Alcohol is the most frequently used drug in the United

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1 Prohibition Excerpt from the Eighteenth Amendment Prohibition of Intoxicating Liquors Adopted on January 29, 1919 Reprinted from the Findlaw Web site at data/constitution/amendments18/ The manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors... for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. Alcohol is the most frequently used drug in the United States. Rum was often present in community gatherings in the early colonial settlements. Concern began to rise over those who drank too much. Laws were passed focusing on alcohol abuse and its disruptive effects on small communities. A call for a ban on alcohol grew throughout the nineteenth century among social workers, clergy, and others part of what were called temperance movements. By the 1870s organizations such as the Women s Christian Temperance Union crusaded around the nation promoting the prohibition of alcohol. Another key national group, the Anti-Saloon League, joined the fight for prohibition in the 1890s. Passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution banning the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages came in January To put the amendment into effect, Congress passed the Volstead Act in October The act expanded the prohibition to include beer and wine as well as hard liquor and criminalized its possession. 98

2 Things to remember while reading excerpts from the Eighteenth Amendment Prohibition of Intoxicating Liquors: Prohibition officially went into effect on January 16, Prohibitionists believed enforcement would be easy and inexpensive. Crime syndicates had previously been organized around gambling, prostitution, and other vices. It readily adapted to the new financial bonanza of bootlegging illegal liquor. Since the United States did not have a personal income tax until 1915, money from liquor taxes became a primary source of funding for the federal government from 1870 to An Anti-Saloon League poster from the 1910s making the case for Prohibition. This poster questions if the benefits of alcohol tax revenues are really worth the social costs. (The Library of Congress) Excerpt from the Eighteenth Amendment Prohibition of Intoxicating Liquors Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article 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. Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Concurrent: Jurisdiction by two authorities at the same time. Prohibition 99

3 Ratified: Approved by a required number of states. Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislature of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. What happened next... Prohibition did not curb America s desire to drink alcoholic beverages, but it did create a crime wave including dramatic growth in organized crime. Gangs operated their own alcohol distilleries and paid off local police and politicians to look the other way. In addition, gangsters smuggled (bootlegged) liquor into the United States from Canada and Mexico. With so much bribery and corruption, there was a significant decrease in the respect for law enforcement. By the late 1920s gangsters had become well established and wealthy. Some gang leaders became millionaires as the cost of drinks rose significantly. The number of saloons increased from some 16,000 before Prohibition to 33,000 speakeasies (illegal drinking places) following the passage of Prohibition. Overall, Prohibition was a disaster causing many unexpected problems. Besides leading to widespread disrespect for the criminal justice system and creating extremely wealthy criminals, Prohibition cost the lives of many police officers in shootouts with criminals, the deaths of citizens drinking bootlegged alcohol containing poisonous chemicals, thousands of lost jobs in breweries and the wine industry, and massive law enforcement expenses. By 1930 various organizations opposed to Prohibition joined together to form the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment. Their common goal was to repeal Prohibition. They drafted the Twenty-first Amendment and submitted it to Congress in February 1933 to begin the ratification process. With the arrival of the Democratic Party to the White House in March 1933 led by Franklin D. Roosevelt 100 Crime and Punishment in America: Primary Sources

4 ( ; served ), the failed experiment in Prohibition officially ended. Roosevelt immediately cut government funds for Prohibition enforcement and pressed Congress to pass a bill raising the permissible alcohol content for beverages to begin beer production. The beer act was passed on April 7, Some two hundred breweries began operation. The Twenty-first Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933, and added to the Constitution repealing the Eighteenth Amendment. Caught in the grips of the Great Depression ( ), the government desperately needed the tax revenues it could earn from alcohol production and sales, the creation of jobs, and the decreased costs of law enforcement. Organized crime leaders had to find a new means of making money. They turned to loan-sharking (charging very high interest rates on loans), labor racketeering, and drug trafficking. By the end of the twentieth century drug trafficking, a natural extension of Prohibition, was organized crime s biggest business. A woman places a tire cover promoting the appeal of the Eighteenth Amendment over a spare tire. The Eighteenth Amendment made all alcoholic beverages illegal and created more social problems than it was intended to prevent. (The Library of Congress) Did you know... Only about one-third of the adult population was willing to abstain from alcohol during Prohibition; instead, drinking became a symbol of independence and sophistication. In the first few years of Prohibition most illegal alcohol came from private home stills (distilleries, to distill and produce alcohol), while all necessary supplies were easily available at most stores. Organized crime groups, however, eventually took over most production. Public intoxication remains a crime as well as having an open container of alcohol while in public. Drinking and Prohibition 101

5 driving laws have steadily become more severe in enforcement and punishment. Intoxication cannot be used as a defense in a criminal trial for committing some other crime. Consider the following... Given the high costs of drug enforcement and the lack of success, some want to end the prohibition on illegal drugs and regulate drugs like alcohol. What would the effects be of such an effort? How would the rate of drug use change? Would organized crime decrease? Would government taxes on drugs be helpful in funding drug treatment programs? What were the problems law officials faced in enforcing Prohibition? Would there be more effective ways of enforcing it today? What led the promoters of Prohibition to believe the nation would readily accept the ban? Research the history of your local community in the 1920s. How did it respond to Prohibition? For More Information Books Behr, Edward. Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America. New York: Arcade Publishing, Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone. New York: G. P. Putnam s Sons, Kyvig, David E. Repealing National Prohibition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, Pegram, Thomas R. Battling Demon Rum: The Struggle for a Dry America, Chicago, IL: Ivan R. Dee, Rose, Kenneth D. American Women and the Repeal of Prohibition. New York: New York University Press, Web Sites Court TV s Crime Library: Criminal Minds and Methods. library.com (accessed on August 19, 2004). Temperance and Prohibition. Ohio State University Department of History. (accessed on August 19, 2004). 102 Crime and Punishment in America: Primary Sources