U.S. Toasts 75th Anniversary Of the End of Prohibition

It was just 75 years ago that the United States ended Prohibition, a period during which alcohol was strictly forbidden in the entire country, but when underground bars flourished and organized crime soared.

In 1920, a constitutional amendment initiated by conservatives brandishing arguments of morality and public health banned the production, sale, transport, import, and export of alcoholic beverages. In 1933, for economic reasons, the ban was lifted.

75 years later, Washington D.C. bars will be allowed to serve alcohol until five o’clock a.m. – but only from January 17-20, on the occasion of President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Normally, bars in the American capital close at two o’clock a.m. during the week and three o’clock a.m. on weekends.

The movement in favor of banning alcohol asserted itself right after World War I, recalled economist Mark Thornton, of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Alabama (south).

“Revenue taxes were established in 1913 and once the war ended and revenues increased, the alcoholic beverage sector lost the argument that it represented a large source of revenues for the federal government,” he explained.

In 1920, the United States threw itself into what came to be called the “Noble Experiment.” Some consider it to have been positive, at least in part.

“For a long time after the end of Prohibition, the level of alcoholic consumption remained low,” emphasized historian Amy Mittelman, the author of a book on beer.

“If the goal of Prohibition was to curb alcohol consumption or limit its abuse, then it did in fact succeed to some extent.”

But, she underscored, “in big cities such as New York, Washington, Chicago, or San Francisco, it was never accepted and it tended to promote lawlessness and anarchy.”

Defenders of Prohibition maintained that it would “strengthen democracy and improve the political process, reduce crime and corruption, improve health, and lower addiction,” noted Mark Thornton.

But the number of criminal acts, especially violent ones, doubled during the 13 years of Prohibition. “Corruption was encouraged and became commonplace,” at both the local and federal levels, related Mr. Thornton.

“Organized crime came on the scene. It was not at all common at the beginning of the 20th century, but with Prohibition it became rampant in large American cities,” with legendary gangsters such as Al Capone.

Violent gangs appeared, making a living by producing bootleg alcohol and selling it illicitly, often in secret bars – “speakeasies.”

But it was for other reasons that Prohibition ended in 1933. Four years after the crisis of 1929 “the states, the federal government, and the local communities were all short of resources, so people rebelled against taxes throughout the entire country,” explained Mark Thornton.

On December 5, 1933, when the 21st Amendment abolished Prohibition, each federated state could once again implement its own rules with regard to alcohol, and taxes from alcoholic beverages again began to fill public coffers.

Today, some states are stricter than others, such as Alabama. “The state itself sells whiskey, and regulations on beer eliminate the majority of the best European brands,” observed Mark Thornton.

Moreover, he recalled, that was the principal concern of the 40 Mercedes-Benz executives who arrived in the 1990’s to establish a German automobile manufacturing plant there.