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PreviewAdvancedSpecial charactersHelpHeadingLevel 2Level 3Level 4Level 5FormatInsertLatinLatin extendedIPASymbolsGreekGreek extendedCyrillicArabicArabic extendedHebrewBanglaTamilTeluguSinhalaDevanagariGujaratiThaiLaoKhmerCanadian AboriginalRunesÁáÀàÂâÄäÃãǍǎĀāĂ㥹ÅåĆćĈĉÇçČčĊċĐđĎďÉéÈèÊêËëĚěĒēĔĕĖėĘęĜĝĢģĞğĠġĤĥĦħÍíÌìÎîÏïĨĩǏǐĪīĬĭİıĮįĴĵĶķĹĺĻļĽľŁłŃńÑñŅņŇňÓóÒòÔôÖöÕõǑǒŌōŎŏǪǫŐőŔŕŖŗŘřŚśŜŝŞşŠšȘșȚțŤťÚúÙùÛûÜüŨũŮůǓǔŪūǖǘǚǜŬŭŲųŰűŴŵÝýŶŷŸÿȲȳŹźŽžŻżÆæǢǣØøŒœßÐðÞþƏəFormattingLinksHeadingsListsFilesDiscussionReferencesDescriptionWhat you typeWhat you getItalic''Italic text''Italic textBold'''Bold text'''Bold textBold & italic'''''Bold & italic text'''''Bold & italic textDescriptionWhat you typeWhat you getReferencePage text.<ref>[https://www.example.org/ Link text], additional text.</ref>Page text.[1]Named referencePage text.<ref name="test">[https://www.example.org/ Link text]</ref>Page text.[2]Additional use of the same referencePage text.<ref name="test" />Page text.[2]Display references<references />↑ Link text, additional text.↑ Link text==History== [[File:Womans-Holy-War.jpg|thumb|upright|Pro-prohibition [[political cartoon]], from 1874]] On November 18, 1918, prior to ratification of the Eighteenth Amendment, the U.S. Congress passed the temporary Wartime Prohibition Act, which banned the sale of alcoholic beverages having an alcohol content of greater than 1.28%.<ref>{{cite book | author =William D. Miller | title =Pretty Bubbles in the Air: America in 1919 | publisher =University of Illinois Press | year =2017 | page =151 | isbn =978-0-252-01823-7}}</ref> This act, which had been intended to save grain for the war effort, was passed ten days after the [[armistice]] ending [[World War I]] was signed, on November 21, 1918.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Colvin |first=D. Leigh |title=Prohibition in the United States: A History of the Prohibition Party and of the Prohibition Movement |publisher=George H. Doran Company |year=1926 |location=New York |pages=446}}</ref> The Wartime Prohibition Act took effect June 30, 1919, with July 1 becoming known as the "Thirsty First".<ref>[http://www.burlingtonhistory.org/Newsletters/2010%20March%20newsletter-1.htm Burlington Historical Society 2010 March newsletter] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110117151124/http://www.burlingtonhistory.org/Newsletters/2010%20March%20newsletter-1.htm |date=January 17, 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | author =F. Scott Fitzgerald | title =This Side of Paradise | publisher =[[Charles Scribner's Sons]] | year =1920 | page =223 | url =https://archive.org/stream/thissideofparadi00fitzuoft#page/223/mode/1up }} ("The advent of prohibition with the 'thirsty-first' put a sudden stop to [...]" ''[referring to July 1919]''); and {{cite book | author =F. Scott Fitzgerald | title =The Beautiful and the Damned | publisher =Cambridge University Press | year =2008 | page =407, note 321.2 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=zhP5Ez_rLWsC&pg=PA407 | isbn =978-0-521-88366-5 | access-date =October 17, 2015 | archive-date =January 20, 2023 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20230120195603/https://books.google.com/books?id=zhP5Ez_rLWsC&pg=PA407 | url-status =live }} ("[W]hen prohibition came in July [...]").</ref> The [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] proposed the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighteenth Amendment]] on December 18, 1917. Upon being approved by a 36th state on January 16, 1919, the amendment was ratified as a part of the Constitution. By the terms of the amendment, the country went dry one year later, on January 17, 1920.<ref>{{cite web | title = History of Alcohol Prohibition | publisher = National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse | url = http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/nc/nc2a.htm | access-date = November 7, 2013 | archive-date = April 21, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210421075132/https://www.druglibrary.org/Schaffer/LIBRARY/studies/nc/nc2a.htm | url-status = live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Dwight Vick|title=Drugs and Alcohol in the 21st Century: Theory, Behavior, and Policy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fwRF5tFand8C&pg=PA128|access-date=January 18, 2011|year=2010|publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning|isbn=978-0-7637-7488-2|page=128|archive-date=January 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120195603/https://books.google.com/books?id=fwRF5tFand8C&pg=PA128|url-status=live}}</ref> On October 28, 1919, [[United States Congress|Congress]] passed the [[Volstead Act]], the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, over President [[Woodrow Wilson]]'s [[Veto power in the United States|veto]]. The act established the legal definition of intoxicating liquors as well as penalties for producing them.<ref name="nih2006">{{cite book | author =Bob Skilnik | title =Beer: A History of Brewing in Chicago | publisher =Baracade Books | year =2006 | isbn =978-1-56980-312-7}}</ref> Although the Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, the federal government lacked resources to enforce it. Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed, cirrhosis death rates, admissions to state mental hospitals for alcoholic psychosis, arrests for public drunkenness, and rates of absenteeism.<ref name="MacCounReuter2001"/><ref name="Blocker2006">{{cite journal|last=Blocker|first=Jack S.|year=2006|title=Did Prohibition Really Work? Alcohol Prohibition as a Public Health Innovation|journal=[[American Journal of Public Health]]|language=en|volume=96|issue=2|pages=233–243|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2005.065409|issn=0090-0036|pmc=1470475|pmid=16380559}}</ref><ref name="Lyons2018"/> While many state that Prohibition stimulated the proliferation of rampant underground, organized and widespread [[The Mafia during Prohibition|criminal activity]],<ref name="t100524">{{Cite magazine |author=David Von Drehle |title=The Demon Drink |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1989146,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100515040622/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1989146,00.html|archive-date=May 15, 2010| magazine=Time | location=New York | page=56 |date=May 24, 2010 }}</ref> Kenneth D. Rose and Georges-Franck Pinard maintain that there was no increase in crime during the Prohibition era and that such claims are "rooted in the impressionistic rather than the factual."<ref name="Rose1997"/><ref name="PinardPagani2000"/> The highest homicide rate in the United States in the first half of the 20th century occurred during the years of prohibition, decreasing immediately after prohibition ended.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bureau of the Census |first=U.S. |date=1975 |title=Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1957. Prepared by the Bureau of the Census with the Cooperation of the Social Science Research Council. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1960. Pp. xi, 789. $6.00.) |url=https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/alcohol-prohibition-was-failure#prohibition-was-criminal |journal=American Political Science Review |volume=54 |issue=4 |pages=1018–1018 |doi=10.1017/s0003055400122488 |issn=0003-0554}}</ref> By 1925, there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 [[speakeasy]] clubs in New York City alone.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/volstead-act/ |title=Teaching With Documents: The Volstead Act and Related Prohibition Documents |publisher=United States National Archives |date=February 14, 2008 |access-date=March 24, 2009 |archive-date=June 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220626091106/https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/volstead-act |url-status=live }}</ref> Wet opposition talked of personal liberty, new tax revenues from legal beer and liquor, and the scourge of organized crime.