John Koren's Inherent Frailties Of Prohibition

In 1920, The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution that prohibits the manufacture, sales, and transportation of the alcohol was passed and continued until 1933.

Can be seen in document C “As long as they remain outside the 3-mile limits this government cannot interfere with them and they are able to make their deliveries to bootleggers that slip out to them under cover of darkness in motor speed boats”. With the 3-mile limit being a thing the government could do nothing about it unless the went over the 3 mile limit also bootleggers were very organized on how they operated their business. “The very men who made the Prohbition law are violating it… How can you have the heart to posecute a bootlegger, send a man to jail for six months or a year…” These people who made this law of prohibiting alcoholic beverages and having consequences for breaking that very law such as going to jail they were consuming it themselves with no repercutions for them but for the public. “ I have no lived in Washington all these years without becoming well acquainted with the fact that many Congressmen and Senators… are presistent violators of the Volstead Act. These government officials in these high positions are consistently violating Volstead Act as if it only applied to the public and not themselves which led to another reason of revoking the Prohibition

Imagine that you’re having a gathering or party. Everything is ready to go and then you remember that the 18th amendment prohibits you from buying liquor/alcohol. The party was supposed to be a blast, but how can you have a blast without alcohol or liquor. Prohibition was the 18th amendment. It stated that it was illegal to manufacture, transport, and sell alcoholic beverages in the United States. The Volstead Act added to the 18th amendment almost 9 months after. It added that when the 18th amendment went to affect, it was against the law to barter, import, export, deliver, furnish, or posses intoxicating liquor. Of course, drinking/usage was also banned, except for authorized purposes. Then it was repealed. It was the first, and only amendment in U.S history to be revoked.

In 1919 the Constitution of the United States issued the 18th amendment, enforced into law as the National Prohibition Act of 1920. Prohibition is the banning of the manufacture, sale, and possession of alcohol, including beer and wine. This amendment was repealed with the passing of the 21st amendment to the constitution, allowing the possession of alcohol in the United States. In the City of Washington on Monday, December 5th, 1932 the 21st amendment document included the reestablished rights of the citizens restricted by the 18th amendment. (Appendix II) The 18th amendment was the first and only amendment repealed by the constitution, allowing people to possess, sell, and buy their own alcohol.

The 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act did terminate the production of alcohol, but didn’t stop many from drinking it. Bootleggers bribed many government officials to provide alcohol to the public and to preserve their multi-million dollar business. This shows how disorganized and corrupt the government was during Prohibition. The government was supposed to support the citizens and Prohibition at that time. Instead, they turned against the people of United States and joined forces with people that provided toxic alcohol to the public. Also, bootleggers produced millions of gallons of poisonous alcohol. Drinking it can cause blindness or be poisoned. When Prohibition didn’t exist, alcohol was regulated and checked if it’s toxic before being sold to the public. Even when alcohol was forbidden, people still found a way to get their hands on liquor and sold it to the public causing devastation. During Prohibition, the government ordered industrial alcohol companies to add chemicals to alcohol, fuels, and medical supplies, discouraging people from drinking it as a warning. As a result, bootleggers got access to it, offering these low quality alcohol to the public and more than 10,000 people died from drinking it. It’s critical how the government was supposed to stop people from drinking alcohol, but it actually led people to illness or

The Volstead Act of 1919 to 1933 was an act passed by the U.S Congress which specified that any beverage with an alcohol content of more than 1 half of 1 percent was considered an intoxicating substance (Lecture Topic 3). This act was significant as it defined and implemented the 18th amendment, also created by the U.S Congress, which made the manufacturing, selling or transportation of intoxicating liquors illegal. This was the official beginning of alcohol prohibition in the United States and the Volstead Act made the definition of an intoxicating beverage very narrow, so that an intoxicating substance could easily be detected. However, there were some exceptions to this act. It allowed for the use of alcohol, more specifically wine, during

The 1920s was a time of major social change in the United States. The social changes during this period were reflected in the laws and regulations that were brought into play at this time. One of the most prominent examples of this was prohibition. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, also known as the Volsted Act, which got its name from its sponsor, Representative Andrew Volsted of Minnesota, was created to eliminate the use of alcohol in the United States. In doing this, the proponents of prohibition hoped to end the social problems associated with alcohol, such as domestic abuse. "It was an attempt to promote Protestant middle-class culture as a means of imposing order on a disorderly world"(Dumenil, 1995). However, this goal of keeping peace by not consuming alcohol, was not reached during the years of prohibition, or the years following it. Alcohol consumed by Americans did decline, but it was not totally eliminated as hoped, and some of the social problems seemed to be even greater than before prohibition was in effect. Therefore, prohibition was not successful in its original purpose. To better understand the reasons behind the failure of prohibition, one must have to look at the years before, during, and after prohibition. This will give a better understanding to the implementation of the 18th Amendment as well as show the trends of Americans' alcohol use and the effects of alcohol on American society.

