Prohibition Aim: Why was prohibition passed in 1919?

The 18th Amendment to the Constitution (passed by Congress in 1917), was ratified by 3/4 of states by 1919 and prohibited the manufacture or sale of alcoholic beverages within the boundaries of the United States. 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 Volstead Act of 1919, (the National Prohibition Enforcement Act), defined what was meant by an ‘intoxicating liquor’. It clearly defined an alcoholic beverage as one with an alcoholic content greater than 0.5 percent.

Why was prohibition passed? There were four main causes of the demand for prohibition

Medical By that time people were started to realise that alcohol damaged our health and could affect our lives. Many American men suffered from Sclerosis, which is caused by alcohol and lung cancer from smoking cigarettes. Those people suffered badly and eventually died. Because of this, many children fought their lives without their fathers, which led to families’ financial problems.

Political Many votes were won in rural areas because politicians promised to back up prohibition, which helped those politicians to win the election. It’s also no coincidence that women got the vote shortly after the 18 th Amendment had passed. The campaign for female suffrage and prohibition were closely linked.

Economic Many labourers got drunk and so they could not perform the job properly. The absence from work each week was very high, therefore the company was less efficient. The company could not afford to produce the same products in the time that they should and the industrialists were not satisfied.

Social Perhaps the most crucial reason was that the husbands were spending their family’s saving stupidly on alcohol instead of essential items, e.g. education. It was believed that this led to domestic abuse, violence against women and children, and ultimately divorce. The problem pressurised women the most, therefore they set up the anti-saloon groups.

Anti-Immigrant feeling Many people insisted that buying beer meant that the money flew away to Germany because all of the brewers were actually located in Germany. This was particularly prevalaent during World War I. Many immigrant groups were also associated (perhaps unfairly) with alcohol, particularly the German, Irish and Italians. It has been argued that prohibition was partly influenced by the growing hostility to new immigrants

Prohibition was not new in the 1920s There had been various anti-alcohol campaigns since the colonial period. The Maine Law of 1851, prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors within the state of Maine. By 1855, thirteen of the thirty-one states had adopted similar prohibition legislation. During the Civil War, the federal government prohibited alcoholic beverages in the Union Army as a way to ration grain for hungry soldiers.

Temperance advocates, founded the Scientific Temperance Journal after the Civil War to justify their views. Schoolchildren's textbooks depicted human organs degenerating from an overabundance of drink. In the 1870s, the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) promoted the use of public education for the cause of temperance. By 1902, every state and territory except Arizona had a law requiring temperance instruction in the schools. The prohibitionists also used eugenics--the study of hereditary improvement of the human race by controlled selective breeding--to bolster their cause. They argued that immigrants were inferior due to the fact that their children had been drinking since a young age.

The "Ladies of Logan" sing hymns in front of bars in aid of the temperance movement

In contrast to the WCTU, the Anti-Saloon League, founded in 1896, focused only on the legal prohibition of alcoholic beverages. The League, printed and disseminated anti- drinking brochures, appealed to church members for support, and lobbied both lawmakers and businessmen. The Anti-Saloon League was so persuasive in its lobbying efforts that 28 states had adopted prohibition laws by 1918, before national prohibition went into effect.

Who believed in prohibition? Prohibition represented the desires of the Anglo-Saxon establishment. The typical prohibitionist was: A rural or small-town inhabitant Middle class Anglo-Saxon Evangelical Protestant Fearful of African-Americans, immigrants, Jews, and Catholics Prohibitionists had various motivations for campaigning against alcohol. Most believed that drinking liquor was immoral. Others wanted to take away the power of the urban political machines. Still others used the movement as a springboard for their personal political ambitions.

Prohibition and WWI… War time hysteria against all things foreign linked prohibition to patriotism. Prohibitionist propaganda characterized the liquor industry as foreign-controlled and pointed out that German-Americans owned and managed many of the nation's breweries.

Prohibition and WWI… Centralization of government power During WWI, the federal government took over railroads and factories, passed a conscription act, and curtailed liberty and free speech. Many Americans viewed the federal government as the upholder of American morality, temperance, and sobriety. In their minds, the federal government should limit individual freedoms for the sake of higher social responsibilities.

What is the message of this cartoon? (6 marks)

Results of Prohibition For the most part, enforcement of the Volstead Act was extraordinarily difficult. Many Americans, for example, enjoyed liquor and were more than willing to break the law to acquire alcoholic beverages. As a result, organized crime and smuggling rings mushroomed and home- brewing of alcohol became increasingly popular. In the end, Anglo-Saxons' efforts to impose its own moral codes on the rest of the nation through Prohibition was a failure and their power continued to decline throughout the 1930s.

The 21st Amendment, which was ratified in 1933, repealed the 18th Amendment. Congress called for ratifying conventions in each state. At the completion of delegates' voting, the national count in favor of repeal of the 18th Amendment was 73%.