Pros And Cons Of The 18th Amendment

Temporary fun with lifelong consequences; alcohol. In 1919 the 18th amendment was ratified, this amendment declared it illegal to manufacture, transport and sell alcoholic beverages. America repealed Prohibition due to the crime rate increasing, failure of enforcement and no money being made off of alcohol.

The Eighteenth Amendment. The Eighteenth Amendment didn’t ban the consumption of alcohol just the production of it. In order to enforce the 18th Amendment, the Volstead Act was passed. The purpose of the Volstead Act...The Eighteenth Amendment was the only amendment that revoked a right while all others gave freedoms. The Eighteenth Amendment caused a rise in organized crime.

Prohibition, also known as the 18th Amendment of the United States Constitution, banned the transportation and sales of alcohol. It was formed to stop drinking in the United States completely which resulted in the complete opposite. Prohibition lasted from January 1920 to December 1933. Prohibition had two main causes it affected the economy greatly, crime increased dramatically, and increased the literary and artistic movement. Many people saw prohibition as a violation to their freedom and it did not take long for the Americans to begin protesting against it. Alcohol was looked at as the belief that it caused most of the worlds problems. The sales of alcoholic beverages were still remained illegal during this period but it did not stop people from smuggling liquor over and secretly make beer, also known as bootlegging. Prohibition increased bootlegging which was the illegal production and sales of liquor. Bootleggers illegally produced alcohol into underground watering holes and began illegally selling alcohol to

Prohibition was a period of 13 years in U.S. history in which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor was made illegal from 1920 to 1933. It was known as the “Noble Experiment” and led to the first and only time an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was repealed.

“Thus came prohibition to the United States. Middle-class Americans—striving to revitalize and preserve American democracy and to usher in a new era of humanity, achievement, and progress—turned to prohibition as one device to achieve their goals.” (Callow) The Prohibition was a time where in the United States the sale and consumption of alcohol was illegal from 1920-1933. It was the 18th amendment which prohibited alcohol in the United States and it states, “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 United States Constitution) The Prohibition happened to occur during the Progressive Era where morals were valued, the was a rise in feminist and humanitarian movements, and there was action to dissolve corruption in business

The 1920’s were a period of tension between the traditionalists and modernists. The tension between these two groups was aroused by the economical advancements, social developments, and cultural changes in the 1920s. These tensions were manifested by the economic outburst and the passing of certain laws. Socially, Congress passed the 19th Amendment which allowed women the right to vote. Economically, the introduction of the automobile, radio, and the airplane brought prosperity in America. Culturally, the 18th Amendment banned the sale and drinking of alcohol in America.

Many people, following the beliefs of the Temperance Movement of the Progressive Era, sought to ban the both the consumption and sale of alcohol. These people, who were often female reformers, tried to link prohibition to several social causes from the Progressive Era, arguing that prohibition could end corruption and “Americanize” immigrants. In January of 1919, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which legalized prohibition, was ratified, even though it did not take effect until a year later. Although, prior to the ratification of the 18th Amendment, almost twenty states had already restricted or banned the sale and consumption of alcohol. However, this amendment ultimately failed and was repealed

The Eighteenth Amendment, also known as the Prohibition Act, took effect as of January 16, 1920, outlawing the manufacture, sale, and transport of alcoholic beverages in the United States from January 1920 till December 6, 1933. Prohibition was established to reduce the effects that alcohol had on families and on society. When primarily men consumed too much alcohol, their actions often resulted in domestic violence,often interfering with men's work performance, and money wasted that the family needed to support families. The prohibition period was very unsuccessful due to people wanting and doing whatever it took to get alcohol now that it was illegal, no matter how enforced prohibition was, leading to many Americans smuggling illegal alcohol

The quote from James Madison consists of two parts. First is his statement that “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” This is an affirmation of John Locke’s social contract theory which seemed to be widely accepted at the time. That is to say, without laws the state of human nature is chaos, but by agreeing to a social contract in the form of laws and government, order and harmony emerge. If men were angels, their nature would not be towards chaos, and thusly no social contract would be necessary. Since men are not angels, government is needed to maintain order.

