On January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of state governments and became the law of the land ending the manufacture, importation, or distribution of most alcoholic beverages. For the next thirteen years, this country went officially dry, but what actually happened as a consequence of the law was, for the most part, unintended by its supporters.
Origins: The origins of Prohibition date all the way back to 1636, when the legislature of what eventually became the state of Maine adopted a law limiting the sale of “strong liquor or wyne.” The law had a few loopholes, but the concept took hold that social controls that sought to restrict the abuse of alcohol consumption in the society were not working sufficiently. As time went on, the debate arose as to what value or detriment the consumption of alcohol meant to society. Political interest groups appeared as early as 1826 with the American Temperance Society established in Boston to initiate what became the first temperance movement. The rise of the Prohibition Movement (or the Dry Crusade) carried on into the 1840’s with some limited success at the state level including The Maine Law of 1851 that constituted the first codified law anywhere that prohibited the sale and manufacture of alcoholic beverages. Twelve other states enacted similar laws, but the Maine Law was repealed in 1856. The movement foundered during the Civil War, and after the war’s end other social issues drifted to the forefront occupying moralistic political interest. In 1869 the Prohibition Party was created followed by the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in 1874 with the purpose of promoting education designed to eliminate abuse towards women from alcoholic husbands. In 1881 Kansas added prohibition to its state constitution; however, the enforcement of the Kansas law was spotty and called for the work of activists. The driving forces behind prohibition were primarily pietistic Protestant denominations, and the opposing forces were from liturgical Protestants and Catholics. The dichotomy of the issue gravitated towards rural versus urban, as the urban, industrialized areas were where alcohol consumption was the most prevalent. In 1893 the Anti-Saloon League became the salient for the prohibition movement. It all came to a head in the early 1900’s with the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919 that began the era of prohibition.
Passive Resistance: The enforcement of the 18th Amendment was defined by the National Prohibition Act or the Volstead Act as it was commonly called. In an interesting twist, the Volstead Act was created in part take the usage of grains grown in the country away from breweries and distilleries to further the needs of the military in World War I (the war ended before the act took effect) and the postwar economic recovery in Europe. The act and the amendment led to an era of passive resistance throughout the urban, industrialized areas of the country. Bars and saloons did not go away, they simply went underground and became known as “speakeasys.” Smugglers brought the products in from other countries where alcoholic beverages were legal. Bootlegging went from a cottage industry to a major production source. For brewers, the actual ingredients used in brewing were by themselves not illegal and could in fact be sold to individuals for use at home. Individual homes would often be used for storing bootlegger inventories; however, enforcement officers generally went after the larger manufacturers and left the average household brewer alone. Moonshiners attached wooden blocks, carved to create the imprint of a cow’s hoof, to the souls and heels of their shoes in an attempt to conceal the trail of their activities. Books were designed to appear to be harmless reading, but in fact to hide a flask inside. Home furnishings such as lamps were modified to hide bottles. Heavy overcoats were able to hide containers underneath for transporting alcohol. Hollow canes would disguise the transporting of alcohol in public and provide an easy, clever way to disburse it into a drinking glass. In one Los Angeles case, a truck was modified to look like it was hauling lumber only to have a special trapdoor in back made from the ends of lumber sticking out that hid an alcoholic beverage load. Arrests were made, fines paid, and illegal contraband was confiscated and destroyed, but the enforcement effort did not come close to eliminating alcoholic beverage consumption throughout the country.
Medicinal alcohol was popular and thrived throughout the era. Over 15,000 doctors and 57,000 pharmacists were licensed to prescribe and distribute medicinal alcohol. It was estimated that perhaps 11 million medicinal alcohol prescriptions were written per year during prohibition. In one day, a single doctor wrote 475 prescriptions for whiskey. Counterfeiting proliferated, but even in one of the biggest scams in 1931 when 400 pharmacists and 1,000 doctors were arrested, only twelve doctors and thirteen pharmacists were indicted. Those charged only faced a one-time $50 fine. It’s estimated that doctors received $40 million dollars for medicinal alcohol prescriptions from 1921 to 1930. Selling alcoholic beverages though drugstores became a major growth industry.