The Prohibition in the 1920s, or commonly called the Volstead Act (named after the author Andrew J. Volstead) was a trying time in American History. Also called the “Noble Experiment” by President Herbert Hoover, “because believers

The Volstead Act was the prohibition act and was passed on July 22, 1919. Even though many people disagreed with the Volstead Act, it was still passed. It was passed because Americans started to be concerned about the effects of drinking alcohol. For example, “Would stop husbands from spending all the family income on alcohol and prevent accidents in the workplace caused by workers who drank during lunch” (Rosenberg, 2017). This was one of the main reasons why the Volstead Act was passed, women hoped that their husbands would stop spending all their money on alcohol instead of spending it on something important like their family. Also, they were many accidents in factories because men would drink during their break, so they weren’t sober and that caused many accidents. Another reason was because when men were drunk sometimes they would hit their wives and children. Many people were against the Volstead Act, however many people were in favor of the Volstead Act, especially women. For instance, “Women played a strong role in the temperance movement, as alcohol was seen as a destructive force in families and marriages” (history.com). This explains that the main reason for women to be against alcohol was that they saw as if it was the main reason that their

Because of the passing of the Volstead Act in 1920, production and distribution of alcohol became an extremely profitable business. With this also came a noticeable rise in organized crime in many of the big cities. Even worse, the crimes committed by members of these gangs became more violent. Soon prisons were overcrowded and were merely hold facilities.

The Volstead formally known as the National Prohibition Act was intended to carry out the eighteenth amendment, establishing prohibition in America. The Act was created in 1919 after passing through congress. The Law was made into simple steps: Prohibit Alcoholic beverages,regulate the manufacture, sale, or transport of intoxicating liquor, and ensure an ample supply of alcohol and promote its use in scientific research and in the development of fuel, dye and other lawful industries and practices, such as religious rituals. These rules were very easy to follow, they thought. The Act went into effect on January 17th 1920. Within an hour of the law going into effect, police reported that six armed men stole over $100,000

“For those Americans who did not want to go to the effort of making their own liquor, an army of bootleggers, moonshiners, and rumrunners was available to supply the nation with all the booze its citizens could drink” (Hanson). Americans could just buy alcohol from bootleggers, moonshiners, and rumrunners if they did not want to make it themselves because they could find an alcohol seller anywhere. “The Eighteenth Amendment was intended to reduce drinking by abolishing the businesses that made and sold alcohol: breweries, distillers, winemakers, wholesale sellers, and retail establishments such as saloons” (Hanson). The Eighteenth Amendment was made to stop alcohol from getting on the streets but it did no use so they got rid of the Eighteenth Amendment. The temperance movement and the prohibition on alcohol helped stop most of the drinking in the United States of America.

As a result of Prohibition, the advancements of industrialization within the alcoholic beverage industry were essentially reversed. Large-scale alcohol producers were shut down, for the most part, and some individual citizens took it upon themselves to produce alcohol illegally, essentially reversing the efficiency of mass-producing and retailing alcoholic beverages. Closing the country's manufacturing plants and taverns also resulted in an economic downturn for the industry. While the Eighteenth Amendment did not have this effect on the industry due to its failure to define an "intoxicating" beverage, the Volstead Act's definition of 0.5% or more alcohol by volume shut down the brewers, who expected to continue to produce beer of moderate

Ratified on January 29, 1919, the 18th Amendment went into effect a year later. By that time, about thirty-three states had already enacted their own prohibition legislation. In October that same year, Congress had passed the National Prohibition Act. This provided guidelines for the federal enforcement of Prohibition. The Representative Andrew Volstead of Mississippi championed this. He was the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. The legislation was more commonly known as the Volstead Act.

Prohibition, under the Eighteenth Amendment was the Governments idea of illegalizing the consumption, production, and transportation of intoxicating liquors.