Organized Crime as the Main Factor that Led to Failure of Prohibition

Alcohol was seen as the devil's advocate and banning the substance would help improve the quality of American lives. Instead, crime rates rocketed as well as the amount of violence. The selling of liquor during the prohibition was coined as the term, “bootlegging.” Bootleggers used waterways, rivers, cars, and trains to transport alcohol across state line. When the American people became desperate the resulted to homemade alcohol. Due to alcohol being made in homes and other places that weren’t certified for the production of Alcohol, the quality became poor and this resulted in many people contracting illnesses. Death from alcohol poisoning alone had risen to over 400%. It is argued that alcohol was less easily obtainable before prohibition since the bootlegging industry was so immense. You could now purchase alcohol on almost any street in America, because it was being made and sold everywhere (Nash “Organized Crime in the 1920's and

Kenneth Rose main argument in the article “Wettest in the West: San Francisco & Prohibition in 1924” is that during the period of prohibition do to the eighteenth amendment the crime rate around the United States rose, do to many factors, but most important was the black market that prohibition created. In the 1920’s during the era of prohibition many American immigrants were against the law, mainly do to their culture/heritage (Rose, K. 1986, pg.285 & 286). The demand for alcohol created a black market, which in turn allowed for criminal organization, and gangsters to be able to profit from the sell of alcohol, since the majority of American were already against the eighteenth amendment for varies reason this fuel the crime wave that occurred

The prohibition caused much controversy in the 1920’s. The 18th amendment was passed on Jan 16, 1920, it said in Title II, Section 3 the National Prohibition Act states that "No person shall on or after the date when the 18th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States goes into effect, manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized in this act." (United States constitution). The Prohibition opened up many big business opportunities in the illegal marketing of alcohol. The people who took advantage of this opportunity were known as “Bootleggers”. With the enactment of this law organized crime was established, allowing men such as Al Capone to capitalize

    Prohibition resulted in unregulated and uncontrollable trade of bootlegged alcohol. Bootlegging resulted in a major decline in the quality of alcohol with the lack of government regulations of the product. An estimated 1000 Americans died annually as a result. Also, the cost only increased at the decade continued. The underground industry overall ran rampant as prices skyrocketed for unsafe alcohol.

Prohibition was undertaken to reduce crime, reduce corruption, and solve social problems in America but it failed on all accounts. Prohibition had the exact opposite effect on people than its original purpose was. Instead of removing alcohol from society, Prohibition actually instigated a national drinking spree that held constant until Prohibition was repealed. Felix Von Luckner said, “My observations have convinced me that many fewer would drink were it not illegal” (Von Luckner, 2). He believed that the law against alcohol manufacturing just instigated more drinking. The people during this period in time were so rebellious that they would do the opposite of anything that they were told to do. This had a huge contribution to the failure of Prohibition. Due to the failure of Prohibition, America’s society had fallen spiral to a drinking spree (Batchelor, 1). Many believed that the main cause of the failure of Prohibition was the breakdown of the enforcement agencies. In Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia said, “The Prohibition Enforcement Unit has entirely broken down. It is discredited; it has become a joke…” (La Guardia, 2). The Roaring Twenties’ prosperity was lost due to the failure of the Prohibition Enforcement Unit. If the law was stronger and better enforced, Prohibition could have succeeded. This was very detrimental to society because it showed the

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.

Even though the 18th amendment was implemented there was very little enforcement of the law. The government employed few prohibition agents; the majority of them could be easily bribed by the bootlegger and policemen were as well . Gangsters have many organized methods to sell their liquor. One of the methods was speakeasies, they were used by creating a password, and anyone that wanted to be granted access inside had to mutter it at the entrance. Even with prohibition in effect, the government believed America was going to go through a progressive, social change however, with alcohol in such demand it sent the U.S into darkness.

Thesis: Although prohibition's goal was to increase a sense of integrity in the United States, it encouraged normally law-abiding citizens to break the law, enabled the growth and influence of organized crime, and increased levels of corruption in government and law-enforcement.

