Why Did Prohibition Last so Long free essay sample

Prohibition of Alcohol in America was introduced in 1920 with the 18th amendment of the constitution and was finally revoked in 1933. Prohibition was always considered a failure, due to the way it was policed, the fact the American people at the time liked to drink and the fact that alcohol was very easily accessible. Therefore the fact it lasted thirteen years, despite it being obvious within the first five that things were not working, seems incomprehensible. There are a number of factors which worked together to make prohibition last as long as it did. The most important being morale reasons behind introducing it at first, but the popularity of prohibition, the time it to repeal a law and the fact it didn’t really affect people’s lives too much also had an effect. The primary reason for Prohibition lasting so long was the morale reasons that we used to get the law passed in the first place still stood and people sympathised with them. We will write a custom essay sample on Why Did Prohibition Last so Long? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page For example many women’s groups saw alcohol as a means by which men oppressed them, and also though that the money spent on drink could be better used amongst the family with raising children and other general necessities. This attitude didn’t stop during the prohibition years as people were still drinking and hence propaganda regarding prohibition still bore the pictures of families with mothers and children longing for their husbands/fathers to support prohibition. The Woman’s Temperance society played a big part in this. It wasn’t just the domestic morals which were attacked by prohibition it was the industrial ones too. Big businesses saw drunkenness as something that led to danger and more importantly inefficiency in the work place, particularly in large factories where hazardous machinery was used. For example the Rockefeller Corporation and Heinz supported prohibition in the interest of greater workforce efficiency. Similarly, this was always an aspect that could be improved so the big businesses didn’t stop supporting prohibition. The Church also had an influence. At the time, America was a very religious country, especially in the southern States and many of the religious groups believed alcohol was the work of the devil and was a predominant reason for sin and wrongdoing. During all the year the prohibition was running, the Church never went back on this stance and consequently the people still tended to believe in prohibition. Arguable the most prominent morale cause for prohibition lasting so long was the aspect of national pride and that you were ‘letting your country down’ if you drank beer or and form of alcohol. The reasoning behind this was due to the First World War. Many of the largest brewers, such as Pabst, Ruppert and Leiber were of German origin. Their businesses had helped to finance the German war effort so after the war when prohibition was in full effect, there was still a very heavy anti –German feeling amongst the Americans and hence they thought it was unpatriotic to drink from these companies. As prohibition progressed and the Red Scare and the consequent anti Russian feeling emerged, a very similar stance was taken towards spirits, which were produced and manufactured in Russia and the Soviet Union. A further reason that helps explain why prohibition lasted so long was that there was actually some successes to prohibition. Throughout the more rural states and areas, it was a huge success as this area was populated and supported but the White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs). They agreed with the church and all the propaganda behind starting the prohibition at first and we fully behind it. It wasn’t just in the rural areas though; over the country it was having success. Alcohol consumption did fall from an average of 2. gallons per person per year before 1917 to one gallon in 1930. In addition to this, arrests for drunkenness crimes related to drunkenness also fell, as did deaths from alcoholism. These statistics were obviously fed back to Congress as, seeing as their policy was working, they can’t have seen a reason to stop it if it was achieving their goals that it set out to do, despite the discrepancies that were occurring. A further success that would have stopped congress from repealing the 18th amendment was that of crime rates. It is heavily publicized that organized crime went up considerably, and this was a potential reason to change the law, however violent crime did not increase despite what is assumed. There were far less arrests made during the time of prohibition for violent acts than there was before prohibition started. Despite the rise of organised crime there was always this type of crime before and after the prohibition period, so politicians argued that prohibition was not the main cause for the rise in gangsters and their participation in organised crime. This can mean that congress were happy with the reduced crime overall and saw no reason serious enough to do with crime to revoke the 18th amendment. Another reason that the US government decided against revoking the 18th amendment earlier than when they did was that prohibition was actually quite a popular amendment, in and of itself, amongst the people, the actual reason they didn’t always adhere or claim to not like it was due to the fact that it was poorly policed and the execution of trying to enforce the law was poorly done. This was highlighted in the Wickersham Commission. It was Herbert Hoover who established this commission and he found that people supported prohibition but found contempt among average Americans and unworkable enforcement across the states, corruption in police ranks, local politics and problems in every community that attempted to enforce prohibition laws. A further example of how popular the prohibition law was is through Al Smith’s election campaign in 1928. Al Smith was a committed ‘wet’; someone who was anti prohibition and one of his policies when running for president was to stop prohibition. This caused a major split in the Democratic Party and amongst America as a whole. The country and Party split north and south over it with the South fervently voting to keep prohibition and the north looking for the law to be relaxed. Hence, due to no side really getting the upper hand and the South and WASPs strongly for it, there wasn’t enough public demand for it to be repealed hence nothing was done. Such was the strong feelings for prohibition in Mississippi they kept the law as a state law until 1966. In addition to this, the fact that there was no clear majority either way it took a long to eventually change the law due to the way the constitution is set up. It took a very considerable time for clear groups to emerge as strongly anti prohibition too, many people grumbled about it but few were actually decisive enough to go about trying to change it back. It wasn’t really until the 1928 election and AL Smith that groups started to emerge strongly against prohibition with strong political backing. From then on it took another five years to build up the support behind the motion, so that the government under Roosevelt wanted to revoke the amendment as soon as he became president. Finally, the fact that people’s lives were not affected to such a great extent that people feared in the first place, definitely has an effect in why it lasted so long. Alcohol was very readily available for many people. This was done through transforming industrial alcohol into an alcoholic drink called moonshine; this alcohol was available from many places. A further way to acquire alcohol was to buy it off a bootlegger. These people often bought medicinal alcohol (whisky, vodka, run) from chemists and then sold it onto to people who wanted it. The biggest form of accessible alcohol was through speakeasies. These illegal bars were situated in most big cities and most people knew where they were if you wanted to obtain a beverage. Such was the ease of access to alcohol, no-one really made a fuss about the rules because it wasn’t depriving them of what they wanted, hence they were very happy to go along with it and cheat the system as much as they liked. Therefore, there were not as many uprisings and protests about the lack of alcohol, meaning there was no pressure on the government to change the law and rescind prohibition. In conclusion, prohibition lasted so long for a number of factors, the most important being the morale reasons put forward by groups of women (Women’s Temperance Society), the church and big business. These morale views were not going to deteriorate over night, if ever and so they still persuaded the people of the United States that not drinking alcohol was the best course of action. Added to this, the factor that many believed that drinking alcohol would aid the Germans because they would be giving money to them through buying beer, which was imported from Germany. Furthermore, the limited success of prohibition served a purpose in making the politicians think that their policy was working and that people were not drinking and so they saw no need to retract their policy they had put in place. Finally the lack of solid support for the abolishment of prohibition meant that there was no pressure onto the government from the people because they were not experiencing any trouble getting hold of alcohol, hence didn’t feel the need to complain. All these factors combined together to make prohibition last as long as it did.