Prohibition

The newspaper article I found is about the passage of prohibition. The article is from The Franklin County Observer, a newspaper based in Washington, MO and is from the paper on January 24, 1919. The article describes when prohibition will take affect, and how it will impact the city of Washington. The article doesn’t take a clear side on the issue of prohibition, but it does seem like it is against prohibition because of the tone of the article, and it describes how Washington will be negatively impacted by the loss of tax dollars. This article supports the claim that World War I was a major reason that Prohibition was passed because it mentions that the president is banning alcohol as a “war measure”. This measure was used to help wartime rationing. Also, alcohol was an important part of German immigrant culture, and at the time there was a strong anti-German sentiment. The article also supports the claim that the prohibition movement was people motivated by passion (prohibitionists), and people motivated by commerce, by describing the economic impact on the city of Washington.

Sources:

https://www.pbs.org/video/prohibition-immigration-in-prohibition-america-multi-ethnic-nation/

https://themobmuseum.org/blog/world-war-played-key-role-passage-prohibition/

https://digital.shsmo.org/digital/collection/frankcoobsv/id/604/rec/4 (SHSMO)