A lot of
people feel that prohibition just appeared, it didn’t, it was a long time
coming and it took a long time to appeal it.
I found this to be an interesting article worth reading. How it came and went should be of interest to
anyone that enjoys the freedom of choice here in America to have an alcoholic
beverage.
On January 20,
1919, the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbade, "the
manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors". It came
into force exactly a year later, with the National Prohibition Act - usually
known as the Volstead Act - setting out the detailed guidelines. Prohibition had not come out of the blue. The
Temperance Movement had been building strong support among the many churches
since the early 1800s. Massachusetts was the first state to introduce
anti-alcohol legislation in 1838, but it was short-lived. Maine did so more
successfully in 1848.
Prohibition was not a success.
Organized crime set up large smuggling operations across the Canadian and
Mexican borders, as well as managing illegal shipping routes from the
Caribbean. Domestic bootleggers began distilling vast quantities of homebrew,
and medicinal and denatured alcohol were cut and washed for resale - sometimes
with fatal consequences. All these products were pumped out through
mob-controlled speakeasies and illicit drinking dens. In the space of only a
few years, prohibition had given a new breed of gangsters undreamed of wealth
and geographic reach. From this solid foundation, organized crime then
diversified into narcotics, gambling, prostitution, and finance.
Law enforcement
agencies and organized crime gangs battled it out on the streets of American
cities. The state's highpoint came in 1932 when Eliot Ness and his
Untouchables from the Bureau of Prohibition succeeded in securing Al Capone's
imprisonment for income tax offences. However, by this stage the tide had
turned, and the whole violent experience of prohibition had killed off much
popular support for the Temperance Movement.
Read more at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/20/day-1933-congress-strikes-first-blow-fight-kill-prohibition/
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