Where Is Your Corn Going Neighbor Analysis

While the temperance movement was popular since the early nineteenth century, the epitome of the concept occurred during the Prohibition Era. During World War I, there were concerns in the United States about conserving grain and having a sober working class. In 1919, Congress adopted the 18th Amendment which banned the manufacturing and sale of all alcoholic beverages. Prohibition was a necessary precaution during the 1920s due to the social immorality created by alcohol, the economic drawbacks from the production and sale of alcoholic beverages, and the political corruption caused by alcohol. The influence that alcohol had on society was used as justification for prohibition. In The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation, Carry Nation

The Farm Journal comic titled “Where is Your Corn Going, Neighbor?” shows how much four gallons of whiskey sold for and how each of the profits were split up. The farmer who produced the corn for the whiskey got $0.50 for every four gallons, the government got $4.40, the saloonkeeper got $7.00, the consumer got “Drunk” and his wife and children got “Nothing but rags and sorrow.” (“Where Is Your Corn Going, Neighbor?”) This comic appeals to the sentiments of the common man. It shows how the farmer, who did most of the work, got much less than the saloonkeeper did no work to produce the whiskey. In addition to this, it points out how the whiskey would just worsen the lives of the common family. At the meeting of the American Medical Association in 1917, the House of Delegates adopted a resolution that stated, “WHEREAS, We believe that the use of alcohol as a beverage is detrimental to the human economy, and WHEREAS, Its use in therapeutics, as a tonic or a stimulant or as a food has no scientific basis.” (American Medical Association) The AMA declared that alcohol harms the economy. It has no medical or nutritional benefits and therefore consuming it is unnecessary. Alcohol economically harms the consumer and prohibition was a necessity to prevent the monetary