<ref>{{cite book |author=David E. Kyvig |title=Repealing National Prohibition |year =2000 }}</ref> On March 22, 1933, President [[Franklin Roosevelt]] signed into law the [[Cullen–Harrison Act]], legalizing beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% (by weight) and wine of a similarly low alcohol content. Subsequently, on December 5, ratification of the [[Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twenty-first Amendment]] repealed the Eighteenth Amendment. However, United States federal law still prohibits the manufacture of [[Distilled beverage|distilled spirits]] without meeting numerous licensing requirements that make it impractical to produce spirits for personal beverage use.<ref>{{cite web |title=General Alcohol FAQs |url=https://www.ttb.gov/faqs/general-alcohol |website=Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) |access-date=27 August 2022 |archive-date=January 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200113/https://www.ttb.gov/faqs/general-alcohol |url-status=live }}</ref> ===Origins=== {{Main|Temperance movement in the United States}} [[File:The Drunkard's Progress - Color.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|''The Drunkard's Progress'' – moderate drinking leads to drunkenness and disaster: A lithograph by [[Nathaniel Currier]] supporting the [[temperance movement]], 1846]] Consumption of alcoholic beverages has been a contentious topic in America since the [[Colonial history of the United States|colonial period]]. On March 26, 1636, the legislature of [[Province of Maine|New Somersetshire]] met at what is now [[Saco, Maine]] and adopted a law limiting the sale of "strong liquor or wyne", although carving out exceptions for "lodger[s]" and allowing serving to "laborers on working days for one hower at dinner."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Holliday |first1=Carl |title=World's First Prohibition Law |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Town_Crier,_v.11,_no.16,_Apr._15,_1916_-_DPLA_-_b50c23aa8dcc416f896fd3075898129d_(page_12).jpg |access-date=2023-02-07 |work=The Town Crier |issue=v.11, no. 16 |date=1916-04-15 |location=Seattle |page=12}}</ref> In May 1657, the [[General Court of Massachusetts]] made the sale of strong liquor "whether known by the name of rum, whisky, wine, brandy, etc." to the Native Americans illegal.<ref>{{cite book | author=Anthony Dias Blue | title=The Complete Book of Spirits: A Guide to Their History, Production, and Enjoyment | publisher=HarperCollins | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-06-054218-4 | page= 73}}</ref>{{dubious|Looks like folklore|date=September 2016}} In general, informal social controls in the home and community helped maintain the expectation that the abuse of alcohol was unacceptable: "Drunkenness was condemned and punished, but only as an abuse of a God-given gift. Drink itself was not looked upon as culpable, any more than food deserved blame for the sin of [[gluttony]]. Excess was a personal indiscretion."<ref name="AaronMusto1981">{{cite book |author=Paul Aaron and David Musto |chapter=Temperance and Prohibition in America: An Historical Overview |editor1-last=Moore |editor1-first=Mark H. |editor2-last=Gerstein |editor2-first=Dean R. |title=Alcohol and Public Policy: Beyond the Shadow of Prohibition |url=https://archive.org/details/alcoholpublicpol00moor |url-access=registration |location=Washington, DC |publisher=National Academy Press |year=1981 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/alcoholpublicpol00moor/page/127 127–128] |isbn=978-0-309-03149-3 }}</ref> When informal controls failed, there were legal options. Shortly after the United States obtained independence, the [[Whiskey Rebellion]] took place in [[western Pennsylvania]] in protest of government-imposed taxes on [[whiskey]]. Although the taxes were primarily levied to help pay down the newly formed [[National debt of the United States|national debt]], it also received support from some social reformers, who hoped a "[[sin tax]]" would raise public awareness about the harmful effects of alcohol.<ref>Slaughter, 100.</ref> The whiskey tax was repealed after [[Thomas Jefferson]]'s [[Democratic-Republican Party]], which opposed the [[Federalist Party]] of [[Alexander Hamilton]], came to power in 1800.<ref>Hogeland, 242.</ref> [[Benjamin Rush]], one of the foremost physicians of the late 18th century, believed in moderation rather than prohibition. In his treatise, "The Inquiry into the Effects of Ardent Spirits upon the Human Body and Mind" (1784), Rush argued that the excessive use of alcohol was injurious to physical and psychological health, labeling drunkenness as a disease.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jack S. Blocker |title=American Temperance Movements: Cycles of Reform|year=1989|publisher=Twayne Publishers|location=Boston|page=10}}</ref> Apparently influenced by Rush's widely discussed belief, about 200 farmers in a [[Connecticut]] community formed a [[Temperance movement|temperance]] association in 1789. Similar associations were formed in [[Virginia]] in 1800 and [[New York (state)|New York]] in 1808.<ref name="Blocker 1989 16">Blocker, ''American Temperance Movements: Cycles of Reform'', p. 16.</ref> Within a decade, other [[Temperance movement|temperance]] groups had formed in eight states, some of them being statewide organizations. The words of Rush and other early temperance reformers served to dichotomize the use of alcohol for men and women. While men enjoyed drinking and often considered it vital to their health, women who began to embrace the ideology of "true motherhood" refrained from the consumption of alcohol. Middle-class women, who were considered the moral authorities of their households, consequently rejected the drinking of alcohol, which they believed to be a threat to the home.<ref name="Blocker 1989 16"/> In 1830, on average, Americans consumed 1.7 bottles of [[hard liquor]] per week, three times the amount consumed in 2010.<ref name="t100524"/> ===Development of the prohibition movement=== {{Main|Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Volstead Act}} [[File:WeinWeibUGesang.jpg|thumb|upright|"Who does not love wine, wife and song, will be a fool his whole life long!" (''Wer nicht liebt Wein, Weib & Gesang / Bleibt ein Narr sein Leben lang.'')]] The [[American Temperance Society]] (ATS), formed in 1826, helped initiate the first temperance movement and served as a foundation for many later groups. By 1835 the ATS had reached 1.5 million members, with [[Women in the United States Prohibition movement|women]] constituting 35% to 60% of its chapters.<ref>Blocker, ''American Temperance Movements: Cycles of Reform'', p. 14.</ref> The Prohibition movement, also known as the dry crusade, continued in the 1840s, spearheaded by [[Pietism|pietistic]] religious denominations, especially the [[Methodist]]s. The late 19th century saw the [[temperance movement]] broaden its focus from abstinence to include all behavior and institutions related to alcohol consumption. Preachers such as [[Mark A. Matthews|Reverend Mark A. Matthews]] linked liquor-dispensing saloons with political corruption.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Harrison De Puy|title=The Methodist Year-book: 1921|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RcURAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA254|year=1921|page=254|access-date=October 17, 2015|archive-date=January 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200108/https://books.google.com/books?id=RcURAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA254|url-status=live}}</ref> Some successes for the movement were achieved in the 1850s, including the [[Maine law]], adopted in 1851, which banned the manufacture and sale of liquor. Before its repeal in 1856, 12 states followed the example set by Maine in total prohibition.