A new form of crime was created called bootlegging, which involved smuggling liquor into the United States from other countries, particularly Canada and Mexico. There was also a widespread establishment of speakeasies, which were essentially illegal drinking places. The police were also paid off by the gangs to allow the speakeasies, and it was not uncommon to find police officers drinking in a speakeasy. “With so much bribery and corruption, there was a significant decrease in the respect for law enforcement.” Even though the government was unable to tax the selling of alcohol, it still existed, and the government lost significant amounts of money because of it. The United States experienced a surge of bootlegging and speakeasies, an amount of crime the government was not prepared to handle. The amount of bootleggers completely overwhelmed the FBI agents, and it is estimated that there were roughly twice as many speakeasies during prohibition than there were bars and saloons before prohibition started. This outrageous amount of crime made it practically impossible for the government to effectively enforce the law, and thus, the people lost respect in the government. If a speakeasy was raided by FBI agents and the bartender arrested, most times a different bartender would take his place and the same speakeasy would be re-opened on the same day. By the late 1920s gangs had become extremely prevalent in American life, and many gangsters were wealthy and well-known. The most famous of these gangsters was Al Capone. Al Capone, also known as Scarface, rose to infamy as the leader of the main gang in Chicago during prohibition. As a poor second generation Italian immigrant who lived in the slums, Al Capone was introduced to violence and crime at a young age. Al Capone started to make his way up through the gang system, and by the time prohibition started, Al Capone was at the top. Al Capone created a vast network of bootlegging all the way from Chicago to New York, and had numerous speakeasies to generate income as well. Capone started to gain an enormous amount of wealth. Capone’s men were often involved in gang violence, including murders, which gave Al Capone a bad reputation. As the head of organized crime until 1931, Al Capone created a personal fortune estimated at over 100 million, which is equal to more than 1.5 billion today. In 1931, Al Capone was found guilty of income tax evasion, and was sentenced to eleven years in prison. Al Capone was sent to Alcatraz prison in San Francisco, and died of cardiac arrest shortly after being released from jail. The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment and the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform made up the majority of the opposition to prohibition.
Due to the economic collapse in 1929, the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment focused primarily on the negative effects prohibition had on the economy, in attempts to appeal the eighteenth amendment. They claimed that by 1931, there was 11 billion dollars in lost tax revenues, and the government had spent 300 million dollars on enforcement. They also pointed out the fact that the amount of yearly federal cases had quadrupled, a significant amount of them relating to the Volstead Act. With an increase of organized crime as well as violations to the Volstead Act, the amount of prisoners increased, and thus the amount of money spent on prisoners increased. As the Great Depression continued, more and more people were in support of repealing the eighteenth
amendment. In February 1933, the twenty-first amendment was proposed to Congress. The twenty-first amendment was ratified even quicker than the eighteenth, in less than a year. In December 1933, the twenty-first amendment was ratified and thus, “The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.” The ratification of the twenty-first amendment was preceded by the Beer-Wine Revenue Act which was passed in March 1933, and raised the intoxicating level from .5 percent to 3.2 percent. This essentially allowed weaker alcohols like beer and wine to become legal, in order to make way for complete legalization of alcohol. Sparked by the temperance movement, prohibition was an attempt by the government to control alcohol, but it was a complete disaster. With strong groups in the temperance movement leading the charge to a sober America, Congress passed the eighteenth amendment. The immediate effects of prohibition made it successful and also made the future look very promising. However, prohibition had many negative consequences that quickly outweighed the positive ones. With lost tax revenue, increase in organized crime, and decrease in the respect for the law enforcement, Congress ratified the twenty-first amendment which repealed the eighteenth amendment and made alcohol legal once again.