Within the time frame of this course, what do you believe was the most significant
event/issue that shaped America into the nation that it is today? Discuss key individual
pertinent to the event/issue and how it is relevant today.
It is hard to choose what I think is the most significant event or issue that has shaped
American into what it is today. I think that Prohibition is relevant today because
American’s still struggle with substance abuse in all forms. And just like in the past,
these substances have terrible adverse effects on the human body and mind. The
evidences for the prohibition of alcohol were argued as early as 1784 by Dr. Benjamin
Rush. As a physician in the Continental Army he witnessed firsthand the adverse effects
of alcohol on the body and mind, among them being swearing, rudeness, immodesty,
fighting, excessive sleeping, laziness, and a loss of control of ones faculties. Also
included are the sicknesses and diseases that seem to manifest in the physical body. Lack
of appetite, decreased liver function, bad breath, and diabetes. “Gout, in all its various
forms of swelled limbs, colic, palsy, and apoplexy and lastly madness.” (McClellan
2000, Source 1) Another argument was a moral one. Alcohol was blamed on making it
harder to resist sexual temptation. The Anti-Saloon League put forth the idea that by
prohibiting alcohol, “the control of sex impulses will then be easy and disease, dishonor,
disgrace and degradation will be avoided”. (McClellan 2000, Source 6) Alcohol was also
linked to spousal and child abuse, and industrialists were concerned about the impact of
drinking on labor productivity. Prohibition for a time did have a positive effect. Death
rates dropped from alcoholism and arrests for drunkenness also dropped.
(“Prohibition”)(McClellan 2000, Source 10)
On the flip side, Prohibition took away people’s right to choose for themselves.
Attorney Clarence Darrow made a great argument when he debated against prohibition.
“What proportion of a population should believe certain acts are criminal before passing
a criminal statute?” (McClellan 2000, Source 11) He is right I think. Why should people
who are intolerant and disagree with what someone wants to do get to decide for that
group of people what is good or bad for them. You cannot force people to think and feel
the same as you. It will not do any good until they realize for themselves the adverse
effects on their bodies and minds. As far as the prohibition of the drugs mentioned above,
I don’t think it would do any good. These drugs are already illegal, but people still
manage to get their hands on them. I have seen the effects of heroin, alcohol and tobacco
on my sister and brother and what is has done to their minds and bodies. It turns you into
a liar and a sneak. But no matter how much prohibiting seems like it would help and be a
good idea, it just won’t work because just like these things are habit forming and you do
not get rid of them until you are ready.
Although Prohibition attempted to take away one’s freedom of choice on what to
take into their body, is their freedom to choose worth the risk of an innocent person
losing their life? I think the Prohibition was a good start in that direction. Obviously
before Prohibition it was not against the law to drink. There was nothing illegal about it
until the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League started to
campaign to legislate morality. I do agree with the fact that it is immoral to take harmful
substances into your body. You lose control of yourself when you do. But I do not agree
that it is right to take away ones freedom to choose. Making it illegal to drink alcohol
definitely turned it from an ugly vice, into something criminal. Prohibition may have
actually added to the problem of people drinking. “The fact that the consumption of
intoxicating liquor is illegal has in itself been sufficient to lead many Americans who
formerly drank little or nothing to conform to a fashionable habit at social gatherings of
carrying small pocket-flasks of home-brewed or imported spirits.” (McClellan 2000,
Source 10) Prohibition led to “corruption and contempt for law and law enforcement
among large segments of the population. Organized crime filled that vacuum left by the
closure of the legal alcohol industry. Homicides increased in many cities, partly as a
result of gang wars.” (“Prohibition”) And in a report published by the Department of
Commerce, it showed that there was an actual increase in criminals in State prisons
between 1917 and 1922, and that during the same time frame there was also a rise of
prisoners in Federal detention centers as well. (McClellan 2000, Source 10) Prohibition
seemed like a good idea at the time, but it may have caused more problems than it
stopped.
McClellan, Jim r. Changing Interpretations of America's Past. Dushkin/McGraw-Hill,
2000.
"Prohibition." Digital History.