The Eighteenth Amendment Research Paper

Introduction

The United States common tradition did not rule out the use or acquisition of any alcoholic drink. However, the Eighteenth Amendment proscribed the shipping, rummage sale, and production of alcohol. The devoted faction strived to support the control of alcohol purchase and consumption based on several reasons. In fact, the group discerned the direct association amid the inconsiderate social conducts and alcohol.

The faction believed that domestic violence and child abuse transpired from the uncontrolled alcohol consumption. According to Shay (2004), the pessimistic crash on the US labor output resulted from hysterical alcoholism (p.67). The dilemma of alcoholism was thus tossed into an act following the emotion of Anti-German. This occurred during the Second World War. This paper describes and analyzes the account of the eighteenth amendment.

Main Body

The asylum seekers from Germany alias alien enemies controlled most of the United States breweries. The feeling of the Anti-German was not to manufacture alcohol but to feed the military using fashioned grain. Conversely, some other groups such as the NPR (National Prohibition Reforms) and AAPA (Association against the Prohibition Amendment) battled the growth of this project.

At the onset of the fiscal 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment got ratification from the Congress in spite of the attempts of anti-Prohibition factions. The prohibition of transporting, importing, exporting, selling, and manufacturing alcoholic drinks came into effect in the year 1920. The Amendment augmented when nearly twenty nations (65%) countrywide had banished alcohol.

The already stored wine cellar had to bother less since the Amendment had put a stop to the crouch of individual exploitation and ownership of alcohol. Therefore, the US central government grabbed the aptitude to enforce the ban through the Act of National Prohibition. The vital Amendment delineated the extent of intoxicating alcohol, usage exceptions, and penalties against the violation of law. The officially authorized and utmost value of alcohol in any drink was 0.50% percent (Shay 61).

Ratification of the 18^th Amendment

The achievement of the Eighteenth Amendment approval occurred in early January of the fiscal 1919. The ratification cropped up after three hundred and ninety four days in over three quarters of the US nations. Ten days prior to the ratification, a formal certification by the stand-in Secretary of State ensued.

Besides, there was a time limit for the ratification following the necessitated number of states by the 18^th Amendment. The Amendment could not come into effect provided few nations had ratified the Act in a period of seven years. Historically, there was a challenge on the legality of the Act with the inclusion of time bounds in the proposed constitutional amendment for the first time. In the mid 1921, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the constitutionality of the Eighteenth Amendment (Wheeler 91).

The 18^th Amendment had three sections with the first and second sections proving to be the relevant part for the implementation and proscription of alcohol. The first section prohibited the exportation, importation, transportation, and production of alcohol for drinking purpose in the US or any territory under jurisdiction.

In order to enforce the Amendment through suitable legislation, the second section provided for the states and Congress to possess powers that concurred. In the last section, the editorial provided that if the parliament endorsed the revision in seven years founded on the legal requirements form, the submission date by the senate would make it out of order. Thus far, the specificity of the amendment and its enforcement did not come clear in the statements of this article (Blocker 1237).

The enabling legislation (1919 Act of National Prohibition) provided a resolution to the itching issues of alcoholism. According to Wheeler (1919), the Act was famous as Volstead Andrew who sponsored the legislation and chaired the committee on Senate Judiciary (p.45). Besides, the Congress superseded the President’s veto after he alluded to the constitutional and moral objections in October 1919.

The official entitlement of the Volstead Act strived to endorse scientific research and indemnify abundant supply and usage of alcohol in industries, drying, and energy growth. The Act aspired to control the sale and usage of high proof alcohol, production, and manufacture of spirits. The Amendment commonly aimed at forbidding the intoxicating drinks. Even though the 18^th Amendment seemed short, its implementation was not easy as it was confusing and intricate in interpretation.

The effects of 18^th Amendment

The implementation of the Amendment under certain exemptions existed as unlawful. In fact, particular illegitimate alcohol production industry substituted the legal businesses. Violence and murder engulfed between criminal gangs, organized criminals, and minor marketplace operators in rivalry over market rheostat. The consumers succumbed to painful fatalities, sightlessness, and paralysis given the haphazardly prepared bootleg drinks that contained creosote.

