History: Prohibition Of Alcoholic Beverages, Los Angeles, California, United States

• Start of national prohibition (January 1920)
Prohibition began on January 17, 1920, when the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect. A total of 1,520 Federal Prohibition agents (police) were given the task of enforcing the law.
Although it was highly controversial, Prohibition received support among diverse groups. Progressives believed Prohibition would improve society as generally did women, southerners, those living in rural areas, and African Americans; however, a few exceptions, such as the Woman’s Organization for Prohibition Reform, opposed it. American humorist Will Rogers joked about southern prohibitionists: "The South is dry and will vote dry. That is, everybody sober enough to stagger to the polls." Supporters of the Amendment soon became confident that it would not be repealed. One of its creators, Senator Morris Sheppard, joked that "there is as much chance of repealing the Eighteenth Amendment as there is for a humming-bird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington Monument tied to its tail."
At the same time, songs emerged decrying the act. After Edward, Prince of Wales, returned to the United Kingdom following his tour of Canada in 1919, he recounted to his father, King George V, a ditty he had heard at a border town: