Syndicate # 1
Claire
Nikki
Amber
Angela
“Prohibition seemed to
offer the promise of a
great cure-all for
poverty, corruption,
and crime.”
- Bill Severn
Events leading up to Prohibition:
The 1920’s: A decade of contrast
1. Freedom on dress, behavior, and sexual attitudes were
conflicting with ideals of the New Puritanism.
2. Traditional small town ways of life clashed with new
urban ways.
3. Religious fundamentalism went under rebirth and many
people tried to hold on to the traditional morals and values.
4. The Anglo-Saxon class, the most influential group in
American society, began to decline.
Decline of Anglo-Saxon class
1. They typically were:descendants of early European settlers,
People with responsibility in communities, educated, favored less
government involvement.
2. Tried to hold their power in American Society by:
Immigration restriction, Anti-Semitism, joining KKK, maintaining
economic control.
• Prohibition was not
first seen in the 1920’s
– 1. Maine Law of 1881prohibited the
manufacture and sale
of intoxicating liquors
in the state of Maine.
– 2. 1855- 13 out of 31
states gad prohibition
similar to Maine.
– 3. 1870- Women’s
Christian Temperance
Union formed to
further cause of
temperance.
• Population Explosion
•
(described in 1910-1911)
– 1.Birth rates of
immigrants and poor
native-born American
exceeded those of
Anglo-Saxon.
– 2.Many of these new
Americans settled in
large states.
– 3. Republican party
had been based among
Protestants in small
towns; big cities
showed growth in
Catholic and Jewish
populations.
Prohibitionists
• 1. Represented the desires and ideals of the
Anglo-Saxon establishment.
• 2. Typically were from small towns, middle
class, immigrants, Jews and Catholics.
• 3. Many thought drinking liquor was
immoral, some wanted power taken from
urban political machines, some wanted to
further personal political careers.
Women’s Christian Temperance
Union
• - formed by Frances Willard in 1873
• - goal was ending production, sale, and
consumption of alcohol
• - composed of mostly women angered by
men who abused their wives and children
Anti-Saloon League
•
•
•
•
formed in 1893 by Howard Hyde Russell
believed in working within existing party system
developed highly successful lobbying techniques
had support from business men who believed
liquor was slowly production
• Organized local-option campaigns in which small
towns banned liquor within their geographical
limits.
Prohibition Party
• Political party formed in 1869
• Their aim was abolition of liquor trafficking
• James Black was the 1st presidential
candidate.
• They wanted to enhance freedom and
dignity of the individual and protect the
welfare of the family.
Prohibition- the “Noble
Experiment”
•
•
•
•
- 1920- 1933
18th Amendment
Volstead Act
Federal Prohibition Bureau
Why Prohibition?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
End drunkenness
Eliminate alcohol related deaths
Decrease crime
Abolish the saloon
Safer roads
Different uses for money
Decrease taxes
Moral grandeur
Benefits of Prohibition
• Helped worker efficiency
• Milk consumption
• Effects on public health
Reasons that prohibition failed
1.MONEY- government corruption
-government spending to keep alcohol out
increased
- price of alcohol increased.
2.ALCOHOL- increase in sales, and potency
-age at which one first started drinking dropped
- Iron Law of Prohibition by Richard Cowan
3. CRIMES- increase in other illegal drugs
- more bootlegging
-smuggling of alcohol
-organized gangs formed to make distilleries
- prisons became full
4. HEALTH HAZARDS- bootlegged alcohol would be mixed with toxic chemicals
- death rate increased due to toxins
REPEAL OF PROHIBITION- began death march of prohibition in Feb. 1933
- Great Depression
- 21st Amendment passed