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The 18th amendment and Volstead Act dramatically changed the economy, society, and culture of America in the 1920's. First of all, prohibition affected the economy of the United States because prohibition of the sale of alcohol prevented taxes from being collected on alcohol, which decreased the federal government's revenue. Also, prohibition forced the closure of most saloons and bars, so thousands of citizens became unemployed. Overall, prohibition hurt the economy of the United States and although not the only cause, prohibition of alcohol did lead to the Great Depression, as the government was not collecting as much money as it needed to run. The passing of the 18th amendment also affected the society and culture of the 1920's. Because going to saloons and drinking was a large part of many citizens' leisure activity, the prohibition of alcohol severely impacted their lives. Prohibition directly led to an increase of organized crime, as a ban on the manufacture of alcohol was difficult to enforce. Mobs and mafias illegally manufactured, transported, and sold alcohol across the nation. The culture of the 1920's was affected by prohibition because unlike previous generations, men did not waste money or time on alcohol and were more available in home life. Also, the number of alcohol-related crimes and deaths decreased, one of the rare positive consequences of prohibition. Finally, although the economic consequences of prohibition lasted well into the 1930's, societal and cultural effects of prohibition did not continue to affect society much past the repealing of the law. Overall, prohibition affected the economy, society, and culture of the 1920's in dramatic ways, causing both positive and negative consequences.

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Before World War I, women began to disagree with the amount of liquor being consumed.  Their husbands would come home drunk and sometimes abuse them and their children while also draining their money, leaving them poor.  In 1920 women submitted facts to Congress, begging for it to become an amendment. President Woodrow Wilson vetoed this act at first but then Congress passed the Volstead Act. This act provided enforcement for the 18th amendment. After gaining majority vote it became an amendment, banning alcohol from being  produced, imported, transportation and sold. With this law being passed, the crime rate was suppose to decrease but ended up doing the opposite. Even though this law was passed by government, the government did not have enough power to enforce it. Some states acted to be stricter than others because of the level of addiction being so high but nothing seemed to work. Eventually, gangs were beginning to secretly sell alcohol underground and illegally bring it over from Canada. Citizens of the United States were so addicted at this point that they law wasn't even worth keeping around. So in 1933 the twenty- first amendment was born, which repealed the 18th amendment.

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This document was a poster used in the 1900s to convince the public to vote for prohibition. This poster the reasons behind the temperance movement. Many women wanted prohibition because they wanted to prevent their husbands from drinking too much, as drinking costed money and kept their husbands away from their family. The woman in the poster wanted to keep her son pure by making alcohol illegal. I think this poster shows a main reason behind the expansion of the temperance movement, which led to the ratification of the 18th amendment. Women were the driving force behind the 18th amendment, as many men were not in support of prohibition. This poster, along with many more, were used to convince the public to support prohibition.

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Libations- a pouring out of wine or other liquid in honor of a deity.
Quorum-- the number of members of a group or organization required to be present to transact business legally, usually a majority.
Referendum- the principle or practice of referring measures proposed or passed by a legislative body, head of state to the vote of the electorate for approval or rejection.
Contention- a struggling together in opposition; strife.
Ratification- the act of ratifying; confirmation; sanction.

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This newspaper was published in New York City in December of 1933, immediately following Congress's decision to end prohibition with the passing of the 21st amendment. The 21st amendment was passed nearly 15 years after the passing of the 18th amendment and Volstead Act, which implemented prohibition of alcohol in the United States. This newspaper article seems to celebrate the fact that prohibition has ended and advertises for a gathering at the Bourbon Theater on Sunday, December 5. This party will celebrate the repeal of the 18th amendment and will not charge an admission price. The article also explains that the party is only for those 21 years of age older, as that is the legal age for drinking established in the 21st amendment. I believe this document exemplifies the thoughts of the citizens of the United States regarding prohibition in this time period. The newspaper article shows that many people didn't like prohibition and were happy for it to end.