In effect, the Prohibition made consumers to switch to unsafe stuffs like liquid heat, hair tonic, cocaine, and opium that had adverse effects on their lives. Similarly, the prohibition led to dishonesty as bootleggers and moonshiners paid off the custodians of Prohibition Bureau, sheriffs, and police in order to carry out shoddy business (Blocker 1237). The spread of corruption in most cities and towns generally facilitated disrespect for the rule of law. Further, assassination and hostility transpired given the failure to use bribes.

On the other hand, the Amendment forced individuals to gulp alcohol given the obnoxious, intense, and infrequent consumption. The proscription saddled the taxpayer and depressed the returns generated by the government due to elevated confinement, courtyard, and decree enforcement operating costs.

The involvement of prohibition touched almost 70% of the entire expenses of national government. Taft asserted that the disenchantment came with Prohibition over a period of five years (p. 55). Actually, he wrote that reverence for the law had shrunk instead of intensifying and the government expenditure was higher. Moreover, journalist engraved that there was no condensed amount of mental illness, transgression, and drunkenness in the entire nation given that they were even more.

The Repeal of 18^th Amendment

The United States continually suffered from the bottlenecks of the Eighteenth Amendment with threats evident in welfare, financial system, ethics, security, and health sector. The prohibitionists emphasized on the possibilities of repealing the Amendment despite its ratification. Over the years, the tribulation of Prohibition augmented to increase antagonism from the populace. A call for the Repeal of this article ultimately came from the diverse supporters of the Act.

Interestingly, a longevity abstainer called Rockefeller John felt the effect and consequences of the prohibition and supported the Repeal of this Amendment (Taft 61). The WTCU (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) was essential in national Prohibition since they coveted to guard kids, women, and families from the cruel consequences of alcoholism. Women supported the Repeal owing to the fact that Prohibition did not meet their endeavors.

The command for Repeal from numerous organizations increased attributable to the discontent and disenchantment in the US. These associations encompassed VCL (Voluntary Committee of Lawyers), WMU (Women’s Modernization Union), URC (United Repeal Union), and AAPA (Association against the Prohibition Amendment). Nevertheless, specific organizations that supported the Prohibition were against the upsurge of Repeal.

These included, the Temperance Strategy Board, World League against Alcoholism, and Methodist Board of Temperance. The plank of anti-Prohibition along with the year 1932 election guaranteed by President Roosevelt of the Democratic Party came from such prohibitions (Barry 72). Merely a solitary US nation opposed the Repeal while the citizens casted off the Prohibition by seventy four percent of the ballots in favor of Repeal against the opposing twenty six percent.

In the year 1933, Repeal of the 18^th Amendment occurred in December with the 21^st Amendment. The Congress Act in the late 1935 saw the Repeal of the first and second sections of the Volstead Act. Separate Repeal of the laws of federal Prohibition took place in different provinces and localities.

The Volstead Act reprieved the influential funding of the Congress by the 18^th Amendment. As such, the Act turned out to be unenforceable and illogical according to the Supreme Court in the US. In general, discharge emerged from the infringement of the Volstead Act pending the verdict of certainty before the Repeal date (Barry 54).

Conclusion

After the Second World War, the temperance progress (neo-Prohibition) was latent and surfaced with fresh and customized ideologies as well as characteristics. Indeed, over the last quarter of the 20^th century the consumption of spirits, wines and beer has radically begged off.

The supposition that people are not trustworthy when making suitable choices in their lives cuts across the rehabilitated progress. The government is likely to employ legislations that impose restrictions on the liberty of an individual to safeguard the public or citizens from their ingestion actions. Instead of ascertaining strict legal prohibition, the administration ought to exercise tactics such as marginalizing the alcohol consumers and making liquor less communally allowable. This is what the eighteenth amendment is intended to do.

Works Cited

Barry, James. The Noble Experiment, 1919-1933: The Eighteenth Amendment Prohibits Liquor in America, New York, Florida: Watts Press, 1972. Print.

Blocker, Jack. “Shaping the Eighteenth Amendment.” Journal of American History, 82.3(1995): 1235-37.

Shay, Gene. Amendment 18, Prohibition: Amendment 21, Repeal of Prohibition, Lawrenceville, NJ: Cambridge Educational, 2004. Print.

Taft, William. The 18th Amendment, Detroit, MI: Henry Joy Press, 1930. Print.

Wheeler, Wayne. The Eighteenth Amendment, Chicago, IL: National Conference of Social Work, 1919. Print.