     Alcohol is illegal! “The reign of tears is over. The slums will soon be a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs. Men will walk upright now; women will smile and children will laugh. Hell will be forever rent” (Thorton 9). The Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution went into effect on January 16, 1920, with three-fourths vote from congress (Boorstin 994). The National Prohibition of Alcohol was adopted to solve social problems, reduce the crime rate, stop corruption and minimize the tax burden created by prisons. Some immediate results of the amendment included organized crime and the corruption of public officials. As time went on, the stock

It was illegal even to transport the alcoholic beverages from one place to another. Often there would be high-speed chases in order to out run the police during the prohibition era. Mobsters made profit off of the alcohol. Various people took over cities and soon became a war on other bosses and cities. Violence started to take in place making guns shootings murders more often. for example for al Capone to survive this he spent almost half of his money earned from bootlegging profit on body guards. A lot of mafia related gangs were killing each other over

January 29, 1920 the 18th Amendment, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” was put into effect until 1933 (history.com). Making alcohol totally illegal was an attempt to enforce sobriety. World War I also aided in the prohibition because food was very scarce. The Lever Act of 1917 outlawed the use of grain to manufacture alcohol (Carnes and Garraty 644). Arrests for public intoxication went down drastically, as well as deaths due to alcoholism. Although, more lives were saved many people violated the law in order to consume alcohol. Smuggling alcohol became a huge business. Wine was still legal for religious purposes, but Carnes and Garraty explain that the consumption of sacramental

Prohibition was a period of time in which the sale, manufacture, or transport of alcoholic beverages became illegal. It started January 16, 1919 and continued to December 5, 1933. Although it was designed to put an end to all drinking, it simply created a large number of bootleggers who produced and sold illegal alcohol. Many of these bootleggers became very rich and influential through selling alcohol and also through other methods. They pioneered the practices of organized crime that are still used today. Thus, Prohibition led to the rapid growth of organized crime.

As a result of this new law, a new social problem arose. “Seldom has law been more flagrantly violated. Not only did Americans continue to manufacture, barter, and possess alcohol; they drank more of it.” Americans who supported prohibition, argued that if drinking alcohol was illegal, the public would recognize and respect the law, and in turn, would give it up. During the start of prohibition, it appeared as though it was working. But, what was really going on, was that since the transportation and production was not allowed, bootleggers had to find ways to do it without being caught. The price of beer rose, because it had to be transported in large barrels, which was more difficult. As a result, people started drinking more potent hard liquor. It took less to get drunk, therefore it was easier to transport, thus, it was cheaper. Americans would drink this potent liquor and get drunk a lot faster, for less money. As a downfall, however, the liquor had no standards. The rate of alcohol related deaths due to poisoning drastically increased from 1,064 in 1920, to 4,154 in 1925.

Some states such as New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts did not enforce the prohibition act of 1920, causing funds to drop to the states for law enforcement agencies(GILDER). The prohibition Caused the rise of organized crime in the United States. Prohibition stated the creation of toxic moonshine, bootleggers used lead coils and lead soldering putting lead in moonshine(PEARSON). Others put additives in moonshine such as iodine and creosote causing blindness or even death. Over 12,000 people died from toxic moonshine Al Capone made over 60 million dollars from Bootlegging that’s 60 million dollars other US citizens lose. Many Bootleggers used Industrial alcohol in Products. The Federal Government started putting more poisonous chemicals in industrial alcohol causing over 10,000 deaths from consumption(PEARSON).Overall there are more negative effects of prohibition in the 1920’s. From poisonous alcohol to enforcement budget cuts it is all negative and is why prohibition failed. Even though prohibition stopped some americans from drinking alcohol it created a new door for new kinds of alcohol to come in to the US. Prohibition is bad in my opinion because it caused unnecessary deaths in america. That sets a final ending to the 18th Amendment in the 1920’s and forever

During the 1920s, due to the rise in temperance movements and religious drive to outlaw the consumption of alcohol, Prohibition was officially instated. Unprepared for by the government, a new illegal business opportunity resulted because many Americans were defiant towards the new amendment and were determined to drink as they saw fit. This was the illegal importation and distribution of liquor in the United States. Due to the enactment of Prohibition, the unlawful smuggling of alcohol provided economic opportunities for few but affected the majority with its health, legal, and safety risks.