The negative effects of Prohibition 1920-1933

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Introduction
Anti-Saloon League (ASL) was a Protestant’s group between various Christian denominations that was devoted to promoting alcohol prohibition via the political process. It was established in 1893 in Ohio at Oberlin College by Reverend Russell (Furbay 434). ASL is attributed to be the first politically impartial, one-issue lobby group within the contemporary US political affairs. The duplication of the Ohio’s ASL in different states within the country led to a countrywide group formation in 1895 (Furbay 434). Applying the contemporary methods of organization as well as influence, the ASL pressed for a local alternative as well as state ban regulations via Parliamentary legislations and through backing dry political aspirants for elective public offices (those aspirants who were in support of their course, the banning of alcohol). The start of 1913, the ASL conducted a successful struggle for a constitutional change (Furbay 435). When the impacts of the countrywide ban were experienced during the 1920s, the ASL was increasingly being criticized. The Eighteenth Amendment’s repeal in 1933 terminated the ASL’s power within the US politics. In this paper, the writer shall discuss the reasons for the prohibition, its economic impacts and why it was hard to enforce.
Reasons for Prohibition
As at 1830, an ordinary US national of 15 years and above could drink alcohol almost seven gallons annually. Alcoholism (mainly by men) was causing chaos in many people’s lives, especially during the time when female citizens possessed minimal legal civil liberties; therefore, were completely reliant on men for provisions as well as care (David 84).

Alcohol ban within the US was a step intended to decrease alcohol consumption through getting rid of the enterprises which manufactured, supplied, as well as those selling the alcoholic drinks. Through the constitutional Eighteenth Amendment, the law denied a permit to enterprises dealing in alcoholic beverages to conduct business. These included alcohol manufacturers, distillers, suppliers as well as the retail vendors of alcoholic drinks. The organizations that championed the banning of the alcoholic beverages were worried at the consumption actions of the US citizens. These organizations, ASL included were worried that there existed a tradition of alcoholism within certain segments of the general populace and with the ongoing migration from Europe into the US, was increasing. Throughout this period, the alcohol manufacturing sector was the top successful business within the alcohol trade. Given the competitive character of alcohol production, the manufacturers got into the retail enterprise. The Americans called retail enterprises vending alcoholic drinks as well as whiskey using glass saloons. To increase beer sales, the manufacturers increased the saloon numbers within their operational territories. The saloons mushroomed. It became a norm, and it was usual to locate a single saloon for each 150-200 people, including the individuals who were not using alcohol (Furbay 438). Greedy to make more earnings, saloonkeepers at times initiated vices, for example, betting as well as prostitution within their enterprises to make more money (Burke 501). Several US citizens regarded these saloons as unpleasant and toxic establishments.
The prohibition campaigners trusted that after the license to carry out the trade was eliminated from the liquor passage, and then the churches, as well as other reform groups, would benefit from a chance to convince Americans to stop alcohol drinking. This chance would happen uncontested from the alcohol businessmen whose desires were to encourage more people to consume alcohol as well as other alcoholic drinks such as whiskey. The disease of these saloons would vanish from the scenery, with the saloonkeepers not anymore permitted to persuade citizens to consume alcohol.
A few prohibition campaigners hoped for an educational crusade which would significantly increase after the alcohol trade had become unlawful, and would ultimately, in roughly twenty years, result in an abstemious country. Other prohibition campaigners hoped for a strong enforcement of the ban to remove supplies of alcohol drinks. Between the years of 1893 to 1933, the ASL was the main power in US politics against the alcohol consumption. It persuaded the US political class and citizens via lobbying as well as publications. It championed an ethical campaign against the production, selling as well as drinking of alcohol (Burke 498). The ASL crusaders thought the American society was in a status of ethical deterioration. While individuals migrated from the rural regions to towns, several Americans thought that these people were shaking off their contact with their spiritual principles. Among the modes that these migrants were disobeying God’s requirements was through drinking alcohol. The ASL aspired to decrease alcohol drinking, if not, absolutely ban it, through enforcing the already enacted legislations as well as lobbying for the enactment of new laws. The ASL also aspired to abolish saloons, pubs, as well as inns, thinking that it was these enterprises which encouraged the high drinking of alcohol. Preaching the slogan “The Saloon Must Go,” the ASL operated to merge citizens’ anti-alcohol reactions, enforce the existing temperance regulations and pass further anti-alcohol legislation (Burke 506). The ASL was capable of advancing the control cause through printing many leaflets, booklets, produced songs, narrated tales, produced animations, plays, periodicals as well as newspapers. The ASL group anticipated to shut down bars, trusting that, if the people lacked the areas to purchase alcohol, drinking would reduce. Initially, the ASL relied on the local church members, particularly members from the Methodist churches to recruit as well as spread its prohibition message throughout the communities (Hanes & Sharon 13).
