Woodrow Wilson And The Prosecution Of The Volstead Act (1919)

The men who created this law were not even following it. A deputy U.S Attorney General for Prohibition enforcement, Mabel Walker Willebrandt explains she is tired of the hypocrisy. It she showed by her asking “How can you have the heart to prosecute a bootlegger, send a man to jail for six months or a year for selling a pint or quart of whiskey, when you know for a fact that the men who make the laws.. Are themselves patronizing bootleggers?” (Doc. D) This document conveys that Americans wanted to repeal the 18th Amendment because it is unfair to have to follow a law that law makers are not even following themselves. In addition, the failure of enforcement was due to the fact of there not being enough police to stop everyone from getting alcohol. Frederic J. Haskin states, “Smuggling from Mexico and Canada has been successful on a large scale because it is an utter impossibility to patrol thousands of miles of border… (B)ootleggers…” (Doc. C) Everyone knew they could get alcohol one way or another because there was not enough cops to patrol the

In the early 1800s Alcohol was a big part of the American Society.In 1920, prohibition was a nationwide ban on the manufacture, importation, transportation, exportation, distribution and the sale of all alcohol. Alcohol was blamed for many of society's issues, among were health problems, crime and corruption and social problems. Alcohol was blame for large amount of domestic violence.By the late 1800s, temperance movements were formed. With the Prohibition act many Americans-from farmers to distellers to bar owners became unemployed, but that didn't stop a few people from manufacturing and selling Alcohol illegally.

On January 16, 1920, the 18th amendment was passed stating alcohol was illegal creating multiple problems in the United States. Although Prohibition seemed like a good idea at first, representing good health and morality, prohibition soon led to organized crime and gangs. Speakeasies, run by gangs and bootleggers, sold illegal and home-made alcohol. Bootleggers, getting their names from people soring alcohol in false legs, would run bars or taverns hidden from police. Organized crime grew and the gangs fought for control and kept their secrets by conquering any threats. The amendment was finally nullified in 1933 by the 21st amendment. Organized crime wasn’t ended although prohibition was repealed and creating many

The 1920’s, or “The Roaring 20’s”, was a decade that witnessed exciting social changes. It was a time of prosperity and dissipation, bootleggers and jazz dancers, and most importantly, it was a decade of The Prohibition Era. The Prohibition Era is basically an era which banned the manufacture, transportation, import and export, and the sale of alcoholic beverages. It was meant to reduce crime, corruption, and social problems and increase the overall hygiene of America. However, this social and political experiment failed.

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. Specifically, Al Capone was one of the most well-known booze distributors and was labeled “public enemy number

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

Crooked Agents were bribed to “look away” from people buying liquor. Even workers in the government wouldn’t help with the prohibition, they wouldn’t spend any money on enforcing it. When criminals smuggled alcohol they could easily get away with it because there would be so little patrol at the many miles of the country 's border. (Document C) The men who made the prohibition were not following its rules. Many congressmen were violators of the Volstead Act. (Document D) People still drank alcohol throughout Prohibition, the consumption didn’t stop at all. (Document K) Infact throughout the whole prohibition time the consumption of alcohol had barely dipped down.

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).

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.

On January 16th of 1919, the American congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment, making all importing, exporting, transporting, selling, and manufacturing of alcohol illegal. It was not until 1920 that the Amendment was enforced. During the era of progressive reform, 1900-1919 it took much convincing to get congress to pass the Amendment. You have a majority of the population against prohibition because saloons were a social hangout for them where they hosted parties, weddings, etc. Then you have the rest of the population for prohibition because of economic, religious, and health reasons.

While many people supported Prohibition, there was still an overwhelming demand for alcoholic beverages. In only the first two years of Prohibition, there were 65,000 federal criminal actions. The amount of criminal activity during Prohibition was overwhelming for the authorities and it was impossible for them to handle. The 18th Amendment did not even decrease the number of drinking establishments in some areas. For example, there were about 15,000 legal drinking establishments in New York before the 18th Amendment and 32,000 illegal ones after. Thus, the 18th Amendment increased the opportunities for drinking, when it’s purpose was to stop drinking entirely. Liquor was also often made inside people’s homes from ingredients that were commonly sold. It is estimated that Americans made 700 million gallons of liquor in makeshift stills sold by hardware stores. Illegal liquor came from many different places, that were very hard to police. The 18th Amendment caused more problems than it

In the early 1920s, the views on alcohol in America had two very different standpoints. On one side, there were the people who believed that alcohol was a good contribution to society. These people were known as Modernists. On the other side, there were the people known as traditionalists who thought alcohol was evil and corrupt. These two sides differ in opinions which led to the debate against the drys and the wets. The passing of the Eighteenth Amendment was supported by the traditionalists, but created havoc in the cities which was predicted by the modernist and resulted in the repeal of the prohibition and can be compared to the Twenty-first century debate on the legalization of marijuana.

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