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This document shows the meaning behind the supreme court's decision on national prohibition. After the fact was submitted, Congress deemed it necessary to be inducted into the Constitution. For the fact to become an amendment, two-thirds need to elect it in. Also, any referendums provisions by states cannot be applied for this amendment. As soon as all of this is passed, the fact becomes the 18th amendment and liquor trafficking is no longer legal. This document seems to define what was happening when this amendment finally came into effect. I think this document helps to break down to people who may be confused and or angry on the outcome of this fact becoming an amendment.

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INFORMUCATE U.S. GOVERNMENT GUIDE: THE EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT (PROHIBITION)

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http://www.informucate.com/fast-fact-videos/government Informucate U.S. Government Videos give you the fast facts on the history and development of the United States system of government, as well as the various houses, departments and institutions that run our nation.

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This website explains the parallels between prohibition and the legalization of marijuana in some states today. First of all, prohibition in the 1920's was very hard to enforce, as is illegal marijuana usage today. Secondly, prohibition ended partially because the economy needed the tax money from alcohol, and one reason citizens want marijuana legalization today is to collect tax money.

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As the debate over the legalization of marijuana came to the forefront of this year's election, three experts joined the National Constitution Center to discuss lessons we can learn from the Prohibition era.

Daniel Okrent, best-selling author and curator of the Center's world-premiere exhibition American Spirits: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, joined Christopher Bracey, senior associate dean for academic affairs at George Washington University Law School, and David Fontana, associate professor of law at George Washington University, to discuss the legacy of Prohibition in relation to the nation's evolving drug policies.

Check out the panelists' insights and listen to audio clips of the program below.

For full recordings of the National Constitution Center's latest programs, subscribe to our We the People Stories podcast series.

PARALLELS

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"It's an exciting time to talk about Prohibition for the reason that the election has put the question of 'anti-Prohibition' before us all over again," Bracey said. "The question of the day, I think, is ... what lessons can we draw from Prohibition for today's issues?"

"Well, I think there are two primary lessons,"Okrent said. "The first one, we know, I think we all know, that Prohibition was a terrible failure. Despite the best of intentions, and we have to remember that there were good reasons for Prohibition ... but the effort to legislate it out of existence didn't succeed. ...

"If there is a part of the world that wants something and another part that is willing to supply it, it will be provided, and that was certainly the case with Prohibition. I think we've seen that as being the same thing with marijuana, and the changes in the laws, particularly by popular vote now, are a reflection of the knowledge this is so.

"I said there was a second reason, and one of the very clear parallels between the U.S. today and the early 30s leading up to the repeal of Prohibition was the desperate need for tax revenue. It was really the Depression that ended Prohibition as much as anything else, because suddenly with 25 percent unemployment, income tax collections had plummeted, capital gains taxes didn't exist any longer--there were no capital gains between 1919 and 1933--so the government is broke, it's running on fumes, where can we get some revenue again? People recalled that back before Prohibition and before the income tax amendment in 1913 that as much as 40 percent of federal revenue came from the tax on alcoholic beverages.

"Today, no one seems to want to pay taxes, no one wants to legislate taxes, so instead: user taxes--if people want something, they can purchase it, and the state or the federal government or both will get richer as a result of it. So I think we're in this case of double parallels."

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DIFFERENCES

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"There's one point of departure here," Bracey said. "There's a key difference between alcohol and marijuana--one has a certain cultural tradition, that's sort of across or transcends generations; psychotropic drugs, marijuana, perhaps not the same tradition."

Another difference the panelists discussed is that Prohibition was a sweeping bipartisan measure, whereas today, neither major party supports the legalization of marijuana. For example, in 2010, when a ballot measure in California to legalize marijuana was proposed, not a single elected official supported it.

FEDERALISM IN ACTION

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Fontana pointed out that both Prohibition and today's war on drugs reflect a unique dynamic between the federal and state governments.

"This for me highlights what's so different about his debate in the United States versus elsewhere," he said. "In the U.S., these debates are bottom-up instead of top-down debates. Prohibition is a great example of this. Before it got to the point where we did one of the grandest of things in American law and had a constitutional amendment, there were dozens of states experimenting ... as our laboratories of democracy with different laws.

"In another country, when there are changes in drug laws or when there are changes in any laws, they're much more top-down. ...In the United States these debates and all of our other controversial debates tend to be more bottom-up."

