Brett John
Mr. L. Hawkes w Hour
12/11/12
Prohibition

The Prohibition was a period in time in our country that the government decided to band all kinds of alcohol for consumption by any American citizen. But, like all other bands the were always rebels. The reason these people rebelled was either to show the government that they couldn’t tell them what to do, to make money, or simply because they were addicted to it and couldn’t stop even if it was against the law. The reason that I decided to write about this subject is because I have grown up my whole life hearing stories about it. In all these stories though I only heard the peoples side of the story and not the government so I have always wanted to know what there take on the whole situation is and was. The other reason is because I grew up hearing and knowing alcohol was bad but had never seen the bad side of it. I only have ever seen it as something social and something to use to relax yourself sop in my min it rally isn’t bad at all. With that said I think I would have to be on the rebels side on this specific subject. I may change my mind after researching it. Now to start with the details of Prohibition. It started in 1920 and was in action until 1933. The reason because the united states had became full of acoholist and this was a rising issue so the proposed the eighth amendment and with 36 states in favor put the prohibition into action. Proponents of the so called "noble experiment" claimed that the nation's health would improve dramatically without alcohol, and that crime would drop. It was also claimed that other industries, like dairy, would prosper as other types of beverages increased in popularity to fill the void left by the absence of alcohol. Juvenile delinquency was also supposed to be virtually eliminated, and the average workers productivity was also supposed to increase, leading to an increase in economic prosperity for the nation. (http://www.historicpatterson.org/Exhibits/ExhProhibition.php) The reasoning for the Prohibition? Here are a few of them, Medical, Economical, Political, and Social. Let me explain all of them to you. First, according to (http://library.thinkquest.org/28892/prohibition/why/) Medical, By that time people were started to realize that alcohol damaged our health and could affect our lives. Many American men suffered from Sclerosis, which is caused by alcohol and lung cancer from smoking cigarettes. Those people suffered badly and eventually died. Because of this, many children fought their lives without their fathers, which led to families’ financial problems. I could understand why this was and is one of the main reasons for the Prohibition. Second, according to (http://library.thinkquest.org/28892/prohibition/why/) Economical, Many laborers got drunk and so they could not perform the job properly. The absence from work each week was very high, therefore the company was less efficient. The company could not afford to produce the same products in the time that they should and the industrialists were not satisfied.
Other people also insisted that buying beer meant that the money flew away to Germany because all of the brewers were actually located in Germany. The solution that people came up was instead of helping Germany with her economy that was to spend the large amount of money on some other necessaries. The last two are not quite as big but also effect the reasoning for putting the Prohibition into place. They where Political and Social, also according to (http://library.thinkquest.org/28892/prohibition/why/). Social; The last point of all, which we have agreed on the most important, was that the husbands were spending their family’s saving stupidly on alcohol instead of essential items, e.g. Education. That problem led to family arguments, which eventually led to divorce. The problem pressurized women the most, therefore they set up the anti-saloon groups. Political; Many votes were won in rural areas