Prohibition was a constitutional policy in the United States that instituted a nationwide ban on the sale and production of alcohol. Otherwise known as the Volstead act, these short-lived restrictions were ratified as part of the 18th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and lasted from 1919 until 1933 when the 21st Amendment was passed. According to history.com, “Despite very early signs of success, including a decline in arrests for drunkenness and a reported 30 percent drop in alcohol consumption, those who wanted to keep drinking found ever-more inventive ways to do it.” The policy was extremely difficult to enforce and caused huge rises in organized crime, which included bootlegging, or the illegal production of alcohol, and speakeasies, or stores or clubs that illegally sold alcohol. For example mobster, Al Capone, earned a yearly salary of $60 million from these underground operations. The end of prohibition came when bootleg liquor prices became so high the upper and middle class had an unfair advantage over the poor. Additionally, “As costs for law enforcement, jails and prisons spiraled upward, support for Prohibition was waning by the end of the 1920s.” (history.com). In 1932, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for office …show more content…
This resulted an increase in temperance movements, or campaigns that preached alcoholic abstinence. By the early 1900s, temperance had grown to be a popular among various communities, especially women. “Alcohol was seen as a destructive force in families and marriages.” (history.com). Many factory workers also supported the cause because of increases in worker efficiency and a lower risk of accidents. Concurrently, Evangelical Protestantism was also on the rise and it portrayed alcohol as corrupt and ungodly. The result of these reasons was the ratification of the 18th Amendment in