why did prohibition come into effect in the US in the first place?

Answer 1

Prohibition also referred to that part of the Temperance movement which wanted to make alcohol illegal. These groups brought about much change even prior to national prohibition. By 1905, three American states had already outlawed alcohol; by 1912, it was up to nine states; and, by 1916, legal prohibition was already in effect in 26 of the 48 states.

Even though the sale of alcohol was illegal, alcoholic drinks were still widely available at "speakeasies" and other underground drinking establishments. Speakeasies gained their name from the fact that a patron had to "speak easy" and convince the doorman to let them in. His job was to keep out those who looked like they were "dry" agents. Agents had no forced-entry rights at all, and so could not break into an establishment if the doorman refused them entry. Many people also kept private bars to serve their guests. Large quantities of alcohol were smuggled in from Canada, overland and via the Great Lakes, and from the French islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Additional alcohol was delivered from Rum Row off the US East Coast.

Answer 2

I believe that it was because American men were spending to much time and money on alcohol to care about anything else, whether it be work or family. When women were given the right to vote they rightfully wanted to ban it.

Did you know that President Harding kept the White House well stocked with bootleg liquor, though, as a Senator, he had voted for Prohibition? Talk about mixed signals.

Answer 3

the temperance movement was very strong at the time.
there was also the perceived link between drink and crime (just like drugs now!).
there was also the wish to control the private lives of the "lower" classes. their main purpose in life was to be good employees and to turn up to work on time, and serve the tenets of capitalism.

like all stupid acts, prohibition actually exacerbated the "evils" it was meant to stop.

crime increased, al capone made a fortune, ordinary people manufactured their own liquor, smuggling over the borders went haywire, and alcohol related deaths soared.

Answer 4

An activist group, a right wing christian minority decided that alcohol was the tool of the devil, they lobbied and got the constitution amended so that manufacturing (on a large scale) and selling alcohol became illegal.

Fundamentalist wackos who think they ought to be able to dictate how others live their lives, nothing new, we'll probably never be rid of them as long as religion exists.

Answer 5

Prohibition of alcohol provided the opportunity for the mafia to rise to power in the US

Answer 6

Prohibitionists were fervently anti-alcohol--they believed it was the instrument of the devil, and people such as Carrie Nation would actually go into bars and chop them up with her hatchet. They got enough politicians elected who agreed with them to introduce the 18th Amendment, and somehow they got it through
the entire process.

Answer 7

the government wanted to tax the sales of liquor, and they had to issue the license to legimitate businesses, but first they had to put prohibition into efffect in order to clear the ground for fair play.

Answer 8

The woman's movement in the beginning of the 1900's.

Answer 9

Apart from the fact that all governments like to draw taxes,there was obviously a problem with binge drinking.

Answer 10

It was a last ditch effort of Evangelicals to impose there views on hard-drinking Catholics. It didn't work.