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Inside Of Prohibition Dbq Essay

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Corruption and hypocrisy flooded the Congress building rooms and hallways. The men that created the Prohibition law, violated it. In the article The Inside of Prohibition, Mabel Willebrandt provides insight of the corruption through personal experiences. Concealed by the walls of the Congress building, “bootleggers infest the halls and corridors... and ply their trade”. The Congressmen must feel as though they are above the law, constantly “patronizing bootleggers” and “appearing on the floors in a drunken condition”. The 18th Amendment will not work, so long as corruption engulfs Congressmen. The bootleggers aren’t only making profit, they are essentially getting permission to continue their business (Document D). Along with Congressmen involved …show more content…

Uncle Sam, representing Prohibition, in this cartoon is illustrated holding hands with a gangster, racketeer, bootlegger, and dope seller. The five of them are all dancing and getting along as though they are celebrating. Uncle Sam is promoting what the 18th Amendment intended on ending. In the cartoon, at the bottom of the image, the word “depression” is just about under the feet of the dancing men. The corruption of Prohibition is leading the country to depression. The government, through the eyes of this cartoon, created a completely useless law (Document A). Demonstrated by the people who created the 18th Amendment, the failure of it was inevitable because of corruption. America’s greed overcame the moral purpose of Prohibition, to straighten up crooked people for the sake of their …show more content…

Explained in The New Crusade, by Leslie Gordon, the possible tax income from alcohol could have paid for the local and national interest. By approving Prohibition, the US lost countless tax money from selling legal alcohol. Essentially, with alcohol legal to sell, “the tax income would pay the interest on the entire local and national debt and leave more than $200,000,000 for… urgently needed purposes.” A government should not make any decision without thinking about the results from an amendment. We would have avoided the Great Depression, and could have spent the extra $200 million on public health or maybe military strengthening. The money lost from Prohibition helped hundreds of thousand of people with almost anything, yet the government decided throw it all

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