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Maine Liquor Law|last=Henry|first=Clubb|publisher=Maine Law Statistical Society|year=1856|location=Maine}}</ref> The temperance movement lost strength and was marginalized during the [[American Civil War]] (1861–1865). Following the war, social moralists turned to other issues, such as [[Mormon polygamy]] and the [[temperance movement]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Foster|first=Gaines M.|url=https://archive.org/details/moralreconst_fost_2002_000_7102584/page/233|title=Moral Reconstruction: Christian Lobbyists and the Federal Legislation of Morality, 1865–1920|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8078-5366-5|pages=[https://archive.org/details/moralreconst_fost_2002_000_7102584/page/233 233–234]}}</ref><ref>Boyd Vincent, "Why the Episcopal Church Does Not Identify Herself Openly With Prohibition", ''The Church Messenger'', December 1915, reprinted in ''The Mixer and Server'', Volume 25, No. 2, pp. 25–27 (February 15, 1916).</ref><ref>''E.g.'', Donald T. Critchlow and Philip R. VanderMeer, ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Political and Legal History'', Oxford University Press, 2012; Volume 1, pp. 47–51, 154.</ref> The dry crusade was revived by the national [[Prohibition Party]], founded in 1869, and the [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union]] (WCTU), founded in 1874. The WCTU advocated the prohibition of alcohol as a method for preventing, through education, abuse from alcoholic husbands.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ruth Bordin| title=Women and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873–1900|url=https://archive.org/details/womantemperanceq0000bord|url-access=registration|year=1981|publisher=Temple University Press|location=Philadelphia|page=[https://archive.org/details/womantemperanceq0000bord/page/8 8]| isbn=978-0-87722-157-9}}</ref> WCTU members believed that if their organization could reach children with its message, it could create a dry sentiment leading to prohibition. [[Frances Willard (suffragist)|Frances Willard]], the second president of the WCTU, held that the aims of the organization were to create a "union of women from all denominations, for the purpose of educating the young, forming a better public sentiment, reforming the drinking classes, transforming by the power of Divine grace those who are enslaved by alcohol, and removing the [[Dram shop|dram-shop]] from our streets by law".<ref>{{cite book|author=Frances E. Willard|title=Let Something Good Be Said: Speeches and Writings of Frances E. Willard|year=2007|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Chicago|page=78}}</ref> While still denied universal voting privileges, women in the WCTU followed Frances Willard's "Do Everything" doctrine and used temperance as a method of entering into politics and furthering other progressive issues such as prison reform and [[labor laws]].<ref>Blocker, ''American Temperance Movement: Cycles of Reform'', p. 13.</ref> [[File:Woman's Christian Temperance Union Cartoon.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|This 1902 illustration from the ''Hawaiian Gazette'' newspaper humorously shows the [[water cure (torture)|water cure torture]] used by Anti-Saloon League and WCTU on the brewers of beer.]] In 1881 [[Kansas]] became the first state to outlaw alcoholic beverages in its [[Kansas Constitution|Constitution]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/prohibition/14523|title=Prohibition|date=November 2001|website=Kansas Historical Society|access-date=November 15, 2017|archive-date=January 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200109/https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/prohibition/14523|url-status=live}}</ref> Arrested over 30 times and fined and jailed on multiple occasions, prohibition activist [[Carrie Nation]] attempted to enforce the state's ban on alcohol consumption.<ref>{{cite news|last=Glass|first=Andrew|url=https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/27/carrie-nation-smashes-a-kansas-bar-dec-27-1900-318615|title=Carrie Nation smashes a Kansas bar, Dec. 27, 1900|work=Politico|date=December 27, 2017|access-date=January 2, 2019|archive-date=January 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200118/https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/27/carrie-nation-smashes-a-kansas-bar-dec-27-1900-318615|url-status=live}}</ref> She walked into saloons, scolding customers, and used her hatchet to destroy bottles of liquor. Nation recruited ladies into the Carrie Nation Prohibition Group, which she also led. While Nation's vigilante techniques were rare, other activists enforced the dry cause by entering saloons, singing, praying, and urging saloonkeepers to stop selling alcohol.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kshs.org/exhibits/carry/carry1.htm |title=Carry A. Nation: The Famous and Original Bar Room Smasher |publisher=Kansas Historical Society |date=November 1, 2002 |access-date=December 21, 2008 |archive-date=June 13, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613105820/http://kshs.org/exhibits/carry/carry1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Other [[dry state]]s, especially those in the [[Southern United States|South]], enacted prohibition legislation, as did individual counties within a state. Court cases also debated the subject of prohibition. While some cases ruled in opposition, the general tendency was toward support. In ''[[Mugler v. Kansas]]'' (1887), Justice Harlan commented: "We cannot shut out of view the fact, within the knowledge of all, that the public health, the public morals, and the public safety, may be endangered by the general use of intoxicating drinks; nor the fact established by statistics accessible to every one, that the idleness, disorder, pauperism and crime existing in the country, are, in some degree...traceable to this evil."<ref name="Hopkins, Richard J 1925">{{cite journal | author=Richard J. Hopkins | title =The Prohibition and Crime | journal =The North American Review | volume =222 | issue =828 | pages =40–44 | date=September 1925 }}</ref> In support of prohibition, ''Crowley v. Christensen'' (1890), remarked: "The statistics of every state show a greater amount of crime and misery attributable to the use of ardent spirits obtained at these retail liquor saloons than to any other source."<ref name="Hopkins, Richard J 1925"/> The proliferation of neighborhood saloons in the post-Civil War era became a phenomenon of an increasingly industrialized, urban workforce. Workingmen's bars were popular social gathering places from the workplace and home life. The brewing industry was actively involved in establishing saloons as a lucrative consumer base in their business chain. Saloons were more often than not linked to a specific brewery, where the saloonkeeper's operation was financed by a brewer and contractually obligated to sell the brewer's product to the exclusion of competing brands. A saloon's business model often included the offer of a [[free lunch]], where the bill of fare commonly consisted of heavily salted food meant to induce thirst and the purchase of drink.<ref>{{cite book | author =Marni Davis | title =Jews And Booze: Becoming American In The Age Of Prohibition | publisher =New York University Press | year =2012 | pages =[https://archive.org/details/jewsboozebecomin0000davi/page/86 86–87] | url =https://archive.org/details/jewsboozebecomin0000davi/page/86 | isbn =978-0-8147-2028-8 }}</ref> During the [[Progressive Era]] (1890–1920), hostility toward saloons and their political influence became widespread, with the [[Anti-Saloon League]] superseding the Prohibition Party and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union as the most influential advocate of prohibition, after these latter two groups expanded their efforts to support other social reform issues, such as [[women's suffrage]], onto their prohibition platform.