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Fontana also pointed out that because enforcement was such a demanding task, "one of the legacies of Prohibition is that even after the 21st Amendment was passed and is gone from being in our Constitution, the modern administrative state is partly created through Prohibition. ... One of the themes that drug laws implicate is the capacity of the federal government."

CONFLICTS?

With current conflicts between federal policy and certain states, what might the federal government do?

It's not unheard of for the federal government to sue a state--in fact, that was the case with Arizona v. U.S., Bracey explained, in which the court weighed in on whether Arizona's immigration law interfered with federal policy and enforcement efforts.

It's possible that the federal government could sue--but "it doesn't strike me as likely," Okrent said.

It is likely that the federal government won't interfere too much in enforcing federal law over conflicting states. "There's just not the interest, the experience, and the resources to do all that much at the federal level," Fontana said.

What about a legislative approach? Would Congress ever pass a law legalizing (and taxing and regulating) marijuana?

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"Congress is more likely to have a unicorn appear in its hall," Fontana said. "It's hard to imagine it passing any significant drug reform."

BLACK MARKET

Would legalizing marijuana reduce related criminal activity?

"What we know is the crime syndicate today, and what we've had as a national crime syndicate for much of the last century, was created by and for Prohibition," Okrent said.

"Crime as we came to know it on a national scale was directly a result of Prohibition. The obvious parallel of the mobsters who made huge amounts of money--untaxed--and perpetrated a great deal of violent crime to protect their interests, we have the same thing going on now. It's mostly in Mexico, not entirely in Mexico, but it's driving the same sort of craven behavior and violent behavior because of this underground market."

CONSTITUTIONAL ANOMALY

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Of the constitutional perspective on Prohibition, Okrent said:

"For me... it's the anomaly of Prohibition in the Constitution. The Constitution exists to limit the powers of government in the lives of individuals or relative to the states, and only in two places in the history of the Constitution, I believe, are the rights of individuals ever limited in the Constitution: the 18th Amendment said you couldn't get a glass of legal beer, and the 13th Amendment said you couldn't own slaves. The notion that these two things are equivalents in the Constitution is really kind of horrifying."

Fontana said:

"Perhaps the most significant constitutional lesson to come from Prohibition is that anything can be done under the Constitution. So we can pass something under the Constitution, and then 13 years later we can repeal it. ... It's very up in the air up until Prohibition what you can do as a constitutional amendment. And after Prohibition, there's a Supreme Court challenge to whether or not it changed the Constitution too much. And the Supreme Court says in the case that you can do anything under the Constitution as long as you get the votes. ... From a constitutional perspective, Prohibition opens the doors for all different types of things potentially being in the Constitution."

REALITY CHECK

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Of the intentions behind Prohibition of alcohol and drugs, Okrent said:

"It has to do with self-definition--who are we as a people, who are we as a society. The war on drugs has been going on for 42 years. I don't know of any other war that we would tolerate going on for so long that we were losing and spending so much money on. ... It is this matter that what you believe is more important than what you can accomplish.

"None of these are efforts to legislate morality. They're efforts to legislate against human desire. That can't work."

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Today's war on drugs: Prohibition then and now

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As the debate over the legalization of marijuana came to the forefront of this year's election, three experts joined the National Constitution Center to discuss lessons we can learn from the Prohibition era.

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This website explains the movements that helped gain support for prohibition, including some that started as early as 1826. Also, it states that women were more supportive of prohibition than men, as men were the primary drinkers of alcohol. The 18th amendment had success in the first years after its passing, but because the law was hard to enforce, many people didn't follow it. Organized crime increased and the amendment was repealed in 1933.

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By the turn of the 20th century, temperance societies were prevalent in the United States. Concerned citizens had begun warning others about the effects of alcohol nearly 100 years earlier. In 1826 the American Temperance Society was founded to convince people to abstain from drinking. Not long after, the Women's Christian Temperance Union pledged not only to ban alcohol and drugs, but to improve public morals. The anti-Saloon League was formed in 1893 and eventually became a powerful political force in passing a national ban on alcoholic beverages.

