Prohibition: "The Ignoble Experiment"

Essay by Neil DielmanCollege, UndergraduateA, March 1995

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Prohibition: "The Ignoble Experiment"

The 18th Amendment , considered to be one of the biggest follies of the nation, was brought about with the intent to sincerely help the U.S., but more harm came from it than good. Prohibition, also known as the 18th Amendment , was ratified on January 29th, 1920 and was repealed on December 5th, 1933 with the ratification of the 21st Amendment which nullified prohibition.

The 18th Amendment stated that it was illegal to manufacture, transport, and sell alcoholic beverages in the United States. "The national prohibition of alcohol was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America" (Thornton 70). This was a very good idea, but America went about it the wrong way. We, instead, created even more problems such as organized crime, increased alcohol consumption, over crowded prison systems, and the uprise of the Mafia.

Not only was this a step in the wrong direction, it was an action that increased the problems that America was already facing.

People believed that prohibition would fail and that it was a violation of a person's privacy while other people thought that prohibition would do nothing but improve America. People who were against prohibition were called wets and people for it were called drys. Wets mainly consisted of democrats who refused to stop drinking and who were usually older men or immigrants who drank all their life. The drys were usually republican Protestants who believed alcohol was evil and that prohibition was the answer to societies problems. Well, the drys were wrong because many problems surfaced as a result of prohibition.

One problem was the increase of alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption did go down at the beginning of prohibition,