The 18 th Amendment

1. The 18th Amendment Megan Seidlinger

2. The 18th Amendment reads: Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited Section 2. The Congress and the several states shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the states by the Congress.

3. The 18th Amendment in my own words What this amendment means to me is that all alcohol; beer, wine, and whiskey, was illegal to have or to sell. This was known as the time of Prohibition. Also it meant that a restaurant, bar, or a night club would have to go out of business without its best product, alcohol.

4. The 18th Amendment Ratification Date • The 18th Amendment was signed into law on January 17, 1920.

5. Facts about the 18th Amendment The following quotation shows that in the beginning, it seemed as though Prohibition was not only a great idea, but that it was working. “The amendment worked at first, liquor consumption dropped, arrests for drunkenness fell, and the price for illegal alcohol rose higher than the average worker could afford. Alcohol consumption dropped by 30 percent and the United States Brewers’ Association admitted that the consumption of hard liquor was off 50 percent during Prohibition.” 1 Also, alcohol was smuggled into the United States from Canada and Mexico Another fact is that when I received this amendment for my assignment, I did not really understand this amendment, but after I researched and studied it, I found out that it is the only amendment that has ever been repealed. It was repealed by the 21st amendment. My great grand parents owned a bar in Columbus, Wisconsin and every time the police came to check for alcohol during Prohibition, they hid the whiskey in the flour jar in the kitchen.

6. Footnotes • 1 18th Amendment http://www.albany.edu/~wm731882/18th_amendment_final.html

7. Bibliography McKissack, Patricia, and Arlene Zarembka. To Establish Justice: Citizenship And The Constitution. New York: Knopf, 2004. O’Neill, Catherine. Focus On Alcohol. Maryland: Twenty-First Century Books, 1990. 18th Amendment. http://www.albany.edu/~wm731882/18th_amendment_final.html