After the ASL had created a devoted following, its leaders concentrated on having politicians who backed their ideas to be voted. It persuaded the political parties’ members of the Democratic as well as the Republican Parties to back the alcohol Prohibition, even though the ASL on no account supported one political party above another (Burke 498). The ASL chose to support political aspirant plus his or her belief on alcoholism, but not the political parties. A case in point is the Ohio’s governorship contest in 1909. The Republican Party candidate, Governor Myron Herrick was robustly against the Ohio ASL’s endeavor to let local communities to ban alcohol sales and consumption. The ASL in Ohio initially looked for a Republican candidate to contest against Herrick for the Republican nomination ticket. After the ASL was unsuccessful in getting a suitable aspirant, it supported a Democratic Party’s aspirant, John Pattison (Burke 502). Mr. Pattison effortlessly secured victory in the election. This result in political affairs showed the rising influence that the ASL had on the political sphere of the US.
These prohibitionists had high hopes that with the enactment of the anti-drinking laws they would get support to the campaign against the drinking and the law would be efficiently enforced (Burke 502). However, following the 1920s, even though the prohibition laws were enacted, the ASL did not receive the backing for its crusade against the alcohol drinking which it had visualized. Further, the enforcement of the laws was feeble and faced several challenges. The law enforcers were not capable of convincing the government executives to initiate a complete enforcement operation against unlawful dealers of alcoholic drinks (Burke 503).
The best proof existing for the researchers illustrate that alcohol drinking deteriorated radically due to prohibition. During the beginning of the 1920s, alcohol drinking was roughly 30% of the pre-prohibition amount (Furbay 438). Drinking increased to some extent during the final years of the ban, when the unlawful alcohol supplies grew with the new generation of US citizens ignoring the banning laws as well as discarding the approach of self-sacrifice which was an element of the foundation of the alcohol ban lobby groups. Nonetheless, it took fairly long period following the abolishment of the prohibition laws before drinking rates increased to their earlier amounts before the prohibition laws. In this perception, the prohibition “succeeded.”
Economic Impacts and Offsetting the Lost Alcohol Revenue
At the time the Prohibition period in the US started in 1920, some wise viewers envisaged that it would fail and lead to some adverse consequences on the American economy. Its defenders were at first astonished by the things which did not take place in the dry period (the period in which the prohibition laws were enforced). At the time the banning laws came into force, the supporters expected clothes as well as household commodities sales to shoot up (Lerner Para. 4). Property developers, as well as landowners, anticipated rental fees to increase since the bars were shut down and the neighborhoods improved. Further, bubble gum, grapefruit drink, as well as soft drink corporations all anticipated increased expansion. Drama creators also anticipated more and new audiences since they believed that the citizens would look for other means of entertainment with no alcohol consumption (Lerner Para. 5). However, not an iota of these too place. Rather, the unplanned effects took place. There was a sweeping deterioration in sales within the pleasure as well as entertainment sectors. Eateries collapsed since they could not anymore get profits minus lawful liquor trades (National Humanities Center 4). The show business proceeds deteriorated instead of rising, but some of the other economic advantages which had been envisaged took place.
In general, the first economic impacts of alcohol ban were mainly adverse. The shutting down of the alcohol manufacturing corporations, distilleries as well as bars resulted in the eradication of several jobs (Lerner Para. 6). Further, more citizens lost their jobs as they were being laid off due to lost sales. These included barrel creators, truck drivers, restaurant attendants, as well as other connected businesses.
The unplanned economic impacts of alcohol ban did not end at people losing their jobs. Another most intense impact of the ban was the government lost of tax incomes (MICAP 4). Before the ban on alcohol consumption, several states depended deeply on excise levies from the liquor trades to finance their state budgets. For example, within the New York State, approximately 75 percent of its revenue came from the liquor levies. After the coming into force of the banning laws, this revenue was straight away lost. Within the federal level, the alcohol consumption ban made the federal government lose approximately a total sum of $11 billion in duty income, and at the same time, the government used more than $300 million to implement the banning laws (MICAP 4).