<ref>{{Cite book|title=History of the Anti-Saloon League|last=Cherrington|first=Ernest|publisher=American Issue Publishing Company|year=1913|location=Harvard University}}</ref> {{Listen | filename = Save a Little Dram for Me.ogg | title = "Save A Little Dram For Me" (1922) | description = *A [[Dram (unit)|dram]] is a small unit of measurement. | format = [[Ogg]] }} Prohibition was an important force in state and local politics from the 1840s through the 1930s. Numerous historical studies demonstrated that the political forces involved were ethnoreligious.<ref>Paul Kleppner, ''The Third Electoral System 1853–1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures.'' (1979) pp. 131–139; Paul Kleppner, ''Continuity and Change in Electoral Politics, 1893–1928.'' (1987); {{cite journal | author=Ballard Campbell | title =Did Democracy Work? Prohibition in Late Nineteenth-century Iowa: A Test Case | journal =Journal of Interdisciplinary History | volume =8 | issue =1 | pages =87–116 | year =1977 | doi=10.2307/202597| jstor =202597 }}; and {{cite journal | author =Eileen McDonagh |author-link=Eileen McDonagh | title =Representative Democracy and State Building in the Progressive Era | journal =American Political Science Review | volume =86 | issue =4 | pages =938–950 | year =1992 | doi=10.2307/1964346| jstor =1964346 |s2cid=143387818 }}</ref> Prohibition was supported by the dries, primarily [[Pietism|pietistic]] Protestant denominations that included [[Methodism|Methodists]], [[Northern Baptist Convention|Northern Baptist]]s, [[Southern Baptist Convention|Southern Baptists]], [[New School Presbyterians]], [[Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)|Disciples of Christ]], [[Congregational church|Congregationalists]], [[Quakers]], and Scandinavian [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]], but also included the [[Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America]] and, to a certain extent, the [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|Latter-day Saints]]. These religious groups identified saloons as politically corrupt and drinking as a personal sin. Other active organizations included the Women's Church Federation, the Women's Temperance Crusade, and the Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction. They were opposed by the wets, primarily liturgical [[Protestantism|Protestants]] ([[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalians]] and German Lutherans) and [[Catholic Church|Catholics]], who denounced the idea that the government should define morality.<ref>Jensen (1971) ch 5.{{Full citation needed|date=November 2012}}</ref> Even in the wet stronghold of New York City there was an active prohibition movement, led by Norwegian church groups and [[African-American]] labor activists who believed that prohibition would benefit workers, especially African Americans. Tea merchants and soda fountain manufacturers generally supported prohibition, believing a ban on alcohol would increase sales of their products.<ref>{{cite book | author=Michael A. Lerner | title =Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City | publisher =Harvard University Press | year =2007 | isbn =978-0-674-02432-8 | url =https://archive.org/details/drymanhattanproh00lern| url-access=registration }}</ref> A particularly effective operator on the political front was [[Wayne Wheeler]] of the [[Anti-Saloon League]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/anti-saloon-league-promoted-prohibition/|title=Anti-Saloon League Leadership|last=Prof. Hanson|first=David|website=Alcohol Problems and Solutions|date=December 4, 2015|access-date=November 15, 2017|archive-date=January 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200120/https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/anti-saloon-league-promoted-prohibition/|url-status=live}}</ref> who made Prohibition a [[wedge issue]] and succeeded in getting many pro-prohibition candidates elected. Coming from Ohio, his deep resentment for alcohol started at a young age. He was injured on a farm by a worker who had been drunk. This event transformed Wheeler. Starting low in the ranks, he quickly moved up due to his deep-rooted hatred of alcohol. He later realized to further the movement he would need more public approval, and fast. This was the start of his policy called ‘Wheelerism' where he used the media to make it seem like the general public was "in on" on a specific issue. Wheeler became known as the "dry boss" because of his influence and power.<ref>Shaw, Elton Raymond and Wheeler, Wayne Bidwell. ''Prohibition: Coming or Going?'' Berwyn, Illinois: Shaw Publishing Co., 1924.</ref> [[File:Indiana Goes Dry 1917.jpg|thumb|left|Governor James P. Goodrich signs the Indiana Prohibition Act, 1917.]] Prohibition represented a conflict between urban and rural values emerging in the United States. Given the mass influx of migrants to the urban centers of the United States, many individuals within the prohibition movement associated the crime and morally corrupt behavior of American cities with their large, immigrant populations. Saloons frequented by immigrants in these cities were often frequented by politicians who wanted to obtain the immigrants' votes in exchange for favors such as job offers, legal assistance, and food baskets. Thus, saloons were seen as a breeding ground for [[Corruption in the United States|political corruption]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Christine Sismondo|title=America Walks into a Bar: A Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies and Grog Shops|url=https://archive.org/details/americawalksinto0000sism|url-access=registration|year=2011|publisher=Oxford UP|page=[https://archive.org/details/americawalksinto0000sism/page/181 181]|isbn=978-0-19-975293-5}}</ref> Most economists during the early 20th century were in favor of the enactment of the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition).<ref name="Coats">Coats, A. W. 1987. "Simon Newton Patten" in ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', edited by John Eatwell, Murray Milgate, and Peter Newman, 3: 818–819. London: Macmillan.</ref> [[Simon Patten]], one of the leading advocates for prohibition, predicted that prohibition would eventually happen in the United States for competitive and evolutionary reasons. [[Yale University|Yale]] economics professor [[Irving Fisher]], who was a dry, wrote extensively about prohibition, including a paper that made an economic case for prohibition.<ref name="Fisher">Fisher, Irving, et al. 1927. "The Economics of Prohibition". ''American Economic Review: Supplement 17'' (March): 5–10.</ref> Fisher is credited with supplying the criteria against which future prohibitions, such as against [[marijuana]], could be measured, in terms of crime, health, and productivity. For example, "[[Blue Monday (term)|Blue Monday]]" referred to the [[hangover]] workers experienced after a weekend of [[binge drinking]], resulting in Mondays being a wasted productive day.<ref name="Feldman">Feldman, Herman. 1930. ''Prohibition: Its Economic and Industrial Aspects'', pp. 240–241, New York: Appleton.{{ISBN?}}</ref> But new research has discredited Fisher's research, which was based on uncontrolled experiments; regardless, his $6 billion figure for the annual gains of Prohibition to the United States continues to be cited.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Economics of Prohibition|url=https://archive.org/details/economicsofprohi00thor|url-access=registration|last1=Thornton|first1=Mark|date=1991|publisher=University of Utah Press|isbn=978-0-87480-379-2|location=Salt Lake City|page=[https://archive.org/details/economicsofprohi00thor/page/24 24]}}</ref> In a backlash to the emerging reality of a changing American demographic, many prohibitionists subscribed to the doctrine of [[Nativism (politics)|nativism]], in which they endorsed the notion that the success of America was a result of its white Anglo-Saxon ancestry. This belief fostered distrust of immigrant communities that fostered saloons and incorporated drinking in their popular culture.