Ratified on January 16th, 1919, the 18th Amendment banned the manufacture, transportation, and sale of liquor. This proved difficult to enforce, and, although it did help decrease crimes stemming from the consumption of alcohol, it led to a rise in organized crime in the production of alcohol; the alcohol bootlegging industry became more common—as well as more profitable. Widespread public cynicism led Congress to ratify the 21st Amendment in 1933, which repealed the 18th Amendment (the History Channel).

After World War II, Congress submitted the eighteenth amendment. The eighteenth amendment consisted of the banning of selling or manufacturing alcohol. The eighteenth amendment was passed in January 29,1919 after the approval of thirty-six states. Along with the eighteenth amendment

Between the 1890s and World War One, reform efforts started taking place by the progressives. The progressives were not a single unified group and even had some contradicting goals. They were middle class urban dwellers and some were women. The progressives wanted to end prostitution, Americanize immigrants, antitrust legislation created, women’s suffrage, and the start of prohibition. An example of a group of progressive women who wanted to start prohibition is The Women’s Christian Temperance Union. This group was lead by Francis Willard. The goals of the Women’s Christian Temperance union were to lobby for federal aid for education, free school lunches, unions for workers, an eight-hour workday, work relief for the poor, municipal sanitation and boards of health, national transportation, strong anti-rape laws, protections against child abuse and of course prohibition. The root of Willard 's argument for female suffrage was based on the platform of "Home Protection", which Willard described as "the movement...the object of which is to secure for all women above the age of twenty-one years the ballot as one means for the protection of their homes from the devastation caused by the legalized traffic in strong drink."[1] These "devastations" were the violent acts against women committed by

Alcohol was immensely important to immigrants that came to the United States from Europe in the 1600’s. A few centuries later, specifically 1917, many Americans believed that alcohol consumption was a problem. An eighteenth amendment was assembled and passed by congress which banned production, transport, and marketing of alcohol. Even a drink consisting of over 1 percent alcohol was considered an alcoholic beverage. America was officially a “dry” country. Subsequently, the nation realized prohibition was not working and things began downfall. America began to change its mind, repealing the amendment because prohibition was unenforceable, nobody wants it, and legalizing alcohol would benefit our economy.

Throughout Prohibition it was enormously controverse. Also the Volstead Act has not shown much effectiveness considering its main goal was to take away workers spending on alcohol, as well as keeping domestic violence of alcoholics out of the home. Yet, all the law brought was insanely higher amounts of spending on alcohol and brought the violence to the streets in a immense form of federal criminality. Even though many people wanted to dispose of the Eighteenth Amendment it was so unlikely to happen because never before in U.S. history has persevered and later on wanted to reverse. McGirr quotes George K. Statham when she writes “‘the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment is about as likely as the repeal of the Thirteenth Amendment, the return of dueling, or gladiatorial combats….The world moves, and it has never yet taken a great moral or social step forward and afterwards retraced its step.’ Five years later, the Twenty-First Amendment broke the Eighteenth Amendment’s record speed for ratification…”(pg.233) Many reasons were given as to why the Eighteenth Amendment was revoked. Mostly because it was more tearing the country down rather than building the country up and America is a country that looks towards the future in moving forward in developing the nation to make it the best country in the world. McGirr concludes onto multiple different points onto why the government revoked the amendment. “Widespread disrespect for law, controversial actions of the Volstead vigilante enforcers, ever more draconian enforcement legislation, and the siren song of nightlife culture experimentation led former supporters to conclude that law was doing more harm than good.”(pg.233) People began to realize the harmful effects of the Volstead Act that was crumbling the nation as Prohibition continued to lose continuously more supporters from 1928. Another reason for loss of especially government support in the Eighteenth Amendment was the economical perspective. As the

December 17, 1917, the United States House of Representatives approve the 18th Amendment (which prohibit the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages of any sort in the United States) with a vote of 382 to 128.A day later, the US Senate agreed on the Amendment with a vote of 47 to 8. A year after, over three-quarters of the fifty states ratified the Amendment. The 18th Amendment officially went into effect somewhere in the early 1920s. America became known as the dry country. The 18th Amendment lasted for 13 years until both the Senate and the House voted to remove the Amendment.”Why did America change its mind on prohibition”? One main reason is because of it’s impact on law abiding citizens, another, is the effect of prohibition on people in government positions, and final is its’ influence on America’s economy.