Prohibition: Political Action

These temperance organizations continued their fight into the early twentieth century, patiently building up political and financial support. The business leaders Sebastian Kresge and John D. Rockefeller provided funding, which enabled temperance activists to finance campaigns and educational programs. In 1913 the Anti-Saloon League marched on Washington, D.C., delivering to Congress the draft of a constitutional amendment banning alcohol. That draft soon became the 1914 Hobson-Sheppard bill, which was defeated in the Senate. Responding to that defeat with even greater political funding, temperance leaders gained ground by pushing hard for their “dry” candidates in 1916. Americans quickly became vehemently anti-German with the start of World War I, and temperance supporters turned that anger against large breweries owned by German American families. Also arguing that grain supplies should go to the war effort rather than for alcohol production, they equated sobriety with patriotism. Sensing increasing popular support for the prohibition of spirits, Congress in 1917 passed the Eighteenth Amendment, which was ratified thirteen months later. Next, they passed the National Prohibition Act, commonly called the Volstead Act, which defined the amendment’s parameters and enforcement measures. Prohibition became law on 29 January 1920, criminalizing the manufacture, sale, importation, or distribution of alcohol in the United States.