Important Events In The 1920's

The 1920’s was a great and important decade for the United States. After World War I, the United States went through events and changes that, overall, made the United States a much better place to live. New advances in technology and industry improved American life in more ways than just one. Americans had better wages during this time, more leisure time, and overall, had a better life than ever before. In addition, the 1920’s advocated social and cultural change as well. During this time period, the United States did not return to Normalcy, and instead developed attitudes that changed the life of the people of the United States forever thanks to social changes, cultural changes and changes in technology.

Prohibition was passed as the 18th amendment, that importing, exporting, transporting, and manufacturing of alcohol was to be put to an end. Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems that it intended to solve. It was expected that the decrease in alcohol consumption would in turn reduce crime, poverty, death rates, improve the economy, and the quality of life.

However some of this alcohol was not the type of alcohol that they were used to drinking which resulted in many health problems. More employees were probably absent from work than before Prohibition, with alcohol poisoning from drinking the 'moonshine', which frequently resulted in blindness and death. This was because of the types of alcohol sold, where no one knew quite what they were getting. In fact much of this alcohol was industrial alcohol, unfit for consumption which caused blistered lips. Lack of public support was definitely quite

Plus bootleg alcoholic beverages like beer and whisky were created, the whole drinking scene was slowly starting to look like its former self. The most confusing statistic is that before prohibition there were less speakeasies then there were during prohibition. So therefore the introduction of prohibition had actually increased America's alcohol intake rate. When Prohibition started it opened up an opportunity for local gangsters to make some money and then expand their business and many of them took this opportunity. Probably the most famous of all the gangsters was called Al Capone.

​ There are quite a few long-term impacts of prohibition. The first is that prohibition had a big impact on the brewing industry. Many breweries closed and never reopened again after prohibition. Anheuser-Busch survived Prohibition by making other products, such as ice cream, root beer, malt extract and corn syrup.[1] An example of how prohibition affects breweries after prohibition was that in Saint Louis there were twenty-two breweries but after prohibition only nine reopened. [2] The reason so many breweries never reopened is because during prohibition there was no income. The breweries main income was from the manufacture and selling of alcohol which was outlawed during prohibition. One way a brewery could have stayed open

In 1919 a law was passed that outlawed the sale, manufacture, and transportation of liquor throughout the states. This law was the 18th amendment and was enforced at the start of 1920. The main reasoning behind passing the amendment was to reduce crime and corruption, improve health and hygiene, and solve social issues within the country. Another problem that was meant to be solved by the amendment, was to reduce the tax burden that was created by poorhouses and prisons. These problems that the 18th amendment was meant to fix worked initially but the rebellion because of this new rule was not taken into consideration. This thought leads into the effect of prohibition on refreshments after a year of being a law.

In the 1920s and 1930s America saw a large growth in mafias & mobs, drug & Alcohol Trafficking, and the organization of crime were a result of the Prohibition.

With the closing of all businesses that were alcohol related, there was a major rise in unemployment. People had to put food on the table some way, being forced to turn to illegal avenues, giving organized crime power unlike ever. The effects of these gangs have still not been washed away. Having people at their disposal, and having so many involved with the production of alcohol, gangs caused chaos for the legal system. In 1923, for instance, the US District Attorneys spent 44% of their time on Prohibition cases.

Even though the law had early including reduced arrests and drunkenness and a reported 30 percent drop in alcohol consumption, it had actually cause more violence, the illegal sale of alcohol and the start of gangs and prostitution houses.But the amount of alcohol that could have been confiscated or people arrested probably could have been 40 to 50 percent but people annually paid 300,000 dollars for police to look away and not do anything when they were making bootleg runs. Also The prohibition gave new rise to gangs and gang violence. One of the most famous gangsters was the Chicago gangster Al Capone who earned about $60 million dollars annually from his bootlegging and illegal speakeasies. Al Capone was also a big gambler and ran casinos and prostitution houses while only the rich could afford to gamble the operation of prostitution houses was highly illegal. With his illegal operations fueled gang violence with other gang member which caused the tragic event known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago in 1929, which two men who were believed to be associated with Al Capone shot and killed 7 men in a garage, the police could not prosecute Capone for he was in the state of florida at the time and they could not find any traces that lead back to

The Prohibition was brought into effect with the ratification of the 18th Amendment, effectively shutting down the sale and production of alcohol or intoxicating liquor. However it was not illegal to drink alcohol, just to buy it or sell it. The way the mafia was able to make money off of this was making alcohol and hidden bars called speakeasies while also managing to either evade police or pay off government officials that would move towards shutting them down. During this period there were different groups of different mafias all fighting to get their group the most money and so forth. However with a rise in violence and other crimes the Prohibition was brought to an end in 1933 with the ratification of the 21st amendment.

“Because Prohibition banned only the manufacturing, sale, and transport - but not possession or consuming of alcohol, some people and institutions who had bought or made liquor prior to the passage of the 18th Amendment were able to continue to serve it throughout the prohibition period legally.” (Robert Scott), Alcohol is long lasting, and can age without it tampering the beverage. So people still consumed what was already in their possession, and they didn’t have to smuggle it or buy it off of someone. Although, more than likely, people still sold the alcohol they had in their possession because there was such a

When the law of prohibition was put into place, the crime rate in America rose dramatically. It rose from people trying to get alcohol into the U.S. There were beginning to be too many speakeasies in the U.S. breaking the law of prohibition, and the government officials of the U.S. themselves, who put the law in place, were breaking the law. The overwhelmingly amount of states that voted on putting the

Thousands of people lost their jobs because of the alcohol business ending “The closing of breweries, distilleries and saloons led to the elimination of thousands of jobs, and in turn thousands more jobs were eliminated for barrel makers, truckers, waiters, and other related trades” (Lerner). The unemployed had two choices, find a lower paying job, or become a criminal. Citizens who had worked in the alcohol business were finding it hard to find jobs because they were coming from the “devil’s work”. It wasn’t just people’s banks that were hurting it was also their marriages. Prohibition started a new trend of men and women drinking together.

When caught bootlegging liquor you would be issued a fine, this made things alright because everyone was happy, the laws were so hard to enforce that the government was just happy collecting fine money and the bootleggers were happy cause it was a small price to pay for the amount of money they were making. The most ironic thing about prohibition is that it is the major bases for what we call organized crime.

Americans could no longer legally drink or buy alcohol during this time. Prohibition of alcohol was a ban on the sales, manufactures, transportation of intoxicating liquors in the United States. Prohibition supporters presented the ban of alcohol as a victory for public morals and health whereas the anti-prohibitionist criticized the alcohol ban as an intrusion. Most people believe that there were many causes of prohibition that led to the failure.