<ref>Michael A. Lerner, ''Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New York City'', pp. 96–97.</ref>[[File:The Gennii of Intolerance - A Dangerous Ally.tif|thumb|upright=0.9|Political cartoon criticizing the alliance between the prohibitionists and women's suffrage movements. The Genii of Intolerance, labelled "Prohibition", emerges from his bottle.]] Two other amendments to the Constitution were championed by dry crusaders to help their cause. One was granted in the [[Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Sixteenth Amendment]] (1913), which replaced alcohol taxes that funded the federal government with a federal income tax.<ref name="Last Call">{{cite book | author =Daniel Okrent | title =Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition | publisher =Scribner | year =2010 | location =New York | page =57 | isbn =978-0-7432-7702-0 |oclc=419812305}}</ref> The other was women's suffrage, which was granted after the passage of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]] in 1920; since women tended to support prohibition, temperance organizations tended to support women's suffrage.<ref name="Last Call"/> In the [[1916 United States presidential election|presidential election of 1916]], the Democratic incumbent, [[Woodrow Wilson]], and the Republican candidate, [[Charles Evans Hughes]], ignored the prohibition issue, as did both parties' political platforms. Democrats and Republicans had strong wet and dry factions, and the election was expected to be close, with neither candidate wanting to alienate any part of his political base. When the 65th Congress convened in March 1917, the dries outnumbered the wets by 140 to 64 in the Democratic Party and 138 to 62 among Republicans.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mark Elliott Benbow|title=The Nation's Capital Brewmaster: Christian Heurich and His Brewery, 1842–1956|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ztg5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA171|year=2017|page=171|publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-6501-6|access-date=November 7, 2019|archive-date=January 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200128/https://books.google.com/books?id=ztg5DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA171|url-status=live}}</ref> With America's declaration of war against Germany in April, [[German American]]s, a major force against prohibition, were sidelined and their protests subsequently ignored. In addition, a new justification for prohibition arose: prohibiting the production of alcoholic beverages would allow more resources—especially grain that would otherwise be used to make alcohol—to be devoted to the war effort. While wartime prohibition was a spark for the movement,<ref>''E.g.'', "The Economics of War Prohibition", pp. 143–144 in: Survey Associates, Inc., ''The Survey'', Volume 38, April–September 1917.</ref> World War I ended before nationwide Prohibition was enacted. A resolution calling for a [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Constitutional amendment]] to accomplish nationwide Prohibition was introduced in Congress and passed by both houses in December 1917. By January 16, 1919, the Amendment had been ratified by 36 of the 48 states, making it law. Eventually, only two states—[[Connecticut]] and [[Rhode Island]]—opted out of ratifying it.<ref>{{Cite news | title =Connecticut Balks at Prohibition | journal =New York Times | date =February 5, 1919 | url =https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60917F73B5D147A93C7A91789D85F4D8185F9& | access-date =March 31, 2013 | archive-date =February 9, 2014 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20140209185727/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60917F73B5D147A93C7A91789D85F4D8185F9& | url-status =live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | title =Rhode Island Defeats Prohibition | journal =New York Times | date =March 13, 1918 | url =https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60915FC345C10738DDDAA0994DB405B888DF1D3& | access-date =March 31, 2013 | archive-date =February 9, 2014 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20140209190928/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60915FC345C10738DDDAA0994DB405B888DF1D3& | url-status =live }}</ref> On October 28, 1919, Congress passed enabling legislation, known as the [[Volstead Act]], to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment when it went into effect in 1920. ====Start of national prohibition (January 1920)==== [[File:19190117 Prohibition - Eighteenth Amendment - The New York Times.jpg|thumb|After the 36th state adopted the amendment on January 16, 1919, the U.S. Secretary of State had to issue a formal proclamation declaring its ratification.<ref name=NYTimes_19190117/> Implementing and enforcement bills had to be presented to Congress and state legislatures, to be enacted before the amendment's effective date one year later.<ref name=NYTimes_19190117>{{cite news |title=Nation Voted Dry, 38 States Adopt the Amendment / Prohibition Map of the United States |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-times-jan-17-1919-p-1/ |work=The New York Times |date=January 17, 1919 |pages=1, 4 |access-date=August 6, 2020 |archive-date=April 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411042415/https://newspaperarchive.com/new-york-times-jan-17-1919-p-1/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]] [[File:1919 Budweiser ad for alcohol free beer.png|thumb|upright=0.9|[[Budweiser]] ad from 1919, announcing their reformulation of Budweiser as required under the Act, ready for sale by 1920]] Prohibition began on January 17, 1920, when the Volstead Act went into effect.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xviii|title=Common Interpretation: The Eighteenth Amendment|last=George|first=Robert|website=constitutioncenter.org|access-date=January 9, 2018|archive-date=January 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119022347/https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendments/amendment-xviii|url-status=live}}</ref> A total of 1,520 Federal Prohibition agents (police) were tasked with enforcement. Supporters of the Amendment soon became confident that it would not be repealed. One of its creators, Senator [[Morris Sheppard]], joked that "there is as much chance of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment as there is for a humming-bird to fly to the planet Mars with the [[Washington Monument]] tied to its tail."<ref>{{cite journal | author=David E. Kyvig | title =Women Against Prohibition | journal =American Quarterly | volume =28 | issue =4 | pages =465–482 | date=Autumn 1976 | doi=10.2307/2712541| jstor =2712541 }}</ref> At the same time, songs emerged decrying the act. After [[Edward VIII|Edward, Prince of Wales]], returned to the United Kingdom following his tour of Canada in 1919, he recounted to his father, King [[George V]], a ditty he had heard at a border town: {{Blockquote| <poem>Four and twenty Yankees, feeling very dry, Went across the border to get a drink of rye. When the rye was opened, the Yanks began to sing, "God bless America, but God save the King!"<ref>{{Cite book|author1=Arthur Bousfield |author2=Garry Toffoli |name-list-style=amp | title=Royal Observations| publisher=Dundurn Press Ltd.| year=1991| location=Toronto| page=[https://archive.org/details/royalobservation0000bous/page/41 41]| url=https://archive.org/details/royalobservation0000bous|url-access=registration | isbn=978-1-55002-076-2| access-date=March 7, 2010}}</ref></poem>}} Prohibition became highly controversial among medical professionals because alcohol was widely prescribed by the era's physicians for therapeutic purposes. Congress held hearings on the medicinal value of beer in 1921. Subsequently, physicians across the country lobbied for the repeal of Prohibition as it applied to medicinal liquors.