The 18th Amendment
“Section 1. 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 to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited” (Constitution of the United States).
The Final Push
“By 1850, leaders began to doubt the effectiveness of moral suasion in dealing with the problem of drinking alcoholic beverages. In many states citizens petitioned the legislature to change licensing laws...The first state prohibition law was passed by Maine in 1851; it is often regarded as a milestone on the road to national prohibition...These attempts to control the drinking problem by state law were generally short-lived.” (State of Alabama Department of Education, Teacher’s Guide for Instruction in Temperance Education)
“It was the utter ruthlessness of the liquor business in disregard of state prohibition laws which stirred the citizens of this nation to elect a Congress pledged to provide Federal Constitutional Prohibition.” (Annual Address of the National WCTU)
“The most powerful group in the 40 years before Prohibition wasn’t the WCTU but the Anti-Saloon League, which made the saloon the main culprit, not alcohol...While the WCTU was important for getting the movement started, it was run by women, who didn’t have a lot of power” (Dalzell).
The WCTU was unable to establish a strong national political position because, unlike the Anti-Saloon League, they spent a lot of time and effort to achieve the respect that they desired in order to reach the organization's national reform ideals. However, the members of the Anti-Saloon League were already highly respected because they were men, which at the time, naturally put them in a superior and more influential position than women. This enabled the Anti-Saloon League to achieve their goal of passing the 18th amendment, and was the reason for which the WCTU had worked so long yet was not the organization that had the final, national impact.
The Effects
"Five years of prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished" (H. L. Mencken).
“Violation of the law was magnified as if caused by the law. Officials were in many cases recreant to their trust and violators of the law were not molested. Bribery was too often a feature.” (Annual Address of the National WCTU)
"Five years of prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished" (H. L. Mencken).
“Violation of the law was magnified as if caused by the law. Officials were in many cases recreant to their trust and violators of the law were not molested. Bribery was too often a feature.” (Annual Address of the National WCTU)
The Anti-Saloon League had the final push to passing the 18th Amendment because of their strong political position which gave them an advantage over women. While the WCTU did not achieve Prohibition on their own, the impact that the WCTU had on changing women's status was more impactful in terms of political rights and long term effects than Prohibition ever was.