Examples Of Prohibition In America 1920

1 Prohibition in America 1920

1.1 The Political Concept of Prohibition

The concept of prohibition (lat. prohibere, to prohibit) describes a lawful ban with enforcement. The reasoning can be religious, economically or politically. It is mostly used to prohibit drugs and thus protecting the population from the substance.

But it can also prohibit anything else, types of clothing for example, with the most famous example in the dress code of Islamic women.

The worldwide use of drug prohibition is so established in our daily lives that many are not even aware of it.

“What percentage of countries in the world have drug prohibition? Is it 100 percent, 75 percent, 50 percent, or 25 percent? I recently asked many people I know to guess the answer

Not without reason was it called the water of life, aqua vitae, and the good creature of good.

Alcohol dominated every part of everyday life, “it was food, medicine, and, […] for enjoyable social intercourse.” (Cp. Behr, Edward, 2011) In some rural areas, it was even regarded as means of payment, with prices displayed in pints or gallons of whisky.

Back then agriculture made up a huge percentage of American population and farmers found that they could get more money for their corn and grain from distillers rather than millers.

“The going price for a muscular slave was twenty gallons of whiskey;” (Cp. Behr, Edward, 2011) “Any communal physical effort – whether harvesting, road-building, or wood-cutting – was an excuse for a binge. Workers’ wages came, in part, in the form of liquor, and days off to get drunk were part of an unwritten agreement between employer and laborer.” (Cp. Behr, Edward, 2011)

The description on drinking habits found in “The Old American Encyclopedia” from 1830 from today’s point of view reads like the average day of an alcoholic. The Excerpt is found in my

“After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportations 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.” (Cp. American Congress, 1917)

“But the act was mute concerning the actual consumption of liquor in private homes – the one concession to individual liberty.” (Cp. Behr, Edward, 2011)

The prohibition banned all alcohol allowing only “near-beer” with a maximum amount of 0.5 percent alcohol content and the exceptions of industrial alcohol, sacramental wine, and certain medicinal alcohol which could be prescribed by