Prohibition in the United States

===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
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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>