Patriotism and the Push for Prohibition
Both sides of the debate used references to patriotism to argue for or against Prohibition. Anti-immigrant feelings ran high in the early 20th century, and World War 1 caused many negative feelings towards Germany and German-Americans specifically. The Drys took advantage of this to claim that supporting German breweries and saloons was unpatriotic. |
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Prohibition Passes
Amid the strong anti-German feelings of WWI, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution easily passed through Congress by a vote of 282 to 128 in December, 1917. The
“Prohibition Amendment” didn’t ban the consumption of alcohol or its private
manufacture, but alcohol couldn’t be manufactured by businesses and couldn’t be sold, imported, exported, or transported. For the amendment to become
part of the Constitution, 75% of the states had to approve it. On January 14, 1919, Nebraska became the 36th state to ratify the amendment. In October, Congress passed the
Volstead Act (also known as the National Prohibition Act), which gave detail to
the 18th amendment and explained how it would be enforced. (See "What Did Prohibition Prohibit?") Prohibition officially took effect on January 17, 1920. But the debate continued…
"Prohibition is here to stay. A large majority of our people were committed to the policy before the constitutional amendment was adopted. They had tried it out; with them it was no experiment. In most of the dry states prohibition came without the vote of the women; since then they have been given the ballot; they have always been the foe of the saloon, they suffered the most from it, and they will never consent that it be restored."
--Andrew Volstead, 1922
--Andrew Volstead, 1922
"Prohibition should be dealt with locally, and not in violation of the fundamental principles of home rule under which our country has grown to greatness....We are now working for the repeal of the tyrannical Volstead Act, and for common fairness and a decent regard for personal liberty in any legislation that takes its place."
--Membership Application, The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, 1921
--Membership Application, The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, 1921