The eighteenth amendment says after one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject of jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
The eighteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States was proposed to the Senate in 1917, it was passed by a one-sided vote after only thirteen hours of debate. When the House of Representatives accepted it a few months later, the debate upon the amendment as a whole, occupied only a single day. .
The state legislatures ratified first by Mississippi, January 8, 1918, and by Oklahoma on January 7, 1919. The final state to ratify this amendment was New Jersey on March 9, 1922. the amendment was rejected and not subsequently ratified by Rhode Island.
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The hip flask, filled with bootleg whiskey and displayed openly, soon became a familiar symbol of the era. Every community of any size had there "speakeasies," where both imported and homemade alcohol, sometimes poisonous, could be purchased.
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The prohibition act was called the noble experiment by Herbert Hoover, had come at last. The nation, much of which was dry already, had decided to eliminate the saloon, once and for all. As early as 1916, a total of 23 out of 48 states had already passed anti-saloon laws.
The movement, mainly supported by the Women's Christian Temperance Union or WCTU, was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, improve health, lover the divorce rate, reduce the risk of child abuse, solve social problems, and reduce the tax burden created by the prisons and poorhouses.
The "speakeasies" did a booming business. Keeping them supplied was the occupation for many thousands of rumrunners, bootleggers, and beer barons, who were forced to work beyond the law. All to often, rivalries and differences of opinion resulted in open warfare and gangland murders.