Is Prohibition A Success Or A Failure Essay

The section I have chosen to look at is the debate over prohibition. Prohibition can be looked at as either a failure or a success. In J.C. Burnham’s eyes prohibition was a success. I believe J.C. Burnham made a better argument because not only did he mention the negative side of prohibition, but he also came back with a better reason as to why the “experiment” on prohibition was successful. He mentions that the amendment permitted those who had enough money, the upper class, who were able to drink as much alcohol as they wanted but those who worked all the time couldn’t do the same. Judges and prosecutors saw that trying to enforce prohibition was impossible. Even Harding and Coolidge were not big fans on enforcing prohibition. In the early …show more content…
At the beginning Burnham mentions all the negatives of why the critics believe prohibition was a failure but then he goes into why it isn’t what they say it was. Burnham looks more into detail than just a man with money that is able to drink. In the early years of prohibition the use of alcohol decrease. Part of the reason prohibition in his eye is looked at as a success is found right in the mental hospitals. Looking at the admission rates for “alcoholic psychoses” in New York hospitals in 1920 was 1.9 percent compared to ten percent in 1909-1912. Anti- Saloon League succeeded by ending old-fashion saloon the whole propose of their campaign. On one of Burnham’s last point he writes that journalists say “everyone” still drink alcohol but everyone didn’t include working-class families. Many of the working-class families actually drank less than before than prohibition predicted. Prohibition also “improved conditions among low-income Americans” (pg. 233). The reason this section had me is because the whole reason for prohibition was to cut down drinking for those who were workers which it did even on its last years of being