Prohibition In The 1920's Brewing Industry

Prohibition started in 1920 where they banned the use of alcohol. Congress submitted the eighteenth Amendment, which banned the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors, for state ratification. Then soon after that Amendment was passed. The government had a hard time trying to enforce this law. Their was a thirty percent drop in alcohol consumption, but those who wanted to drink would find a way to do so. People stated to bootleg the alcohol to make money. Al Capone, earned sixty million dollars annually from his bootlegging operations. Prohibition nearly ruined the country's brewing industry, but some companies survived the prohibitions by selling other products. There was around twenty-two brewers in st. louis and only

The low class could not afford to get the alcohol, the middle class could barely afford it, and the higher class could mostly get it when they wanted it. It cost so much, because black market suppliers face legal punishments for manufacturing, distributing, and selling the products. The prohibitions reduced its demand by creating legal penalties for possession and by increasing uncertainty about product quality. It also reduce demand if consumers show respect for the law. Before the prohibition most people would drink alcohol. After prohibition started it went down around thirty percent. Then years later it went back up around sixty percent. The government started to think about changing this law. They made a new Amendment, The twenty-first Amendment. This Amendment was made to undo the eighteenth Amendment. In 1933 the repeal got passed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, after he won the presidential election against Herbert Hoover. .Alcohol was no longer illegal to sell or use. After prohibition had ended each state had to come up with a way to deal with alcohol consumption. Some states made the drinking age eighteen years old, and some states made the drinking age twenty-one years old. Until 1928, when the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was