Events
1919
Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition) is ratified
Congress passes Volstead Act
1920
Red Scare
1921
Sacco-Vanzetti trial
Congress passes Emergency Quota Act
1924
Congress passes Immigration Act of 1924
1925
Scopes Monkey Trial
Prohibition
At the same time that the liberalism of the
Jazz Age flourished, so did a movement of social conservatism—perhaps
the most identifiable example of which was Prohibition.
Ratified in 1919,
the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution outlawed
the sale, manufacture, and consumption of alcohol. Reformers had
been trying to pass prohibition laws since the 1830s
and 1840s
but had never before achieved such success. Congress also passed
the Volstead Act, which established the federal Prohibition
Bureau to enforce the amendment. Enforcement of the ban on alcohol proved
difficult as bootleggers continued to produce and sell liquor
illegally, and drinking continued to take place in underground speakeasies.
The Prohibition experiment lasted only fourteen years, as Congress
repealed it by ratifying the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933.
Political Divides and Organized Crime
Although Prohibition did significantly reduce
the national consumption of alcohol, it alienated a huge
portion of Americans—many of them European immigrants—who were accustomed
to drinking regularly. The law also sparked intense debate, as “wet”
politicians (often Democrats) decried the hypocrisy of the “experiment”
while “dry” politicians (generally Republicans) preached the new
law’s moral and social benefits.
Prohibition also brought negative consequences to American society,
such as the birth of organized crime. Big-name gangsters such
as Al Capone illegally produced and distributed alcohol,
bribed local police forces to turn a blind eye to their illegal
activities, and became extremely powerful. Federal agents in the
newly formed Prohibition Bureau, who were grossly understaffed
and overworked, could do little to stop the gangsters’ activities.
New Restrictions on Immigration
Many Americans stood firmly against immigration
during the 1920s.
Although nativist groups such as the Know-Nothings and the American
Protective Association had been around since the 1800s,
Congress had rarely given in to these groups and had done little
to stem the flow of immigrants into the United States. All this
changed in 1921,
however, when Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act in
response to the unceasing wave of new immigrants into the country.
As its name implied, the Emergency Quota Act established
a specific, unalterable number of immigrants from each country who would
be allowed to enter the United States every year. Specifically, each
immigrant’s country of origin could send only 3 percent
of the number of persons from that country who were living in the
United States in 1910;
all other immigrants would be shipped back to the countries from
which they came. Three years later, Congress repealed the Emergency
Quota Act and passed the Immigration Act of 1924,
which changed each foreign country’s annual immigrant quota to 2 percent
of the number of persons from that country who were living in the
United States in 1890.
In general, immigration had been a boon to the rapidly
expanding U.S. economy during the nineteenth century, as immigrants from
Ireland, Germany, and southern Europe had provided invaluable labor
in city factories. The Emergency Quota Act and the Immigration Act
of 1924,
however, effectively slammed the door shut on the bulk of new immigrants.
The effect was enormous and reduced the number of yearly arrivals
by about 500,000 annually—blocking
almost all southern and eastern Europeans. The number of immigrants
from northern and western Europe, on the other hand, remained relatively
steady, between 150,000 and 200,000 per
year. These laws implemented the first severe limitations on immigration after
nearly a century without much restriction.