Economic Impact: The passage of the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act created an economic crisis for the brewers, vintners, and distilleries throughout the country. However, not all alcohol was outlawed—some types remained legal such as that which was needed for religious purposes. Industrial concentration in the brewing industry alone went from more than 1,300 breweries in 1915 to about 100 during prohibition. The businesses that survived were mainly the ones that saw that the problem for them was real and coming their way. Several of the most famous ones acquired real estate beforehand enabling them to expand into lines of other products. Such products as non-alcoholic beer, malted milk, malt syrup, soft drinks, ice cream and even cheese were developed and produced in the unused facilities. Wineries sold tons of grape juice that when left to age would become wine. Available factory space was in some cases leased to other manufacturers. Miller Brewing owned a large number of saloons and bars in prime locations, which they sold for sizable profits. They further had numerous bonds from municipal and foreign sources that helped them stay afloat. Coors shifted resources into a laboratory ceramics and pottery business that to this day still makes such products as tea sets, dinnerware, spark plugs, and laboratory equipment.
Economists are not in agreement about the overall impact of prohibition on the economy of the times. Some advocated that prohibition would help the economy by improving public health and reducing time missed at work. However, it caused a major decline in the brewing/distilling industry that had ripple impacts on farming. Further, before prohibition as much as 14% of all tax revenues came from the sale of alcoholic beverages hurting both federal and state governments, especially when the Great Depression set in. Along with the decrease in tax revenues came a dramatic increase in enforcement costs—from $6.3 million in 1921 to $13.4 million in 1930, peaking at a time when governments could least afford it.
Organized Crime: One aspect of the economy that did benefit from prohibition was organized crime. Organized gangs of criminals before prohibition operated on a small—time basis usually protecting certain illegal operations from other gangs’ encroachment. They also worked for corrupt politicians and political bosses attempting to fix elections. But prohibition opened up a huge new market for smuggling alcoholic beverages particularly into urban industrialized areas where there were many thirsty customers. With some exceptions the dominant mob gangs worked hard to maintain peace since there was so much money at stake. As the business grew rapidly the gangs got bigger and richer with some of the biggest grossing as much as $100 million per year in the 1920’s (about $1.9 billion in today’s currency). With that came the need for lawyers, accountants, and foreign bankers to process and launder the proceeds and branch it out into other legitimate businesses such as real estate. Further, many bribes up to as much as $500 thousand per month needed to be paid to politicians, police, and federal investigators. Then as business loans were harder to come by during the depression, loan sharking by the major syndicates became another profitable source of revenue.
When It All Came to an End: The massive enforcement effort to shut down the manufacture, importation, or distribution of alcoholic beverages failed to accomplish its purpose. Throughout the period most people who wanted to drink could do so either making their own at home or visiting a local speakeasy. Exceptions to the original law turned up. Franklin Roosevelt ran for President in 1932 on a platform that included repealing prohibition. After he was elected, he signed the Cullen-Harrison Act into law in March, 1933, that legalized the sale of beer and wine provided the alcohol content in beer was the equivalent of 3.2% by weight (wine had a similarly low alcohol content). This was the first nail in the coffin of prohibition. Later that same year Congress passed the 21st Amendment that repealed the 18th Amendment. The 21st Amendment was ratified on December 5, 1933, when Utah became the 36th state to vote for it putting it over the top. Essentially, the 21st Amendment returned the prohibition debate back down to the state and local level, as eighteen states opted out and continued prohibition on their own. Mississippi became the last state to end prohibition, doing so in 1966, thirty-three years later.
Conclusions: To put the issue into perspective the average American consumed about three times the amount of alcoholic beverage in 1830 than in 2010. But the idea of making it illegal via constitutional amendment was shown to be over the top. The opposite sides to the issue split the urban and rural segments of the population. Even many of the original supporters in Congress changed their position when the vote came to end it. The debate went back to rest in the state houses of government where it should have stayed all along. Ironically, it became harder to find a drink after prohibition ended owing to the application of taxes and regulations such as limiting hours of operation, etc. During prohibition, drinking continued nearly unabated.
Sources: History.com, All the Crafty Ways Americans Hid Alcohol During Prohibition, Christopher Klein, March 28, 2023.
History.com, How America’s Iconic Brewers Survived Prohibition, Christopher Klein, January 30, 2019.
History.com, How Prohibition Put the ‘Organized’ in Organized Crime, Dave Roos, March 9, 2021.
History.com, The Night Prohibition Ended, Christopher Klein, March 28, 2023.
Wikipedia, Prohibition in the United States.