Prohibition: The Failure Of The Temperance Movement

The beginning of the 19th century marked the ongoing social debate of the ban of alcohol and alcohol consumption. The period following the American Revolution led to many Americans drinking alcohol to excess. However, the Temperance Movement was created to solve this growing problem. Led by a group of Christian women, the movement was created to moderate mens’ drinking habitats thus protecting domestic home life. But by the 1820s the movement started to advocate for the total abstinence of all alcohol; that is to urge people to stop drinking completely. The movement was also influential in passing laws that prohibited the sale of liquor in several states.

Prohibition became the next step in the temperance movement. Women and conservative politicians in the early 20th century pushed for the all right legal ban of alcohol, alcohol consumption and alcohol manufacturing and distribution. Although the 18th Amendment was created and passed to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, and improve the health and hygiene of Americans, it was disregarded by many as ineffective and feeble. Alcohol prohibition ultimately resulted in failure due to the

dramatic increase of alcoholism, the surge of organized crime and the corruption of many government officials. Over the years national prohibition was in place (1920-33), no gains were made by the federal government to reduce alcohol consumption and effectively solve all the problems that were meant to be fixed under the amendment.
By 1916, nearly half of the states (23 out of 43) passed the anti saloon legislature. Many states went as far as banning alcohol manufacture but during the congressional elections that same year, members who favored national prohibition (“dry”) won two thirds majority over those who did not (“wet”). Three years, Congress ratified the 18th Amendment which went into effect that following January.
Congress viewed national prohibition as a “good deed”, where the government cared for the lives and hygiene of the people. Pressed for change by the Temperance Movement, Congress created the Volstead Act in 1919 sponsored by Minnesotan Representative Andrew J. Volstead which prohibited intoxicating alcoholic beverages and regulated the manufacture, use and sale of high content alcohol. Prohibition was originally a states’ decision and right but “by the next year, 1921, Prohibition had steadily modified the way of life for the American consumer of alcohol by squeezing dry the nation’s legal supply of intoxicating beverages” (Clark 124). However, there were major loopholes regarding this law.
One of the main problems as to why prohibition failed was the lack of respect by civilians towards the amendment.

Many Americans continued to drink and partake in illegal activity surrounding alcohol. Mark Thornton, assistant professor of Economics at Auburn University, implies that since wines and other alcoholic beverages were distilled and fortifies, many American "men were drinking defiantly, with a sense of high purpose, a kind of dedicated drinking that you don't see much of today" (Thornton 4). With defiance came the difficulty to enforce prohibition rules and regulations. As a whole, enforcing prohibition was effortless in rural areas, where people had little to no access to cities and shops that provided them with alcohol. However, in the cities, people had plenty of advantages to buy and distribute alcohol

.