Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, or sale of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. It was promoted by the "dry" crusaders, a movement led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Democratic and Republican parties, and was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was the first mass organization among women devoted to social reform with a program that, "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far-reaching reform strategies based on applied Christianity." The purpose of the WCTU was to further the temperance movement and to create a, "sober and pure world" through abstinence, purity, and evangelical Christianity.
Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard, who became the national president of the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union in 1879, and remained president for 19 years, was an American educator, temperance reformer, and women's suffragist. Her influence was instrumental in the passage of the Eighteenth (Prohibition) and Nineteenth (Women Suffrage) Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
Prohibition was mandated under the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Volstead Act set the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. For example, religious uses of wine were allowed. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law; however, in many areas, local laws were stricter, with some states banning possession outright.
Although alcohol consumption did decline as a whole, there was a rise in alcohol consumption in many cities along with significant increases in organized crime related to its production and distribution. The sale of alcohol was illegal, but alcoholic drinks were still widely available. People also kept private bars to serve their guests. Large quantities of alcohol were smuggled in from Canada overland, by sea along both ocean coasts, and via the Great Lakes. The government cracked down on alcohol consumption on land within the United States. It was a different story on the water, where vessels outside of the three-mile limit were exempt. Legal and illegal home brewing was popular during Prohibition. "Malt and hop" stores popped up across the country and some former breweries turned to selling malt extract syrup, ostensibly for baking and "beverage" purposes.
Dumping liquor
Disposal of liquor during Prohibition.
Repeal
Economic urgency played no small part in accelerating the advocacy for repeal. The number of conservatives who pushed for prohibition in the beginning decreased. Many farmers who fought for prohibition now fought for repeal because of the negative effects it had on the agriculture business. Prior to the 1920 implementation of the Volstead Act, approximately 14 percent of federal, state, and local tax revenues were derived from alcohol commerce. When the Great Depression hit and tax revenues plunged, the governments needed this revenue stream. Millions could be made by taxing beer. There was controversy about whether the repeal should be a state or nationwide decision. On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed an amendment to the Volstead Act, known as the "Cullen-Harrison Act," allowing the manufacture and sale of 3.2 percent beer and light wines. The Volstead Act previously defined an intoxicating beverage as one with greater than 0.5 percent alcohol. Upon signing the Cullen-Harrison Act, Roosevelt made his famous remark: "I think this would be a good time for a beer."
The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed on December 5, 1933, with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Legacy
Prohibition marked one of the last stages of the Progressive Era. During the nineteenth century, alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling addiction, and a variety of other social ills and abuses led to activism targeted at curing the perceived problems in society. Among other things, this led many communities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to introduce alcohol prohibition, with the subsequent enforcement in law becoming a hotly debated issue. Prohibition supporters, called "drys," presented the ban as a victory for public morals and health. Anti-prohibitionists, known as "wets," criticized the alcohol ban as an intrusion of mainly rural Protestant ideals on a central aspect of urban, immigrant, and Catholic life.
Although popular opinion is that Prohibition failed, it succeeded in cutting overall alcohol consumption in half during the 1920s, and consumption remained below pre-Prohibition levels until the 1940s, suggesting that Prohibition did socialize a significant proportion of the population in temperate habits, at least temporarily. Some researchers contend that its political failure is attributable more to a changing historical context than to characteristics of the law itself. A persistent criticism is that Prohibition led to unintended consequences such as the growth of urban crime organizations and a century of Prohibition-influenced legislation. As an experiment, it lost supporters every year, and lost tax revenue that governments needed when the Great Depression began in 1929.