<ref>{{cite journal | author=Jacob M. Appel | title =Physicians Are Not Bootleggers: The Short, Peculiar Life of the Medicinal Alcohol Movement | journal =The Bulletin of the History of Medicine | date=Summer 2008 }}</ref> From 1921 to 1930, doctors earned about $40 million for whiskey prescriptions.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Jurkiewicz|first1=Carole|title=Social and Economic Control of Alcohol The 21st Amendment in the 21st Century|date=2008|publisher=CRC Press|location=Boca Raton|isbn=978-1-4200-5463-7|page=5}}</ref> [[File:Prescriptions for Medicinal Spirits - 1922.jpg|thumb|left|Prescription for medicinal alcohol during prohibition]] While the manufacture, importation, sale, and transport of alcohol was illegal in the United States, Section 29 of the Volstead Act allowed wine and cider to be made from fruit at home, but not beer. Up to 200 [[Gallon|gallons]] of wine and [[cider]] per year could be made, and some [[vineyard]]s grew grapes for home use. The Act did not prohibit the consumption of alcohol. Many people stockpiled wines and liquors for their personal use in the latter part of 1919 before sales of alcoholic beverages became illegal in January 1920. Since alcohol was legal in neighboring countries, distilleries and breweries in Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean flourished as their products were either consumed by visiting Americans or smuggled into the United States illegally. The [[Detroit River]], which forms part of the U.S. border with Canada, was notoriously difficult to control, especially [[rum-running in Windsor]], Canada. When the U.S. government complained to the British that American law was being undermined by officials in [[Nassau, Bahamas|Nassau]], [[Bahamas]], the head of the [[Colonial Office|British Colonial Office]] refused to intervene.<ref>{{cite video | title =Prohibition, Part II: A Nation of Scofflaws | publisher =PBS | url =https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/ | access-date =September 8, 2017 | archive-date =May 4, 2012 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20120504033223/http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/ | url-status =live }}, a [[documentary film]] series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. See video excerpt: {{cite video | title =Rum Row | medium =video | publisher =PBS | url =http://video.pbs.org/video/2086033109 | access-date =February 15, 2012 | archive-date =March 30, 2012 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20120330024644/http://video.pbs.org/video/2086033109 | url-status =live }}</ref> [[Winston Churchill]] believed that Prohibition was "an affront to the whole history of mankind".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://drinkboston.com/2010/04/25/probing-prohibition/|title=Probing Prohibition|author=Scott N. Howe|date=April 25, 2010|work=DrinkBoston|access-date=February 15, 2012|archive-date=October 10, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111010073750/http://drinkboston.com/2010/04/25/probing-prohibition/|url-status=live}}</ref> Three federal agencies were assigned the task of enforcing the Volstead Act: the [[U.S. Coast Guard]] Office of Law Enforcement,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.odmp.org/agency/3947-united-states-coast-guard-office-of-law-enforcement-us-government#ixzz1eaFKZRuK |title=United States Coast Guard Office of Law Enforcement |publisher=Odmp.org |access-date=May 26, 2013 |archive-date=June 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605051558/http://www.odmp.org/agency/3947-united-states-coast-guard-office-of-law-enforcement-us-government#ixzz1eaFKZRuK |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Eleven U.S. Coast Guard men were killed between 1925 and 1927.</ref> the [[U.S. Treasury]]'s IRS Bureau of Prohibition,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.odmp.org/agency/5854-united-states-department-of-the-treasury-internal-revenue-service-prohibition-unit-us-government |title=United States Department of the Treasury – Internal Revenue Service – Prohibition Unit, U.S. Government, Fallen Officers |publisher=Odmp.org |access-date=May 26, 2013 |archive-date=May 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527135758/http://www.odmp.org/agency/5854-united-states-department-of-the-treasury-internal-revenue-service-prohibition-unit-us-government |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Fifty-six agents were killed between 1920 and 1927.</ref> and the [[U.S. Department of Justice]] Bureau of Prohibition.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.odmp.org/agency/5856-united-states-department-of-justice-bureau-of-prohibition-us-government |title=United States Department of Justice – Bureau of Prohibition, U.S. Government, Fallen Officers |publisher=Odmp.org |access-date=May 26, 2013 |archive-date=September 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927170344/http://www.odmp.org/agency/5856-united-states-department-of-justice-bureau-of-prohibition-us-government |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Thirty-four agents were killed between 1930 and 1934.</ref> ===Bootlegging and hoarding old supplies=== [[File:Policeman and wrecked car and cases of moonshine.jpg|thumb|A policeman with wrecked automobile and confiscated [[moonshine]], 1922]] As early as 1925, journalist [[H. L. Mencken]] believed that Prohibition was not working.<ref>{{cite book | author=Sylvia Engdahl | title =Amendments XVIII and XXI: Prohibition and Repeal | publisher =Greenhaven | year =2009 }}</ref> Historian [[David Oshinsky]], summarizing the work of [[Daniel Okrent]], wrote that "Prohibition worked best when directed at its primary target: the working-class poor."<ref>{{cite journal | author=[[David Oshinsky]] | title=Temperance to Excess (review of ''Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition'') | journal=The New York Times | date=May 13, 2010 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/books/review/Oshinsky-t.html | access-date=August 20, 2020 | archive-date=January 26, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126153021/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/books/review/Oshinsky-t.html | url-status=live }}</ref> Historian [[Lizabeth Cohen]] writes: "A rich family could have a cellar-full of liquor and get by, it seemed, but if a poor family had one bottle of home-brew, there would be trouble."<ref name="Cohen, Lizabeth">{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Lizabeth|title=Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919–1939|year=1991|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0-521-42838-5|page=255|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DWGfrXesoqUC&pg=PA255|access-date=October 17, 2015|archive-date=January 20, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120200133/https://books.google.com/books?id=DWGfrXesoqUC&pg=PA255|url-status=live}}</ref> Working-class people were inflamed by the fact that their employers could dip into a private cache while they, the employees, could not.<ref>Davis, ''Jews And Booze: Becoming American In The Age Of Prohibition'', p. 189.</ref> Within a week after Prohibition went into effect, small portable stills were on sale throughout the country.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Great Illusion: An Informal History of Prohibition|last=Asbury|first=Herbert|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=1968|location=New York}}</ref> Before the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect in January 1920, many of the upper classes stockpiled alcohol for legal home consumption after Prohibition began. They bought the inventories of liquor retailers and wholesalers, emptying out their warehouses, saloons, and club storerooms. President [[Woodrow Wilson]] moved his own supply of alcoholic beverages to his Washington residence after his term of office ended. His successor, [[Warren G. Harding]], relocated his own large supply into the White House.