Prohibition Movement – 1920 Essay, Research Paper

During World War I, men were encouraged to serve the military and women took over the job that was left behind by these men. The economy was limited during wartime. As a result, the clothing designs and styles were made to fit the economy. Which meant less needs for new clothes; restriction on the use of wools and dyes were in short supply. The influence of the military style clothing came in effect and appealed to women who served war work. Such as: cut of jackets and coats, trench coats, trousers and sweaters. However, women who worked in public still wore skirts but hold drastic difference compare to the dresses wore during the previous decades. ?There were no time for mincing steps in restricting ?hobble skirts?! (Laubner 8) Since women were earning considerable payment for their wartime work, skirts became shorter and wider to suit their working life styles that enable them easier movements.

Another great influence on the 1920?s fashions, trends, and life styles were the law of prohibition. In 1869, a prohibition party was organized. The party was joined by the Women?s Christian Temperance Union, the Anti-Saloon League over the years. The temperance movement had succeeded in prohibiting alcohol sales in seven states, by the end of the 19th century. The prohibition movement made great strides during the two decades of the 1900s. Twenty-seven states were dry by the year 1917.

On January 16, 1919, the 18th amendment was ratified. Meaning: the manufacture, sell, or transport of alcoholic beverages in the U.S. illegal. The elimination of alcohol was thought to be the answer to social instability and moral decline. It was believed that alcohol were responsible for poverty, diseases, crimes and drunk workers and soldiers.

Despite the ratification of the eighteen amendment, many Americans did not intend to give up the drinking alcoholic beverages. Millions of Americans became lawbreakers since they can see nothing criminal about the enjoying a glass of wine, beer, or hard liquor. Trade became a source of wealth, there were an increase willingness to break the law. ?Booze? became our national plague. Making the matter worst, people learned to make their own whiskey, wine, and beer. . It was impossible to enforce the law and mobsters soon began ?rum running.? Many people distilled their own ?hooch? in home stills or bathtubs, thus the expression ?bathtub gin.? (Laubner 9) Speakeasies were introduced; a place where liquor are readily available. Americans during the 1920s proved themselves failures to the tolerance test, they were unable to enforce the law of prohibition.

The challenge of getting around carrying alcohol appealed to many people. People sought ways to conceal the alcohol without getting arrested by their clothing and accessories. Women were able to keep flask in her garter. ?People also hid the stuff in the false books and coconut shells, in hot-water bottles strung from their necks and hidden under their clothing and in garden hose wrapped around their waists, in prams with babies perched on top and in carpenter?s aprons with big fat pockets. One man was caught hustling over the international Bridge at Buffalo carrying two boxes of eggs, everyone which had been drained and refilled with liquor? (Time Life 113)

Yet, Prohibition did outcome some success. Records reveal that alcohol consumption did initially drop after the onset of National Prohibition and the Volstead Act. However, this decrease on a national level was not very significant compared to the effect of previous temperance measures in specific communities. In addition, after this initial drop alcohol consumption continued to rise steadily throughout Prohibition to the point where it thought consumption would actually go above the statistical level before prohibition. The same was true of alcohol related diseases?while it was declining, alcoholism and alcohol-related illness climbed to new heights, all while Prohibition was still in effect (Thornton 70?71). Thus, in the end, the initial success of Prohibition soon reversed.