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Prohibition, The 18th Amendment
| Term Paper Title |
Prohibition, The 18th Amendment |
| # of Words |
1265 |
| # of Pages (250 words per page double spaced) |
5.06 |
Prohibition, The 18th Amendment
Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the business that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. The 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution took away the license to do business from the brewers, wholesalers and retailer sellers of alcohol. The leaders of the Prohibition movement were alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans, and they were concerned that there was a culture of drinking among some sectors of the population that, with continuing immigration from Europe, was spreading. They also found drinking very immoral.
The Prohibition movement's strength grew especially after the formation of the Anti-Saloon League in 1893. The League and other organizations that supported Prohibition such as the Women's Christian Temperance Union, soon began to succeed in enacting local Prohibition laws. Eventually, the Prohibition Campaign was a national effort.
During this time, the brewing industry was the most prosperous of the alcohol industries. Because of the competitive nature of brewing, the brewers entered the retail business. Americans called retail business selling beer and whiskey by the glass "saloons." To expand the sale of alcohol, brewers expanded the number of saloons. It was not uncommon to find one saloon for every 150 or 200 Americans, including those who did not drink. Hard-pressed to earn profits saloonkeepers sometimes added gambling and prostitution to their saloons in order to earn extra money. Most Americans considered them offensive and immoral.
The Prohibition leaders believed that once licensed to do business was removed from the liquor traffic, the churches and reform organizations would be given the opportunity to persuade people to give up drinking. This opportunity would occur unchallenged by the drink businesses, in whose interests it was to urge more people to drink. Their problem of having saloons around would disappear, and they would be able to educate people to stop drinking. Saloonkeepers were no longer allowed to persuade people, including children, to drink alcohol.
Some Prohibition leaders looked forward to an educational campaign that would expand once the drinking businesses became illegal, and would eventually, in about 30 years, lead to a sober nation. Other Prohibition leaders looked forward to vigorous enforcement of Prohibition order to eliminate supplies of alcohol. After 1920, neither group of leaders was very successful. The educators never received the support for the campaign that they dreamed about; and the law enforcers were never able to persuade government officials to mount a wholehearted enforcement campaign against illegal suppliers of alcohol. Part of the problem was that government officials, such as Attorney General Daugherty, under President Harding, would accept bribes from people and would allow them to make and sell illegal alcohol.
Ohio and Prohibition
Ohio was a very closely contested state in the national campaign to get rid of the liquor traffic by declaring the business of manufacturing and selling of alcohol illegal. Ohio was the birthplace of both the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1874) and the Anti-Saloon League (1893). The WCTU brought a special zeal to the prohibition effort in the 1880's failing to achieve statewide dry legislation, but disturbing the Ohio political life nevertheless. The Anti-Saloon League later, with the help of the WTCU, promoted the issue in a non-partisan manner, pressuring politicians to enact dry legislation. The League and its allies were successful in achieving various local option measures (laws that allowed voters of a ward or a township to declare themselves free of the liquor traffic) and, in 1908, in achieving a law that granted counties the authority to outlaw the liquor traffic.
Although Prohibition was a popular reform in the state, the issue deeply divided Ohioans. In 1909, witnessing the success of the League and achieving county option legislation, and feared t...Read entire document
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