Income Tax, Prohibition, and Suffrage

In the late 1800s a movement began to pick up steam for prohibition.  Anti-saloon leagues sprang up, and in small municipalities ordinances were passed banning alcohol.  The movement grew and solidified with a national goal of banning all liquor.  One of the great challenges was that men generally did not want the ban, however women did, so women's voting rights became a key goal of the prohibition movement.  The liquor companies, seeing the troubling developments, decided to fight women's rights believing that prohibition was sure to follow, rather than attacking prohibition outright.  At this time WWI was raging in the world and the beer companies with names like Schlitz, Anheuser-Busch, and Pabst were painted as supporters of the Kaiser in Germany.  In 1919 the 18th amendment passed using the women's vote which was guaranteed in the 17th amendment.  Liquor was no longer legal.

But the passing of prohibition left more lasting effects than women's rights.  One of the most significant effects, which is still questioned by many politicians, is the 16th amendment passed in 1913 establishing income tax.  Prior to that point the Federal Government received 40% of its income from liquor taxes.  Clearly prohibition could not succeed with the government dependent on this source of revenue.  The solution was income tax and with the passing of the new law, the revenue issue was settled.  However, prohibition did not work as well as many expected.

Speakeasy's sprung up spreading illegal liquor.  Organized crime grew and the benefits expected from the ban did not materialize.  Exceptions to the law, which allowed for those who had liquor to keep what they had, or for medicinal and sacramental purposes, bypassed the law.  One woman actually purchased a liquor store before the amendment passed so that she would have an ample supply on hand in her basement.  In 1933 the 21st amendment repealed the 18th, making liquor legal again.  Women's voting rights and income tax survive to this day.

-Professor Walter

Comments

[Walter Parenteau]

It is true that the 18th amendment prohibited alcohol, but the women's suffrage amendment is not the 17th amendment, but the 19th. Prohibition came first.