Importance Of The 18th Amendment

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The repeal of the 18th amendment “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited” (1), or most commonly known as the prohibition act. The 21st amendment has functioned flawlessly on the federal level, but no some much on the state level. I won’t touch too much on the state level, but some states still follow some of the beliefs of the 18th amendment and have dry counties. The 21st affects me very frequently, because I enjoy a nice glass of wine with my wife at dinner and a nice dark stout with my friends and co-workers at a pub.
In order to talk about the 21st amendment first I will have to talk about the 18th. The 18th was passed by congress on December 18th, 1917 and ratified on January 16, 1919. The 18th was backed by many “religious groups who considered alcohol, specifically drunkenness, a threat to the nation.”(2) This was known as the temperance movement. Which consisted of multiple political groups/movements such as the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Anti-Saloon League (ASL). The ASL was backed by many important business leaders who shaped the United States in the early 1900’s like John D. Rockefeller. What the WCTU and ASL …show more content…
Society wasn’t ready to give up there alcoholic beverages, and as the old saying goes “if there is a will there is a way”. Society overcame the government by opening speakeasy’s, people started to make their own “moonshine”, and criminals began to see where they could make a fortune. The crime rate went through the roof during the prohibition era, famous gangsters like Al Capone made his fortune off this era.(2) The quote below from John D. Rockefeller does an amazing job summarizing the effect the 18th amendment had and why the 21st had to be enacted and passed by
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