Prohibition: 1920-1933

Introduction

The term Prohibition can refer to the Eighteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, to the approximate historical era during which the Prohibition Amendment was in force, or to the political conditions, extant in this time period, in which the manufacture, distribution, and importation of alcohol were illegal. Constitutional prohibition of alcohol was in place for about 13 years (Merz, 44). After ratification on January 16, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect one year later, on January 16, 1920. With ratification on December 5, 1933, the Twenty-First Amendment to the Constitution repealed the Prohibition Amendment.

By the time that the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified, 33 states had already enacted legislation prohibiting alcohol within their borders (Kyvig, 68). In fact, the Twenty-First Amendment stipulated that states, territories, and possessions of the United States that chose to continue to prohibit alcohol were free to do so when Prohibition ended.

Discussion

The main problem of Prohibition was a lack of enforcement. The Volstead Act provided for the appointment of special enforcement agents but did not adequately compensate them. Many writers have noted that the low compensation for agents virtually dictated that they take bribes from violators in order to survive. The administration of President Warren G. Harding was notoriously venal, right to the top, and graft and corruption were tolerated, if not outright encouraged (Kobler, 20).

Following Harding's death in 1923, the passive leadership of Calvin Coolidge provided no solution to the enforcement problem. By the time Herbert Hoover became president in 1929, the liquor wars had escalated beyond the point where a mere increase in enforcement activity would have made a difference. President Herbert Hoover coined the term noble experiment to describe Prohibition in 1928, but this was more an epitaph than praise for Prohibition. There was a sense in the country that Prohibition would end when the political will could be amassed to do so (Blocker, 87).

An unintended consequence of Prohibition was the removal of control of what had been a legal industry from legitimate owners and their replacement by organized crime. This affected the spirits (hard liquor) distillers more than it did breweries and vintners, because those companies were able to stay in business during Prohibition. Breweries produced near-beer (less than 0.5 percent alcohol) and vintners switched to producing grape juice and table grapes.

The alcohol industry maintains that Prohibition was repealed because it was a failure at controlling drinking and drunkenness, and it uses this argument to counter modern alcohol prohibitions. Contemporary and historical data do not bear this conclusion out. There is no question that alcohol consumption declined to a fraction of what it had been before Prohibition. Despite the many legends of speakeasies and home distilleries and international smuggling, it is clear that few people participated in these activities and their consumption under those circumstances was reasonably uncommon (Yablon, 52).

Other than the wealthy in major cities, who had greater access to alcohol, anecdotal evidence suggests that those who were heavy drinkers before 1920 managed to have only a few drinks a ...