Prohibition: The Noble Experiment

Campbell High SchoolAmerican StudiesThe Roaring Twenties

I. What Was Prohibition?

Prohibition was an attempt to reduce drinking by banning the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages.

II. Drinking Culture

1. Prohibition movement leaders were alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans.

2. Concerned about a spreading “drinking culture.”

III. Anti Saloon League

1. Founded in 1893 as state organization.

2. By 1895, ASL is a national non-partisan organization focused

on the single issue of prohibition.

IV. Woman’s Christian Temperance Union

1. Organized in 1874 by women who were concerned about the problems alcohol was causing their families and society.

2. Members chose total abstinence from all alcohol.

V. State Prohibition Laws

Period Status

Pre-1906 3 prohibition states

1907-1913 23 prohibition states

1914-1918 48 prohibition states

1917-1918 18th Amendment passed

January 1919 Prohibition begins

VI. Eighteenth Amendment

1. By 1916 ASL and WCTU had orchestrated the election of the two-thirds majorities necessary in both houses of Congress to pass what became the 18th Amendment.

VII. Amendment Language

The manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

VIII. Positive Impacts

Measure Dates Change

Cirrhosis Mortality

1911-1929 Drops from 29.5 to 10.7 per 100K

Admissions for Alcoholic Psychosis

1919-1928 Drops from 10.1 to 4.7 per 100K

DWI Arrests 1916-1922 50% decline

IX. Legal Alcohol

1. One way to get alcoholic beverages legally during prohibition was through a physician's prescription.

2. Physicians could prescribe distilled spirits on government prescription forms.

X. Difficulty of Enforcing

1. Enforcing Prohibition proved to be extremely difficult.

2. The illegal production and distribution of liquor, or bootlegging, became rampant, and the gov’t did not have the means to enforce the law.

XI. Speakeasy

1. Secret bars where you could get an illegal drink, but had to “speakeasy” or speak softly.

2. In New York City alone there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs.

XII. Avoiding Agents

1. Hip flasks2. Hollowed canes3. False books

XIII. Prohibition and Gangs

1. Prohibition spawned mob violence.

2. Best example is Chicago and Al Capone.

3. Capone was known as Public Enemy Number 1.

XIV. Capone’s Start

1. First worked for Johnny Torrio the city's leading figure in the underworld.

2. Torrio was nearly killed by a rival gang and handed over the 'business‘ to Capone.

XV. Capone’s Empire

1. Within 2 years, Capone was earning $60 million a year from alcohol sales alone. Other rackets earned him an extra $45 million a year.

2. Capone managed to bribe both the police and the important politicians of Chicago.

XVI. Capone’s Arrest

1. In 1931, the law finally caught up with Capone and he was charged with tax evasion.

2. He got 11 years in jail.

3. In prison, he became ill, was released and died of a STD.

XVII. Repeal of Prohibition

1. FDR campaigned for repeal of prohibition in 1932 election.

2. In 1933, the 21st Amendment is passed repealing prohibition.