History
Detroit was a predecessor to Prohibition, because Michigan adopted a state law, the Damon Act of 1916, which prohibited liquor effective in 1917. Henry Ford, who owned the River Rouge plant, was a proponent in advocating a sober workforce. Due to Detroit's convenient proximity to Canada and Ohio, several bootleggers and individuals traveled toward Toledo to obtain booze; judges took a lenient view of offenders, and in 1919 the Damon Act was declared unconstitutional. However, in 1920 the Eighteenth Amendment was adopted, and prohibition took effect throughout the United States. Canada became a major port for running alcohol products because the Canadian federal government approved and licensed distilleries and breweries to manufacture, distribute, and export.
Read more about this topic: The Purple Gang
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—Ellis Meredith, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 14, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
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