Women were strongly behind the temperance movement, for alcohol was seen as the destroyer of families and marriages. Men would often spend their money on alcohol, leaving women with no money to provide for their children. Factory owners also supported temperance as well because of the new work habits that were required of industrial workers - early mornings and long nights.

Progressive reformers also took to Prohibition for they saw it as a continuation of their efforts to improve society in general. Temperance societies and Progressives alike saw the need for more governmental control and involvement in citizens' lives. They were successful in passing several laws at the local level. Between 1905 and 1917, states across the nation were imposing laws that prohibited the manufacture and sale of intoxicating beverages.

They did not stop there, however. The temperance societies began to push to change American society and elevate morality through national legislation. In 1917, the House of Representatives wanted to make Prohibition the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. Congress sent the amendment to the states for ratification, where it needed three-fourths approval. The amendment stipulated a time limit of seven years for the states to pass this amendment. In just 13 months enough states said yes to the amendment that would prohibit the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic liquors.

The amendment worked at first: liquor consumption dropped, arrests for drunkenness fell, and the price for illegal alcohol rose higher than the average worker could afford. Alcohol consumption dropped by 30 percent and the United States Brewers' Association admitted that the consumption of hard liquor was off 50 percent during Prohibition.

These statistics however, do not reflect the growing disobedience toward the law and law enforcement. The intensity of the temperance advocates was matched only by the inventiveness of those who wanted to keep drinking. Enforcing Prohibition proved to be extremely difficult. The illegal production and distribution of liquor, or bootlegging, became rampant, and the national government did not have the means or desire to try to enforce every border, lake, river, and speakeasy in America. In fact, by 1925 in New York City alone there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs.

The demand for alcohol was outweighing (and out-winning) the demand for sobriety. People found clever ways to evade Prohibition agents. They carried hip flasks, hollowed canes, false books, and the like. Neither federal nor local authorities would commit the resources necessary to enforce the Volstead Act. For example, the state of Maryland refused to pass any enforcement issue. Prohibition made life in America more violent, with open rebellion against the law and organized crime.

In this lesson, students will be historians examining the documents listed above, trying to find out why "the great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far reaching in purpose" as Herbert Hoover called it, did not work. Students should try to identify the changing values and cultural pressures at the beginning of the 20th century. How are these similar to and different from those we are experiencing at the advent of the 21st century? What can we learn from Prohibition? How can we compare it to our own war on drugs? What cultural movements are happening today that relate to this time in American history? Use these questions and others to guide your students through their research on this "experiment."

The Documents
Links go to DocsTeach, our online tool for teaching with documents. This article was written by Kerry C. Kelly, a teacher at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, NJ.
Resources

Boardman, Fon W. Jr. America and the Jazz Age: A History of the 1920's. New York: Henry Z. Walck, Inc., 1968.

Downey, Matthew T., et al. Volume II: The Roaring Twenties and an Unsettled Peace. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992.

Mowry, George E. The Twenties: Fords, Flappers & Fanatics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1963.

Pietrusaz, David. The Roaring Twenties. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books,. 1998.

Time Life Books. 1920-1930. Volume III. New York: Time Inc.,1969.

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By the turn of the 20th century, temperance societies were prevalent in the United States. Concerned citizens had begun warning others about the effects of alcohol nearly 100 years earlier. In 1826 the American Temperance Society was founded to convince people to abstain from drinking.

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This website includes the original words of the 18th amendment, which was ratified by Congress in January of 1919. It also explains both positive and negative consequences of this amendment. For example, the number of alcohol related deaths and crimes decreased, but organized crime increased and the black market grew. The 18th amendment was repealed in 1933 by the 21st amendment.

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National Constitution Center - The 18th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

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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.

Keep Reading

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The 18th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

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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. Keep Reading

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This website explains the origins of the 18th amendment and temperance movement in the 1920's. It also details the struggles that authorities faced when trying to enforce this law because of organized crime, such as Al Capone's mafia in Chicago. Finally, because of public unsatisfaction and the Great Depression, the 18th amendment was repealed in 1933.

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18th and 21st Amendments - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com

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Find out more about the history of 18th and 21st Amendments, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com