Prohibition: Why Did America Change Its Mind?

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Why Did America Change Its Mind? Out of all 27 Amendments of the Constitution, only one has been repealed; that would be the 18th Amendment, Prohibition. From 1920 to 1933 the manufacture, transport, and sell of alcoholic beverages in the United States was illegal. The Amendment passed in 1919 and went into effect during 1920, only to be repealed 14 years later. What made America change its mind about Prohibition? There are three main reasons America repealed the 18th Amendment; these include increase in crime, weak enforcement and lack of respect for the law, and economic opportunities. The first issue in America was drastic increase in crime due to Prohibition. A popular cartoonist during the 1930s, Winsor McCay created an illustration …show more content…

There were only 3,000 to 3,500 federal Prohibition agents, less than 1,500 on the field. This simply is not enough to patrol the thousands of miles of border, it is impossible (Doc C). To add to that, many people continued manufacturing alcohol. For example in document C, there was a house adjacent to a police station that was manufacturing moonshine. The weak enforcement of the law caused the people to lose respect for the law. Another factor that made people lose respect for the law was that there was a double standard. Bootleggers are being sent to jail for selling alcohol and yet Senators and Congressmen were violating the law without any consequences. This is very upsetting and an obvious reason the people of the time did not respect the law. The final reason America changed its mind about the Prohibition was because repealing the Amendment would create economic opportunities. If the liquor that was being sold by bootleggers was legally sold it could be taxed. The tax income could pay the interest on the entire local and national debt, and the US would be able to save the rest of the money (Doc E). Since at the time the US was in a depression, the money was in dire need. Repealing Prohibition seemed like the best solution to help the people and the

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