Association Against the Prohibition Amendment

The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment was established in 1918 by Naval Captain William H. Stayton in an unsuccessful effort to prevent the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which established National Prohibition (1920-1933). However, its grew dramatically in membership after Prohibition was implemented and its unintended effects became obvious.

The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment was a non-partisan, non-sectarian organization open to anyone who had not been in the alcohol business. Membership dues were set at one dollar per year (not a small amount at the time) but membership rose very quickly. There were reportedly 100,000 members in 1921, 457,000 in 1922 and 726,000 in mid-1926. An early gift of $10,000 from John Roebling assured that finances would not be a problem. Indeed, it reportedly raised $800,000 between 1921-1926.

Leadership roles in the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment tended to be held by those of wealth and power. They included an ex-New York City mayor, two du Pont brothers, publisher Charles Scribner, business owner Marshall Field, the president of Carnegie Institute, financier Grayson Murphy, retired auto manufacturer Henry Bourne Joy, a retired federal judge, several members of Congress and several railroad and bank presidents. Women were enrolled in an auxiliary organization.

At first, the group wanted to reform Prohibition but members couldn't agree on whether to promote the effective enforcement of the law or to encourage people to disregard the bad law. During the early to mid-1920s it appeared that repealing Prohibition was a political impossibility and many people questioned whether it would be legal to do so.

However, with the passage of time, the terrible problems caused by Prohibition continued to grow and public sentiment turned against the failing experiment in social engineering.

The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment launched a major publicity campaign in 1928 that helped mobilize the growing opposition to the Eighteenth Amendment. It published numerous pamphlets, including

• Scandals of Prohibition, which documented official crimes and corruption in five cities (Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Buffalo, and Philadelphia),
• The Cost of Prohibition and Your Income Tax, which estimated the loss of federal and state revenue lost because of National Prohibition,
• Canadian Liquor Crossing the Border, which reported that only five to ten percent of the over 1,000,000 gallons of liquor illegally crossing the northern border was being intercepted,
• Reforming America with a Shotgun: A Study of Prohibition Killings, which reported on the number of killings that had been occurring in attempting to enforce Prohibition,
• Measuring the Liquor Trade, which demonstrated that alcoholism and alcohol-related deaths had increased as a result of Prohibition, and
• Prohibition Enforcement: Its Effects on Courts and Prisons, which documented dramatic increases in federal court loads, leading to plea bargaining and lighter sentences in order to ease overcrowding in court dockets, jails, and prisons.

By 1930 the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment was asking voters to "vote as you drink." The American people cast their ballots by an overwhelming three-to-one against Prohibition and in favor of Repeal. That was over 75 years ago.

Incredibly, some people and organizations today support neo-prohibition ideas and strongly defend the vestiges of Prohibition that remain.