However, the most permanent impact was that several states, as well as the central government, came to depend on the income tax proceeds to finance their financial plans from these periods to date. As sickened as the citizens might have been with the terrible circumstances that encircled the America’s bars, the ASL still had to provide a substitute source of revenue to the government (MICAP 4). Therefore, the ASL offered an alternative source of revenue through income taxation through the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution (MICAP 5). It was a simple Constitution’s section alteration that the movement was capable of replacing the alcohol income which funded the America’s government budget. The Constitution was changed, and the Congress was given the power to set and collect levies on earnings from any source (MICAP 5).
The Rising Death Rates during Prohibition
It is evident this ban did not attain some of its objectives. Rather, it added to the harms and created new ones. With the coming into force of the banning laws, the lifestyle, as well as traditions of the majority of the US citizens, was abruptly stopped. Through these laws, the importation, exportation, transportation, vending, as well as the production of alcoholic drinks, was terminated. The laws placed strict guidelines on the alcoholic beverages and the enforcement of the bans. They were intended to decrease the alcohol drinking, and in that way decrease crime rates, destitution, rates of deaths, as well as enhance the country’s economy and living standards. However, these were not realized. The Prohibition laws were unsuccessful because of their unenforceability. They resulted in the increase of crime rates leading to increased death rates (National Humanities Center 5).
Due to ineffective enforcement of the Prohibition laws, there was an establishment of illegitimate trades that intensified crime levels. Even though at the start of the Prohibition, the crime rate appeared to decrease, it soon escalated to almost double the rates before the prohibition era (Wickersham 654). In metropolitan regions, the rate of murders moved from 5.6% for every 100,000 people during the pre-prohibition era to almost 10% for every 100,000 people in the prohibition duration representing a 78% rise. Grave offenses, like murders and grievous assault, rose almost by 13% (National Humanities Center 3). Several prohibition defenders such as ASL contended that the rates of crime declined which may be correct but only when looking at the lesser crimes, for example, misbehavior and vagrancy. The serious offenses such as murders rose by 24% from 1920-1921 (Wickersham 654). The murders rose since the ban on alcohol sales shattered lawful works, formed brutal black-market behaviors and redirected resources from the enforcement of other regulations. It also raised the costs individuals had to give for banned merchandise.
Further, the deaths also resulted from the poor manufacturing standards. At the time of prohibition, there existed minimal any manufacturing standards (Lerner Para. 11). The alcohol effectiveness, as well as goods quality, differed intensely, making it hard to envisage the goods’ likely consequences. The countrywide deaths due to poor alcohol quality were over 4,000 in 1925 as contrasted to 1,064 in 1920 (National Humanities Center 6). The moonshine manufacturing in the Prohibition era was done by a mass of laypersons which always produced products which could kill users. These drinks were likely to have the hazardous adulterants and the deaths due to poisoned alcohol were terribly excessive all over the US.
Enforcement of Prohibition Laws
Since the beginning of the Prohibition period, the government bureaus bestowed with the enforcement of the prohibition laws had inadequate finances and workforce (Wickersham 654). Those in support of the prohibition had maintained that the enforcement of the prohibition laws would be simple with the majority of the US citizens willingly complying with these laws. Those opposed to the prohibition wished the ASL campaigners were mistaken. The US Congress trusted that the enforcement would be inexpensive. The duty for enforcement within the Volstead Act was vested in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which was a section of the Treasury. The initial Prohibition Chief selected was John Kramer, a devoted Prohibitionist as well as an attorney from Ohio (Wickersham 654). He created the Prohibition Unit that was changed to the Prohibition Bureau in 1927. This Unit was organized and had a sum of 1,520 law enforcement officers serving the entire US or a single officer to 70,000 citizens.
Moreover, the Customs Service’s Border guards were given the duty to stop alcohol from getting into the US via the land roads as well as rivers. In the Prohibition’s initial periods, less than 35 guards were sent to the US-Mexico frontier and 100 others sent to the US-Canada frontier. However, vehicles, as well as vans laden with containers of whiskey as well as other alcoholic drinks, had over four hundred routes to get into the US from Canada (Gervais 45). The suppliers could also use motor boats over the Great Lakes as well as the Detroit or St. Lawrence watercourses. There existed most likely over two hundred paths to enter the US from Mexico with several shallow points for passing the Rio Grande. These federal officers confessed two years after the enactment of the Prohibition laws that they have only managed to capture just a single occurrence in twenty getting into the US (Hanes & Sharon 22). The guards, like other enforcement officers were very vulnerable to bribery and kickbacks as illustrated in the video by British Pathé News (1:02 min).