<ref>{{cite book|author=Garrett Peck|title=Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren't|year=2011|publisher=The History Press|location=Charleston, SC|isbn=978-1-60949-236-6|pages=42–45}}</ref><ref>Davis, ''Jews And Booze: Becoming American In The Age Of Prohibition'', p. 145.</ref> [[File:5 Prohibition Disposal(9) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Removal of liquor during Prohibition]] After the Eighteenth Amendment became law, [[rum-running|bootlegging]] became widespread. In the first six months of 1920, the federal government opened 7,291 cases for Volstead Act violations.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bauer|first1=Bryce T.|title=Gentlemen Bootleggers|publisher=Chicago Review Press Incorporated|page=73}}</ref> In the first complete fiscal year of 1921, the number of cases violating the Volstead Act jumped to 29,114 violations and would rise dramatically over the next thirteen years.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bauer|first1=Bryce T.|title=Gentlemen Bootleggers|publisher=Chicago Review Press Incorporated}}</ref> Grape juice was not restricted by Prohibition, even though if it was allowed to sit for sixty days it would ferment and turn to wine with a twelve percent alcohol content. Many people took advantage of this as grape juice output quadrupled during the Prohibition era.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Repealing National Prohibition|last=Kyvig|first=David E.|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|year=1979|location=Chicago, IL|pages=20–21}}</ref> To prevent bootleggers from using industrial [[ethyl alcohol]] to produce illegal beverages, the federal government ordered the [[Denatured alcohol|denaturation of industrial alcohols]], meaning they must include additives to make them unpalatable or poisonous. In response, bootleggers hired chemists who successfully removed the additives from the alcohol to make it drinkable. As a response, the Treasury Department required manufacturers to add more deadly poisons, including the particularly deadly combination known as [[methyl alcohol]]: 4 parts methanol, 2.25 parts [[pyridine]] base, and 0.5 parts [[benzene]] per 100 parts ethyl alcohol.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Poisoners Handbook|last=Blum|first=Deborah|publisher=Penguin Books|year=2012|isbn=978-0-14-311882-4|location=New York, New York|pages=Ch. 2}}</ref> New York City medical examiners prominently opposed these policies because of the danger to human life. As many as 10,000 people died from drinking denatured alcohol before Prohibition ended.<ref name=Blum>{{cite web | author=Deborah Blum | title=The Chemist's War: The Little-told Story of how the U.S. Government Poisoned Alcohol During Prohibition with Deadly Consequences | work=Slate | date=February 19, 2010 | url=http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2010/02/the_chemists_war.1.html | access-date=November 7, 2013 | archive-date=October 29, 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029220240/http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2010/02/the_chemists_war.1.html | url-status=live }}</ref> New York City medical examiner [[Charles Norris (medical examiner)|Charles Norris]] believed the government took responsibility for murder when they knew the poison was not deterring consumption and they continued to poison industrial alcohol (which would be used in drinking alcohol) anyway. Norris remarked: "The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol ... [Y]et it continues its poisoning processes, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes, although it cannot be held legally responsible."<ref name=Blum/> [[File:1933-11 Industry Booms After Repeal of Prohibition.ogv|thumb|A 1933 newsreel about the end of Prohibition]] Another lethal substance that was often substituted for alcohol was [[Sterno]], a fuel commonly known as "canned heat". Forcing the substance through a makeshift filter, such as a handkerchief, created a rough liquor substitute; however, the result was poisonous, though not often lethal.<ref name="Lusk, Rufus S 1932">{{cite journal | author =Rufus S. Lusk | title =The Drinking Habit | journal =Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science | volume =163 | pages =46–52 | date=September 1932 | doi=10.1177/000271623216300106| s2cid =144265638 }}</ref> [[File:Orange County Sheriff's deputies dumping illegal booze, Santa Ana, 3-31-1932.jpg|thumb|left|Orange County, California, sheriff's deputies dumping illegal alcohol, 1932]] Making alcohol at home was common among some families with wet sympathies during Prohibition. Stores sold grape concentrate with warning labels that listed the steps that should be avoided to prevent the juice from fermenting into wine. Some drugstores sold "medical wine" with around a 22% alcohol content. In order to justify the sale, the wine was given a medicinal taste.<ref name="Lusk, Rufus S 1932"/> Home-distilled hard liquor was called [[bathtub gin]] in northern cities, and [[moonshine]] in rural areas of [[Virginia]], [[Kentucky]], [[North Carolina]], [[South Carolina]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[West Virginia]] and [[Tennessee]]. [[Homebrewing]] good hard liquor was easier than brewing good beer.<ref name="Lusk, Rufus S 1932"/> Since selling privately distilled alcohol was illegal and bypassed government taxation, law enforcement officers relentlessly pursued manufacturers.<ref name="Communications, Aug 1998">{{cite journal | first=Scott |last=Oldham | title =NASCAR Turns 50 | journal =Popular Mechanics | date=August 1998 }}</ref> In response, bootleggers modified their cars and trucks by enhancing the engines and suspensions to make faster vehicles that, they assumed, would improve their chances of outrunning and escaping agents of the [[Bureau of Prohibition]], commonly called "revenue agents" or "revenuers". These cars became known as "moonshine runners" or {{"'}}shine runners".<ref>"NASCAR, an Overview – Part 1". Suite101.com. Google. Web. November 22, 2009.</ref> Shops with wet sympathies were also known to participate in the underground liquor market, by loading their stocks with ingredients for liquors, including [[bénédictine]], [[vermouth]], scotch mash, and even [[ethyl alcohol]]; anyone could purchase these ingredients legally.<ref>{{cite journal | author =Joseph K. Willing | title =The Profession of Bootlegging | journal =Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science | volume =125 | pages =40–48 | date=May 1926 | doi=10.1177/000271622612500106| s2cid =144956561 }}</ref> In October 1930, just two weeks before the congressional midterm elections, bootlegger [[George Cassiday]]—"the man in the green hat"—came forward and told members of Congress how he had bootlegged for ten years. One of the few bootleggers ever to tell his story, Cassiday wrote five front-page articles for ''[[The Washington Post]]'', in which he estimated that 80% of congressmen and senators drank. The Democrats in the North were mostly wets, and in the [[1932 United States presidential election|1932 election]], they made major gains. The wets argued that Prohibition was not stopping crime, and was actually causing the creation of large-scale, well-funded, and well-armed criminal syndicates. As Prohibition became increasingly unpopular, especially in urban areas, its repeal was eagerly anticipated.<ref>Peck, ''Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren't'', pp. 125–133.</ref> Wets had the organization and the initiative. They pushed the argument that states and localities needed the tax money. President Herbert Hoover proposed a new constitutional amendment that was vague on particulars and satisfied neither side. Franklin Roosevelt's Democratic platform promised repeal of the 18th Amendment.<ref>"Prohibition After the 1932 Elections" [https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1932081100 ''CQ Researcher''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125235219/http://library.cqpress.com/CQResearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1932081100 |date=January 25, 2021 }}</ref><ref>Herbert Brucker, "How Long, O Prohibition?" ''The North American Review'', 234#4 (1932), pp. 347–357. