The 18 th Amendment

1. The 18th Amendment What were the social and political forces behind the passage of Prohibition, the 18th Amendment?

2. In the beginning…. • WCTU wanted to prohibit the sale of alcohol claiming it: • Defiled women and destroyed family life (drunkenness of husbands led to violence) • Money that should have been spent supporting the family went to drink • Saloons were places were immigrants, prostitutes, and gamblers infected others with their “evil ways” • Believed role of government was to better the lives of ordinary people by outlawing consumption of alcohol Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/photos/html/1000.html Taking Notes: When, if ever, does government have the responsibility to regulate people’s behavior?

3. The Anti-Saloon League http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~ppennock/doc-tempPoster.htm What was their platform? • Closed down saloons • Producers of alcohol were “enemy aliens,” Germans, who we fought against in World War I (Pabst, Schlitz, and Blatz Beer) • Used local churches to recruit followers • Lobbied Democrats and Republicans to support Prohibition • Owned its own publishing house to distribute propaganda Taking Notes: Should anyone be allowed to ‘lobby’ public officials? How is this democratic?

4. Evidence of alcohol use • “Drunkenness is very common among the inhabitants of these houses. Men and women are literally driven into intemperance by the discomfort in which they live” • -James Dabney McCabe Jr 1842-1883, Lights and Shadows of New York, Sights and Sensations of the Great City, 1872 • http://maggieblanck.com/NewYork/Life.html • Tenement house in New York City, 1910

5. Saloons were located in or by tenement buildings It was in the slums and tenements of New York City that mothers , children, and husbands had easy access to alcohol. The first floor of many tenements had a “Kips Bay” or some other type of saloon readily available. • http://maggieblanck.com/NewYork/Life.html

6. Was this evidence enough to merit a law regulating the consumption of alcohol? • What questions do you have about the evidence collected? • What other questions might you ask about this topic in order to make an informed decision about Prohibition? "Liquor is responsible for 19% of the divorces, 25% of the poverty, 25% of the insanity, 37% of the pauperism, 45% of child desertion, and 50% of the crime in this country," the Anti-Saloon League determined. "And this," it concluded , " is a very conservative estimate" (Odegard, 1928: 60).

7. 18th Amendment • The Anti-Saloon League and its allies in Congress introduce the Prohibition Amendment of 1917 • Submitted to the House of Representative on April 4, 1917 • Senate received the resolution and passed it August 1st, 1917, submitted to state legislatures on December 22, 1917 • With lobbying from the WCTU and the Anti Salon League, the amendment passed on January 16, 1919 http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~ppennock/doc-tempPoster.htm

8. What does it say? • 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. • How is this amendment an example of the influence of public opinion on our laws? • With your partner, come up with at least three ideas from the notes/class discussion/text. http://media.photobucket.com/image/anti%20saloon%20league%201920/silverbeam/A%20CSM%20Blog/prohibition.jpg