The Failure of Prohibition

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The Failure of Prohibition

There are many contributing factors to why prohibition was introduced

on 16 January 1920. The two factors that I have chosen to answer the

question, how did they contribute to prohibition being passed as a

law, are the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) and the Women’s Christian

Temperance Union (WCTU). These both campaigned to try and get

prohibition passed as a lawThe Women’s Christian Temperance Union

(WCTU) was formed in 1875 and was led by Frances Willard, but the

movement of women to try and get prohibition passed as a law had

started before this. It was Elizabeth Thompson who sat with friends

outside the saloons of Kansas praying for the saloons to be closed

down. This was the first ever women’s movement and at the time was not

taken seriously.

Within two years after this the WCTU was founded and was led by

Frances Willard. It was Frances Willard that first put pressure on

politicians to try and get prohibition passed and saloons outlawed.

She wrote thousands of letters to rally together woman that believed

that prohibition should go ahead in the hope that this would increase

her power, and give her the chance to get prohibition passed. The

women who joined her were only volunteers, but they increased the

overall power of the WCTU. Now that the WCTU had more power it put

further pressure on the politicians, which made the politicians take

notice of them. Frances Willard’s view was that the saloons were

damaging to family life. She also said that the saloon was a place for

men to go and discuss politics without the women having a chance to

intervene. They saw this as discrimination and another reaso...

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... of prohibition started when Al Capone was jailed, which

was a massive blow to the underworld of gangster crime. A political

solution was needed and F.D Roosevelt the democrat nomination for the

presidency made repeal an election issue. He saw it as an answer to

reduce the effects of prohibition, as he could tax the alcohol and

start to make money for the government that badly needed it because of

the depression. F.D Roosevelt was elected and 73% of Americans that

voted chose repeal. The law was then repealed and 8 states went wet,

but it took although 36 years for the whole of America to become

wet.

From the original statement I agree with the two factors being reasons

why prohibition failed but I also believe that there are many other

contributing factors that helped prohibition become

outlawed.

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