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/25114102 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220421205555/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25114102 |date=April 21, 2022 }}</ref> When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, many bootleggers and suppliers with wet sympathies simply moved into the legitimate liquor business. Some crime syndicates moved their efforts into expanding their protection rackets to cover legal liquor sales and other business areas.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Behr|first1=Edward|title=Prohibition Thirteen Years that Changed America|date=1996|publisher=Arcade Publishing|location=New York|isbn=978-1-55970-394-9|pages=240–242}}</ref> === Medical liquor === [[File:Prohibition prescription front.jpg|thumb|A [[Prohibition]]-era prescription used by U.S. physicians to prescribe [[liquor]] as medicine]] Doctors were able to prescribe medicinal alcohol for their patients. After just six months of prohibition, over 15,000 doctors and 57,000 pharmacists received licenses to prescribe or sell medicinal alcohol. According to ''Gastro Obscura'', {{Blockquote |Physicians wrote an estimated 11 million prescriptions a year throughout the 1920s, and Prohibition Commissioner John F. Kramer even cited one doctor who wrote 475 prescriptions for whiskey in one day. It wasn't tough for people to write—and fill—counterfeit subscriptions at pharmacies, either. Naturally, bootleggers bought prescription forms from crooked doctors and mounted widespread scams. In 1931, 400 pharmacists and 1,000 doctors were caught in a scam where doctors sold signed prescription forms to bootleggers. Just 12 doctors and 13 pharmacists were indicted, and the ones charged faced a one-time $50 fine. Selling alcohol through drugstores became so much of a lucrative open secret that it is name-checked in works such as The Great Gatsby. Historians speculate that [[Charles R. Walgreen]], of [[Walgreens]] fame, expanded from 20 stores to a staggering 525 during the 1920s thanks to medicinal alcohol sales." |Paula Mejia| "The Lucrative Business of Prescribing Booze During Prohibition"; ''Gastro Obscura'', 2017.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/doctors-booze-notes-prohibition|title=During Prohibition, Doctors Wrote Prescriptions for Booze|first=Paula|last=Mejia|date=November 15, 2017|website=Atlas Obscura|access-date=April 11, 2019|archive-date=April 11, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411081604/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/doctors-booze-notes-prohibition|url-status=live}}</ref>}} ===Enforcement=== [[File:defender18thkkk.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|left|The Defender Of The 18th Amendment, from ''[[Klansmen: Guardians of Liberty]]'' published by the [[Pillar of Fire Church]]]] Once Prohibition came into effect, the majority of U.S. citizens obeyed it.<ref name="Blocker2006"/> Some states like Maryland and New York refused Prohibition.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lantzer|first=Jason S.|title="Prohibition is Here to Stay": The Reverend Edward S. Shumaker and the Dry Crusade in America|publisher=University of Notre Dame Press|year=1994|isbn=0-268-03383-8|location=Indiana, Pa}}</ref> Enforcement of the law under the Eighteenth Amendment lacked a centralized authority. Clergymen were sometimes called upon to form vigilante groups to assist in the enforcement of Prohibition.<ref>-------. "Roper Asks Clergy to Aid in Work of Dry Enforcement," The Evening Public Ledger (Philadelphia, PA), p. 1, Image 1, col. 1, January 17, 1920</ref> Furthermore, American geography contributed to the difficulties in enforcing Prohibition. The varied terrain of valleys, mountains, lakes, and swamps, as well as the extensive seaways, ports, and borders which the United States shared with [[Canada]] and [[Mexico]] made it exceedingly difficult for Prohibition agents to stop bootleggers given their lack of resources. Ultimately it was recognized with its repeal that the means by which the law was to be enforced were not pragmatic, and in many cases, the legislature did not match the general public opinion.<ref>''Report on the Enforcement of the Prohibition Laws of the United States''. National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement. Dated January 7, 1931 [http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/wick/wick3.html "III. Bad Features of the Present Situation and Difficulties in the Way of Enforcement"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412193115/https://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/wick/wick3.html |date=April 12, 2021 }}</ref> In [[Cicero, Illinois|Cicero]], Illinois, (a suburb of Chicago) the prevalence of ethnic communities who had wet sympathies allowed prominent gang leader [[Al Capone]] to operate despite the presence of police.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The War on Alcohol: Prohibition and The Rise of the American State|last=McGirr|first=Lisa|publisher=New York: W.W. Norton & Company|year=2016|isbn=978-0-393-06695-1|location=New York|page=6|quote=Criminal gangs controlled the large working-class enclave of Cicero just west of Chicago proper as well; it was soon dubbed "Caponetown." Surrounded by factories, the enclave served as the base for the gangster's operation. Capone operated uninhibited by police, his illegal empire smoothed by his political connections, violence and wet sentiments of many of Chicago's ethnic political leaders.}}</ref> The [[Ku Klux Klan]] talked a great deal about denouncing bootleggers and threatened private vigilante action against known offenders. Despite its large membership in the mid-1920s, it was poorly organized and seldom had an impact. Indeed, the KKK after 1925 helped disparage any enforcement of Prohibition.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Thomas R. |last=Pegram |title=Hoodwinked: The Anti-Saloon League and the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Prohibition Enforcement |journal=Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era |year=2008 |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=89–119 |doi=10.1017/S1537781400001742 |s2cid=154353466 }}</ref> Prohibition was a major blow to the alcoholic beverage industry and its repeal was a step toward the amelioration of one sector of the economy. An example of this is the case of [[St. Louis]], one of the most important alcohol producers before prohibition started, which was ready to resume its position in the industry as soon as possible. Its major brewery had "50,000 barrels" of beer ready for distribution from March 22, 1933, and was the first alcohol producer to resupply the market; others soon followed. After repeal, stores obtained liquor licenses and restocked for business. After beer production resumed, thousands of workers found jobs in the industry again.<ref>{{cite journal | title =50,000 barrels ready in St Louis | journal =New York Times | date=March 23, 1933 }}</ref> Prohibition created a [[black market]] that competed with the formal economy, which came under pressure when the Great Depression struck in 1929. [[State governments of the United States|State governments]] urgently needed the tax revenue alcohol sales had generated. Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 based in part on his promise to end prohibition, which influenced his support for ratifying the [[Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution|Twenty-first Amendment]] to repeal Prohibition.<ref>Dwight B Heath, "Prohibition, Repeal, and Historical Cycles," Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies{{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=October 2021}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page