The Eighteenth Amendment affected America not only economically but also promoted health and affected America`s crime rate. Specifically the United States of America seen a rise in American`s health such as liver health, in addition has seen a decrease in the economy and crime rates, related to assault and women abuse charges. My paper will demonstrate the ways in which America`s alcohol prohibition caused an economical downturn with dramatic fluctuations in the economy and changes in American societal behaviour`s. This will include an overview of America`s crime rates and economics before, during and after the alcohol prohibition to examine how America was affected by the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment.
The economy of America before the Eighteenth Amendment, was shown to see the start the anti-German hysteria by the political organizations that advocated for Prohibition, most outstandingly the "Anti-Saloon League (ASL) and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)". The beer brewing industry in the United States had been identified with the German immigrant community.
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The Volstead act was used as a heavy influence with the importance of putting the law into effect. Enforcing the alcohol prohibition in America cost approximately "$300 million to the American government" . It was also seen that some states relied on alcohol to fund large portions of their budgets, but now that money was gone. The federal government lost approximately "$11 billion in tax revenue while spending funds on trying to prohibit alcohol". It become evident through the economic downfall both the states and the federal government began to rely more heavily on personal income taxes to fill their
Many temperance societies existed in the early twentieth century, but the most prominent was the American Temperance Society. In 1835 the American Temperance Society formed, and while having significant membership numbers, initially, the temperance society did not have much political capital. (Jurkiewicz and Painter 4). In 1913 the ATS received their big break, when alcoholism became linked to higher poverty levels, domestic violence, the separation of families and other evils burdening the American culture (Jurkiewicz and Painter 5). ATS writers took to the streets and went nuts, releasing the stream of Temperance literature to gain further supporter by demonizing alcohol.
The eighteenth amendment of the United States Constitution prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the U.S and is most commonly referred to as Prohibition. Many believe that it prohibited the purchase or consumption of alcohol but it in fact did not (Prof. David J. Hanson, 2017). For anyone who is not well versed on the U.S. Constitution, they many not believe that this is an actual amendment. Today it is legal to manufacture, sell, transport, export, import, and pretty much do anything else with alcohol. That is because the 18th amendment is the only amendment in the 230 years since the Constitution was written to be repealed.
“If anyone wants to go to hell in a hurry, there are greased banks aplenty in Miami.” Said a distressed minister, who watched as other states enacted the prohibition before Miami (KCTS9, 1). 1919-1933 was a time of war between the ‘dry’ members and the ‘wet’ members. It all started in 1917 when Woodrow Wilson implemented a temporary wartime prohibition when the United States entered World War I, in order to save grain for producing food (history.com, 4). Though it was only supposed to last for a stipulated seven-year time limit, the amendment caught on, and received the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states in just 11 months.
As stated earlier, the second period of temperance began post-Civil War. During this time period, national organizations such as Woman’s Christian Temperance Union teamed with a new political party known as the National Prohibition party to take prohibition to the national political scene. In the past, many prohibition supporters, the ‘drys’ as they were called, believed the lack of political support undermined their efforts to nationalize the issues associated with alcohol use.
Many politicians and other public officials took bribes from the people trying to sell the alcohol. Thirdly, the government lost a lot of money because all of the alcohol that was being made, transported, and sold that they would have been able to tax was being sold illegally so they could not tax it. Another reason for prohibition was to try and reduce crime; this did not work. It actually increased because of the new income gangs, bootleggers, and moonshiners. It also started violence between the gangs because of the need for supplies.
In 1920 the national prohibition act, also known as the Volstead Act was placed into effect February 1st. The act itself has three sections, the first section is a system for war time prohibition, the second section a system for the national prohibition act, and a third section for the regulation of production of industrial alcohol. The act made it illegal to sell or produce alcoholic beverages unless it was for medical or religious reasons. The act also elucidates what intoxicating beverages that contains as little as one half of one percent of alcohol, but allowed for the manufacture, possession, and use of the beverages in private homes. The act also has specific provisions limiting searches of private homes; this is where the entrapment
I believe that this investigation will find that the ratification of the 18th Amendment, banning the sale, transportation, and public consumption of alcohol, had a significant impact on the American economy of the 1920’s. This is because of the economic changes that occurred in different industries in the years following the ratification of Prohibition. The ratification of Prohibition was significant to the industrial aspect of the American Economy in the 1920’s as indicated by increased factory productivity and higher wages. Prior to the passing of Prohibition, as many as five hundred men would be absent at the Cadillac production plant on Mondays, usually due to the effects of drinking from the night before.
In the years before Prohibition, the Progressive Movement created a mood of reform to improve society. The United States had just ended World War I against Germany a great producer of alcohol. In addition, businessmen like John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford strongly believed that alcohol was a threat to the economy because workers would go to work drunk and would not work efficiently. The United States repealed the 18th Amendment and allowed alcohol because of increased crime, problems with enforcement, and economic need. The first reason America repealed Prohibition was due to an increase in crime.
During the late 19th century, people were starting to look for reasons to blame the society’s issues on. Many people, particularly women, began to blame alcohol. With the idea of making society better, groups and organizations were formed in order to advocate against the consumption of alcohol. In the beginning of the 20th century, many states, particularly in the Bible belt, already had laws that banned the creation of alcohol. These groups petitioned Congress to pass the 18th Amendment to our Constitution.
This law started the decline in businesses among the United States. Since all of these businesses were unable to sell or produce alcohol, many of them closed down or had to find other items of interest, such as prostitution or gambling, to earn a profit and to keep their business open. Other businesses even had to start producing products such as cereal or ice cream. Though the nation tried to put an end to liquor, enough protesting changed the government’s mind as the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment. “Liquor stores and bars reopened, and breweries that had been converted into cereal plants or ice cream factories returned to the beer business” (Currie, 65).
The passage of the Eighteenth Amendment and Volstead Act led to the establishment “illegal economies (Bootlegging, speakeasies, and distilling operations)". The Prohibition been an important issue in the political arena. After the election of Herbert Hoover, he referred to it as an “experiment, noble in motive”. With the onset of the Great Depression led to the conclusion that the Volstead
Prohibition led to the rise of organized crime and failed as a policy due to many loopholes and large numbers of corrupt officials. Though started with good intentions it was not a good policy because it destroyed jobs and attempted to destroy an industry. These reasons lead to Prohibition’s failure and the repealing of the 18th Amendment in
However, where this act was least effective was more on a “personal level” as Blumenthal explains. She states that “alcoholism and alcohol abuse” were still major problems even with Prohibition and “more than 17 million American adults and their families” were affected by this (Blumenthal). The scourge of these beverages cursed America and people went rabid without the sweet sensation of drinking booze. Moreover, this proves that people could still get alcohol despite the great effort that was meant to prevent this very thing. The government could not control every intoxicating drop and for that reason, it was impossible to
In 1919, Congress passed the 18th Amendment which banned the sale and consumption of alcohol in America (Doc B). Prohibitionists overlooked the tenacious American tradition of strong drink and of weak control by the central government. Thus, there was tension between the modernists and the traditionalists. Although the amendment was passed, alcohol was still distributed illegally. Actually, prohibition spawned many crimes, such as illegal sale of alcohol and gang wars.
The country was trying to control America’s alcohol problems by law. The ban on alcohol worsened America’s alcohol problem, in fact, it did quite the opposite of its intention. All caused by prohibition, America had an increased crime rate, death rate, and to top it off, America was losing slathers of money.