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How
did Prohibition change American society in the 1920s?
The “Noble Experiment”, like most laws, had many consequences, some
of them, unfortunately, unintended. The first obvious change in American society
caused by prohibition was the reduction in drinking alcoholic beverages.
Drinking had reached its all-time low in 1921, where only about 0.3 gallons of
alcohol were consumed pro capita. Nevertheless, after this date, it began to
rise again. Consumption would probably have surpassed pre-Prohibition levels
even if the 18th
Amendment wouldn’t have been repealed in 1933. On the whole, though, Americans
did end up spending less money on alcohol. This fact was additionally helped by
the Great Depression which had taken the power to spend away from most of the
population.
Furthermore, the Prohibition Movement had the unpleasant effect of
deteriorating the nation’s health. “Alcohol-related deaths” had been
decreasing throughout the first decade of the 20th century. However, they began to rise straight away
once the new law was passed. This was probably due to the consumption of
stronger and consequently poisonous alcoholic beverages. Diseases such as
cirrhosis of the liver began to largely appear, however, victims due to the
latter and alcoholism are a small portion of the total number of deaths each
year.
Prohibition also increased criminality, since it turned ordinary citizens into outlaws. At the beginning of Prohibition, the Reverend Billy Sunday stirred audiences with this optimistic prediction:
The reign of tears is over. The slums will soon be a memory. We will turn
our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corn cribs. Men
will walk upright now, women will smile and children will laugh. Hell will be
forever for rent.
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He had expected that the act would have reduced crime and a number of other social problems. Sunday's expectations of Prohibition were never realised. America had experienced a gradual decline in the rate of serious crimes over much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. That trend was unintentionally reversed by the efforts of the Prohibition movement. Crime rates began to increase dramatically. In the cities, the police districts were in need of enforcement. Many people were being arrested, especially for breaking Prohibition Laws, however, the authorities were not strong enough to stop the new crime wave. More crimes were committed because prohibition destroyed legal jobs, created black-market violence, diverted resources from enforcement of other laws, and greatly increased the prices people had to pay for the prohibited goods. Instead of emptying the prisons as its supporters had hoped it would, Prohibition quickly filled the prisons to capacity. Not only did the number of serious crimes increase, but crime became more organised. Gangsters had already been organised, but just to a lower extent around saloons. During the 1920s, gangsters established themselves around a steady source of income provided by laws against crimes such as consuming alcohol, gambling, and prostitution. In the process of providing goods and services, those criminal organisations resorted to real crimes in defence of sales territories, brand names, and labour contracts. That is true of extensive crime syndicates (such as the Mafia) as well as street gangs, a criminal element that first surfaced before Prohibition, but was further developed throughout it. One of the most famous gangsters was Al Capone. He became so powerful that he practically controlled the whole of Chicago, having corrupted many politicians as well as police officials. He ordered the murders of many people without ever being found guilty. He was only imprisoned on accusations of tax evasion. Once prohibition was repelled, groups such as these decreased, but they still remained in activity, moving to different illegal fields such as narcotics. In addition to this, the Prohibition movement also lead to the appearance of corruption, even in high ranking places in the American Government. A popular song from 1924 described the situation briefly...
"Bet your bottom dollar you'll lose the blues in Chicago, Chicago: the town that Billy Sundays could not shut down..."
Public corruption became notorious and widespread. Everyone, from major politicians to the cop on the beat, took bribes from bootleggers, moonshiners, crime bosses, and owners of speakeasies. Justice and Law themselves were falling apart.
Naturally, Prohibition had different results on various groups of the American society. It increased the interest of the young generation in alcohol and drinking, since it was seen as something intriguing and exciting to do. The high prices and excellent profits also attracted bar salesmen who tried to earn a living. Many opened their own 'speakeasies', illegal bars which appeared after the Prohibition Act had passed. Recent immigrants, mainly of catholic or orthodox religion, regretted the fact that they could not drink, since in their native countries it was a usual custom. Consuming alcohol was also seen fashionable among the high social classes of the American nation. Even some groups of women, mainly those who lived in the cities, began to oppose Prohibition since they realised that this act was cutting them out of the 'fun', men were having in the illegal saloons. However, Prohibition had a positive effect on the population in the rural South, where the 18th Amendment actually did manage to decrease alcohol consumption, if not completely abolish it. As a matter of fact, in some states the act wasn't even introduced since it was not a problem at all.
On the whole, though, Prohibition, which failed to improve health and virtue in America, can afford some invaluable lessons. Those lessons can be applied to the current crisis in drug prohibition and the problems of drug abuse. In summary, Prohibition, though, did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve and supplanted other ways of addressing problems.