The Alcohol Industry In The 1920's

In the 1920s, just as World War I came to a close, the American population became divided over the issue of alcohol in the United States. The illegal production, transportation, and selling of alcoholic beverages became known as prohibition. Whether prohibition was beneficial or detrimental to the United States became the main controversy of the 20s. Alcohol controlled the legislature, brought people together, and was a booming financial industry. Keeping alcohol legal in the United States would have been more beneficial both politically, socially, and economically. Those opposed to prohibition saw prohibitionists as controlling and power-hungry. If the prohibitionists succeeded in passing the constitutional amendment to ban alcohol in the United States, the entire government would be under the corrupt control of

It created many jobs for Americans, both directly and indirectly. In a segment of The Literature Digest entitled “The Good and the Bad of the Beer Flood”, the alcohol industry was described as wildly profitable. The government earned four million dollars as a result of barrel taxes. Other cities, such as New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh each had upwards of two thousand jobs created as a result of the brewers. Even railway systems and other industries became more productive as a result of the alcohol production. (Doc 2). The alcohol industry pulled many struggling citizens out of the perils of unemployment and into jobs both directly associated with alcohol production and in indirectly associated. Without the alcohol industry, a large amount of capital and tax base would be lost. In A Son of the Bowery, Charles Stelzle explained that the saloons often “secured work for both the working man and his children” (Doc 4). With the abundance of jobs created by the alcohol industry, unemployment was decreased and overall standards of living were