Why was Prohibition introduced in the US in 1919

Prohibition, the ban of alcohol was introduced by the 18th amendment in 1919 in the US due to the work of organisations which used many convincing methods. This included the use of propaganda, sensitive, moral and religious arguments, and some that arose due to the influence of the First World War. Firstly, Prohibition was introduced due to campaigns run by organisations. For example, The WCTU spread the idea of prohibition through churches by using arguments such as temperance.

Most of the community was Christian; the WCTU used this to their advantage and used preachers in churches, this was a wide audience.This was effective as Protestants believed in temperance and this persuaded many people as religion was very important in their lives. Furthermore, the WCTU also campaigned for women's suffrage and anti-prostitution, thus many women supported them. Additionally, WCTU campaigned in schools to persuade children that alcohol was bad. This was successful as children were easy to persuade and they were the future generation thus they would not support alcohol.

This meant that Prohibition gained a wider audience and led to more 'dries'.As a result Prohibition was introduced due to organisations such as the WCTU, who used other methods as well as temperance. Furthermore, Prohibition was introduced due to the ASL's propaganda. They printed lots of propaganda, portraying alcohol to be the root of all evil. They used posters to which used religious and political views of alcohol, meaning that many people started to support prohibition as they were influenced by the sensitive subjects they used.

They received a lot of money from businesses thus they were able to print lots of expensive propaganda. John.D Rockefeller donated lots of money as he believed that Prohibition would stop workers coming to work in a drunken state and this would ultimately improve efficiency and profit. This meant that the ASL was able to buy printing presses for mass production of propaganda.

Moreover, politicians helped them as they thought they would lose votes if they voted against Prohibition. This signifies how weak the opposition was. Prohibition parties had hardly anyone to fight against, meaning that there campaigns were fast and effective. This concept of political endorsement raised awareness of their organisation.

Consequently, the propaganda and the generous donations by business men furthered the support for Prohibition. Additionally, Prohibition was introduced due to the strong arguments by campaigners. Many organisations questioned the morality of alcohol; they influenced people that alcohol was the cause of moral problems such as crime and sexual assaults which furthered the idea of alcohol being the root of all evil. Furthermore, they used medical facts which helped as people didn't want to take risks with alcohol as it caused heart and liver failure.In addition, campaigners accused alcohol of creating tension between families as 'wet' fathers were proclaimed to be spending lots of money in saloons and not on necessities like food for their families.

These social arguments were effective as women didn't want this to happen to their families. This concept was used a lot by the ASL's propaganda which links to the previous reason. This was known as the 'exploitation' of the saloons as they were considered to be wicked places which took food from children's mouths.As a consequence, Prohibition was introduced as the arguments made were successful in convincing people that alcohol was very bad.

Finally, Prohibition was introduced as America entered WWI in 1917. Many organisations used this to their advantage as stronger arguments with more potential came which helped gain support. The WCTU, The Prohibition Party and the ASL protested that brewing beer used 11 million loaves of barley a day which could be used to feed soldiers in the war, people were shocked and saw how much making alcohol wasted.Also, they claimed that soldiers couldn't fire straight under the influence of alcohol and this jeopardised the success of the US in the war. Furthermore, they also questioned the patriotism of America as they claimed some of the beer brewers were German, the enemy in the war, so this was considered 'un-patriotic'. This was seen a as a national duty, not to drink alcohol.

All of these arguments were used in propaganda which meant that it had a wide audience. WWI acted as a catalyst as it bought new arguments to help Prohibition spread across the country.As a result Prohibition was introduced soon after the US entered the war. Overall Prohibition was introduced in the US in 1919 because of what organisations did.

They used many methods to persuade people, and they were successful due to the business and political endorsements they gained which helped them fund sensitive and religious propaganda. Furthermore, medical, social and moral arguments helped them attack the society with their views on alcohol and WWI helped strengthen these arguments.. Consequently, Prohibition was introduced.