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As under a spell, the people had suffered this act to be brought to its fatal conclusion, but with the first touch of cold reality the charm was undone, and the law appeared in its true aspect. Brought about by the Eighteenth Amendment and enforced through the Volstead Act, prohibition lasted for over a decade. Despite a growing lack of public support for both Prohibition and restraint itself, the ban on alcohol continued throughout the United States, at least in the law books. In practice, however, National Prohibition was much less effective than restraint and Prohibition leaders had hoped, in the end causing more problems than it solved. Once passed, Prohibition directly led to the increase in crime and corruption during the twenties, the public health problems associated with bootleg liquor and alcohol substitutes, the irritated tensions between religious, racial, and social groups, and the political disturbance in response to its existence. Yet in the end, it was the discussion of the supreme public hatred of the Amendment, caused by all of these factors combined, which brought about Prohibition s repeal.
Yet Prohibition did enjoy some success while in the end it proved to be a failure. The major problem of prohibition was that morality should never be legislated. Before the turn of the century, alcohol abuse was getting out of control. Saloons were everywhere and competing for the drinker s money. These saloons had prostitutes, permitted gambling, sold alcohol to minors, encouraged violence and public drunkenness, and were believed to corrupt the local government into passing laws in favor of them. Many women fought for the banning of alcohol to protect homes and families.
They believed alcoholic husband spent the families, for they believed an alcoholic husband spent the family s entire income on liquor and often abused their wives or children, both sexually and physically. They founded the Women s Christian Temperance Union in 1874. This group alone caused 6 states to pass prohibition laws. This Union pressed for prohibition, and a wide range of other reforms, including woman s suffrage. There were many causes for the Prohibition movement.
One main cause was religious revivalism. Prohibition was s result of the Protestant communities action to assert its dominant position in the nation s culture. They believed that once this was achieved, the whole nation would be under the influence of protestant moral values. Social reform was another reform Prohibition was supported. Prohibition was an attempt to reassert what were considered traditional American values in a time of high immigration, to force newer members of the population into a life-style that they were unwilling to accept.
It was enacted because rural, small population town Americans, who were attempting to stop what they felt was the corrupting influence of the growing cities, held the highest percentage of the population, and therefore the balance of power in state legislatures and in Washington, DC. Before the turn of the century, alcohol abuse was getting out of control. Saloons were everywhere and competing for the drinker s money. These saloons had prostitutes, permitted gambling, sold alcohol to minors, encouraged violence and public drunkenness, and were believed to corrupt the local government into passing laws in favor of them.
Many women fought for the banning of alcohol to protect homes and families. They believed alcoholic husband spent the families, for they believed an alcoholic husband spent the family s entire income on liquor and often abused their wives or children, both sexually and physically. They founded the Women s Christian Temperance Union in 1874. This group alone caused 6 states to pass prohibition laws. This Union pressed for prohibition, and a wide range of other reforms, including woman s suffrage.
The original intention of the reform was pure moderation; however, because there was no way to enforce this, Prohibition came about. Prohibitionists, who viewed alcohol as a dangerous drug that destroyed lives and disrupted families and communities, argued that it was the government s responsibility to free citizens from the temptation to drink by barring its sale. The original idea was that Americans as a whole were unhealthy, there was too much crime and corruption, and that people were being burdened by excess taxes that poorhouses and prisons were creating. What happened? The cheap alcohol being illegally produced killed more Americans, crime and corruption went up, taxes were raised to fund the law enforcement needed to enforce prohibition, and the prisons became overcrowded.
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Research essay sample on Christian Temperance Union Alcohol Abuse
