The 18th Amendment only banned the commercial side of imbibing. Only those who produced, shipped, and sold the alcohol face consequences. blogs.shu.edu
In 1920, American faced perhaps its greatest challenge toward a peaceful existence: Prohibition. Instituted via the 18th amendment also known as the Volstead Act, lovers of beer, wine, and whiskey faced 13 years of sobriety. Of course, where there’s a will, there’s a way and Prohibition gave birth to speakeasies, bootlegging, and home brewing.
Ironically, the effects of banning the divine nectars can be seen today in NASCAR, trendy “speakeasies,” and the massive growth of homebrew beer kits. Prohibition also gave rise to Al Capone, a Whiskey Rebellion, and a reboot of the Klu Klux Klan. Obviously, alcohol has a time and place called life so here are all the far-reaching effects of banning booze.
Only 3,000 federal agents operating around the country. Making finding alcohol not too difficult.
Who Wanted Prohibition?
The first question that undoubtedly comes to mind in relation to Prohibition: Why? If you’re looking to point fingers, it began with a religious revival starting in the early 19th century. Over time that grew into a pronounced public sentiment to remove the “evil” that alcohol supposedly presented.
Amazingly some of these laws are still around. Roughly 16 million people live in "dry counties today. history
Curing America’s “Ills”
The Anti-Saloon League, which sounds like the worst super-hero movie ever, along with evangelical Protestants worked hard to rid society of alcohol’s “ills.” However, they weren’t the only ones. Supreme Court Associate Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote "idleness, disorder, pauperism, and crime existing in the country are, in some degree at least, traceable to this evil (alcohol).
Even the American Economic Association’s Dr. Irving Fisher felt that Prohibition would help the economy by lifting what they called “Blue Monday.” As if people of the 1920s even acknowledged the possibility of a “hangover.”
The Women’s Christian Temperance Union played a large role in the prohibition.
Misinformation
Today, we might think the battle of misinformation began with the internet but it goes way back. Supporters of Prohibition came up with all kinds of cockamamy theories about alcohol being the devil.
Some claimed that it turned your blood into water. Others, like Dry pastor T. P. Hunt, preached that wine was commonly made with a bag of cockroaches. However, the funniest was George McCandlish who swore he saw a dead man’s brain burst into flame when they tested it for alcohol with a match.
If it hadn't been for whiskey, NASCAR wouldn't have been formed. That's a fact,†said Junior Johnson, NASCAR racing legend and a former North Carolina bootlegger. howstuffworks
Going Underground
Of course, as we’ve learned over the years, making something illegal doesn’t end it, just merely pushes it underground. That’s precisely what happened in a massive way. In fact, so big that Al Capone made over $60 million annually, which translates to roughly $790 million in today’s money!
Almost all of that El Capo level of cash came from speakeasies and bootlegging. It also spawned a crime wave as warring factions fought for control over such a profitable enterprise.
Some bootlegger ramped of thier cars to 500 horse power and some nifty suspension for carrying heavy loads.
Klu Klux Klan Revival
Another real black eye that surfaced from Prohibition was the Klu Klux Klan. After becoming mostly an afterthought, the Klan found new life by recruiting new members from Prohibitionist supporters many of whom were virulently anti-immigrant.
They even helped police with raids in areas where the cops were outnumbered by bootleggers. One would think that Prohibitionists might have questioned their motives after finding that the KKK wholeheartedly supported them. But nooo, alcohol was the real monster.
New York City housed an estimated 30,000 speakeasies during the height of Prohibition. time
Not All Bad
As any aficionado of NASCAR could tell you, Prohibition also sowed the early seeds for America’s favorite form of auto racing. Bootleggers tooled up their cars to outrun the fuzz and eventually got competitive enough to see whose car was fastest. After all, outrunning cops and KKK members could get a little boring. Might as well have some moonshine on a dirt track in the sticks and see who's the top dog.
Cheers to legal drinking.
Capitalism To The Rescue
After 13 long years of Prohibition, where only the lower class really suffered, the worst dry spell in history came to an end. We can thank Franklin D. Roosevelt who ran for President largely on the basis that he’d let the liquor flow. Unsurprisingly, he won in a landslide. It certainly didn’t hurt that the Great Depression had hit America hard and even the staunchest prohibitionist was probably ready for a drink.
