Why the Prohibition was a Successful Failure

Before we can discuss the impact and importance of the time period known as the prohibition, we first must be clear upon the meaning of the word prohibition and what it stands for as an idea. The word prohibition, according to the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, means “ 1: the act of prohibiting by authority 2: an order to restrain or stop 3 often cap: the forbidding by law of the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic liquors except for medicinal and sacramental purposes.” 

Prohibition as an idea or more accurately a title was the time period between 1920 and 1933 when alcoholic beverages were illegal to own sell or transport in the United States. 

Now that we know the what of the prohibition the next question is why? Why was there a prohibition in America at all? Prohibition was not just thought up one night by a group of politicians trying to irritate the general public. The idea of prohibition was around well before the actual fact of it. The greatest supporters of the idea of the prohibition were members of the anti – saloon league, an organization started in 1893 in Orberlin, Ohio. The sole purpose of this organization was to destroy saloons, which they believed were the “cause of all crime, immorality, and filth in the American Culture.” 

Many religions and religious leaders were heavy supporters of the prohibition also believing that saloons and alcohol were the cause of all evil in America. Educators also want prohibition because they felt, “Once drink businesses became illegal an educational campaign would start up.” Educators also thought that in about thirty years the nation would be sober and ready for real education. The real reason was probably more basic in that the government wanted to “flex its mighty arm.” So using the religious and educational shields provided the government passed the Prohibition Act “in an attempt to return America to its former state of innocence.”