Repeal The 18th Amendment Essay

Throughout its history, the United States of America has undergone many social experiments. Many of them have worked brilliantly, and transformed our country into the world power it is today. Others, however, have failed so spectacularly, we today wonder: “What were we thinking?” Not the least of these was prohibition, America’s botched attempt to ban alcohol. Created in 1919, the 18th Amendment made it illegal to manufacture, transport, possess, or sell alcoholic beverages (hook), and the later Volstead act helped to strengthen the ideals behind the amendment. Despite all this support, the Amendment was repealed 14 years later. The amendment was supposed to make America completely dry, and improve society in innumerous ways. The question is then, why did America change its mind? Prohibition was repealed for three main reasons: it increased crime, it was difficult to enforce, and the struggling economy would be helped by getting rid of it. While the Amendment did help America in many ways, it brought with it gangs, racketeering, and bootleggers. Cartoonists of the day were quick to point this out. One …show more content…
After a while, people began to realize that if alcohol was sold legally, it could be taxed. Leslie Gordon, a writer for a Cleveland newspaper, estimated that if all the illegal liquor was rebottled, sold legally, and taxed, it would pay off the entire national debt, and leave an excess of $200,000,000 for urgently needed purposes (Doc E). By repealing the amendment, the economy received a much-needed boost of income, which helped to lessen the effects of the Great Depression, which had began a few years earlier. Some might even suggest that prohibition caused the depression, or at least worsened its effects (Doc A). No matter which way you look at it, ending prohibition was a necessary step to healing America’s failing economic