The majority of the enforcement officers were paid roughly $1,680 annually, which was not a reasonably livable pay for people having families depending on them living in towns. Therefore, due to these meager salaries, they were very vulnerable to corruption as well as other inducements (Lerner Para. 13). In running their speakeasies minus difficulties, the alcohol suppliers and manufacturers placed the law enforcers such as the unit officers, police, and sheriffs plus others who would interfere with their businesses on their payroll. For example, in the 1920s, many town officers, the police officials, state lawmakers, magistrates, as well as some prosecutors were accused and charged for collaborating with alcohol selling gangs (Hanes & Sharon 24). Frequently the Prohibition Unit officers would work barely long enough to discover and obtain connections with the alcohol sellers after that resign to work for the alcohol suppliers.
Lastly, when the prohibition laws were enacted, it was the duty of the US Coast Guard to prevent smugglers from getting into the US coastline. However, this proved hard since, during this period, the US Coast Guard was a tiny division of the Treasury. It had the responsibility of safeguarding government proceeds, rescue lives as well as property in the marine, and to avert normal smuggling. This division had few officers, approximately 30 hedge clippers as well as some little port crafts (Furbay 439). Understaffed and underequipped, the division was nearly powerless to stop the Rum Row.
Conclusion
ASL was a Protestant’s group that was devoted to promoting alcohol prohibition via the political process and was created in 1893. Using its persuasion power, the ASL pressed for a local alternative as well as state ban regulations via Parliamentary legislations. It also backed dry political aspirants for elective public offices. From the start of 1913, it conducted a successful struggle for a constitutional change that brought banning of sale, production, and transportation of alcoholic drinks within the US. It supported the ban since there were high alcohol consumption rates in the country. However, the ban led to some negative economic consequences such as the decline in sales in the entertainment sectors; eateries collapsed, and the show business proceeds deteriorated. Further, the government lost revenues, and most people lost their jobs leading to increased rates of crime such as murders causing increased deaths. People also died due to poor alcohol production qualities. Lastly, the prohibition laws were hard to enforce due to low pay of the enforcement officials who then became vulnerable to bribes and corruption. The enforcement agencies also lacked enough funds and human capital.
Works Cited
Primary Sources
British Pathé News. “The Dodgers! A Prohibition Sidelight from Buffalo,” 1931 (2:41). Newsreels. http://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-dodgers-a-prohibition-sidelight-from-buffalo/query/prohibition
David, E. Kyvig. “Repealing National Prohibition.” University of Chicago (1979): 14-86.
Gervais, Marty. The Rumrunners: A Prohibition Scrapbook. Biblioasis, (2009): 45.
National Humanities Center. “Should Prohibition Be Repealed?”Five Years of Prohibition and Its Results,” The North American Review, summer & fall, 1925, excerpts” http://americainclass.org/sources/becomingmodern/divisions/text4/prohibitionrepeal.pdf
Wickersham, George W. “Program of the Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement,” The ABAJ 16 (1930): 654.
Secondary Sources
Burke, W. M. “The Anti-Saloon League as a Political Force.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 32 (1908): 27-37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1010549
Furbay, Harvey Graeme. “The Anti-Saloon League.” The North American Review 177.562 (1903): 434-439. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25119451
Hanes, Richard. & Sharon, Hanes. “Prohibition Repealed 1920-1933.” Historic Events for Students: The Great Depression, vol. 3, Gale, 2002, pp. 1-32. U.S. History in Context. http://www.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX3424800068/UHIC?u=alli1510&xid=612f3620. Accessed 5 Dec. 2016.
Lerner, Michael. “Prohibition: Unintended Consequences | PBS.” Pbs.org. N.p., 2011. Web. 6 Dec. 2016. http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/unintended-consequences/
Michigan Interfaith Council on Alcohol Problems (MICAP). “Whatever Happened to the Temperance Movement?.” Lansing: Michigan. http://www.micap.org/pdffiles/January_2004_Whatever_happend_to_the_temprance_movement.pdf