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

Three federal agencies were assigned the task of enforcing the Volstead Act: the U.S. Coast Guard Office of Law Enforcement, the U.S. Treasury Department's IRS Bureau of Prohibition, and the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Prohibition.
• Unpopularity of prohibition and repeal movement
As early as 1925, journalist H. L. Mencken believed that Prohibition was not working. As the prohibition years continued, more of the country’s populace came to see prohibition as illustrative of class distinctions, a law unfairly biased in its administration favoring social elites. "Prohibition worked best when directed at its primary target: the working-class poor." Historian Lizabeth Cohen writes: "A rich family could have a cellar-full of liquor, but if a poor family had a bottle of home-brew, there would be trouble.” Working-class people were inflamed by the fact that their employers could dip into a cache of private stock while they, the employees, were denied a similar indulgence.
Before the Eighteenth Amendment went into effect in January 1920, many of the upper classes stockpiled alcohol for home consumption. They bought the inventories of liquor retailers and wholesalers, emptying out their warehouses, saloons, and club storerooms. American lawmakers followed these practices at the highest levels of government. President Woodrow Wilson moved his own supply of alcoholic beverages to his Washington residence after his term of office ended. His successor, Warren G. Harding, relocated his own large supply into the White House after inauguration.