Social and Economic Effects of Prohibition

Report Outline
American Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages
Prohibition and the Wage Earner
Prohibition and Industrial Production
Prohibition and Increased Consumption
Prohibition and the Public Health
Prohibition and Public Conduct
Special Focus

The Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead act went into force January 16, 1920. The war-time prohibition law, equivalent in effect to the prohibition amendment, went into force July 1, 1919. The country now has lived ten years, lacking eight months, under legal prohibition.

In the present presidential campaign, prohibition has been made a national political issue for the first time in the history of the country - either before or since the adoption of the prohibition amendment. The results of the forthcoming election, notwithstanding the complications introduced by other issues, will be regarded in many quarters as giving the verdict of the people, after nearly a decade of experience, upon the national policy toward the liquor traffic which went into force at the close of the war period.

The positions of the presidential candidates of the dominant parties on the prohibition issue were formulated with great care and have not been changed in any material respect during the course of the campaign. Mr. Hoover's position was first set out in a letter to Senator Borah during the course of the Republican pre-convention campaign.