The History Of Prohibition

During the 1920’s there was an experiment in the U.S. “The Prohibition”, this experiment, made by the government, was written as the 18th amendment. The prohibition led to the bootlegging, increase in crimes, and gang wars.

Prohibition was a time in American history where any type of alcohol consumption, production, and distribution was banned. The thirteen-year, dry period finally came to an end because of the temptation and social urges alcohol presents. Throughout these thirteen years, people corruptly consumed, produced, and distributed alcohol as if the regulations instituted by the government were suggestions. Speakeasies would be held underground where drinkers would distribute gin they produced in their own bathtubs and have parties without law enforcement knowing (“Prohibition”). After the Prohibition laws were lifted in 1933 to create more revenue to aid the failing economy during the Great Depression, the drinking age was set at 21 but was later lowered

This paper discusses one of the most significant events of the 1920s and 1930s that still affects life to this day, the prohibition. Throughout the modern American, who may be interested in the prohibition and why organized crime was so powerful, discover just that as well as why the prohibition was implemented, who had the most influence, how people viewed one another at the time, and the factors that lead to the prohibitions lack of success. It was a time of struggle between law enforcement, organized crime and the citizens caught in-between. Overall the main question the collective research intends to answer is “who held all the power, the police, organized crime, or the citizens and how did that shape the prohibition?” The answer to the question will be discovered through research and facts. Topics such as motivations behind the prohibition, police efficacy, citizen involvement, organized crime, the morals of America, and multiple views on the prohibition will be covered in hopes to fully understand what the prohibition was and the roles specific groups had in the outcome.

    Prohibition caused gangs and organized crime to thrive in the 1920’s. Big gangsters made fortunes off of bootlegging, or the illegal make and distribution of alcohol, and speakeasies, illegal clubs or bars that sold alcohol. Al Capone of Chicago was one of the most well known gangsters of the time. He made up to $60 million dollars annually bootlegging and running speakeasies

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

In the beginning of the Prohibition Era, the supporters of the alcohol ban were met with a pleasing decline in arrest for drunkenness, hospitalizations related to alcohol and the fall of liver related medical problems that were caused by the consumption of alcohol. These statistics seemed to support the tireless campaigning done to prohibit alcohol. This decline in alcohol

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.

This was when people made beer and other alcoholic drinks, and sold them to people for lots of money illegally. The most famous bootlegger of all time was a gangster called Al Capone. He ran many alcohol rings throughout the mid atlantic including central Pennsylvania. He was later caught and arrested by government officials in 1931 but it wasn't for just bootlegging. The main crime was him not paying his income taxes.

The huge public demand for alcohol led to a soaring business for bootleggers. When prohibition began, people immediately wanted a way to drink. Hence, the extremely profitable bootlegging business was born. Before Prohibition gangs existed, but had little influence. Now, they had gained tremendous power almost overnight. Bootlegging was easy - New York City gangs paid hundreds of poor immigrants to maintain stills in their apartments. Common citizens, once law abiding, now became criminals by making their own alcohol. However, this posed risks for those who made their own. "The

Prohibition and United States Society in 1920's Prohibition was the legal ban on the manufacture and sale of alcohol. It was introduced in 1919 and was viewed as the answer to many of America's problems. It was thought that the end of alcohol in America would spark a new and greater society in America. People believed that it would reduce crime, drunkenness, violence and that it would reduce families in poverty because the men would not go out spending all the money on 'alcohol.'

The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, declared on January 1920 at 12:01am, outlawed the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors,” (Andersen). America had become officially, dry. Although it was formed to stop drinking completely, it did not even come close. Just 6 minutes later six masked bandits with pistols emptied two freight cars full of whiskey from a rail yard in Chicago (Drink). Prohibition created a large number of bootleggers who were able to supply the public with illegal alcohol. They started the practices of organized crime that are still used today. Women, the driving factor in prohibition, believed that prohibition would make alcohol’s presence in society go away this would resolve the majority

¬¬¬During the Roaring Twenties, there were many lawbreakers who increased the rate of organized crime. Unlike bootleggers, these lawbreakers stole alcoholic beverages from locked up warehouses, to resell to their customers. “Hijacking was another way of getting the liquor. Early in the Prohibition Era there was still a lot of liquor locked away in government warehouses to be sold for medicinal purposes. Much of this was simply stolen by the criminals, particularly while it was being transported” (Cohen). The lawbreakers during the Roaring Twenties

Because liquor was no longer legally available, the public turned to gangsters who took on the bootlegging industry and supplied them with liquor. Because the industry was so immensely profitable, more gangs participated. As a result of the money involved in the bootlegging industry, there was much

Both the federal and local government had difficulties in enforcing Prohibition over the course of the 1920’s. Enforcement was originally assigned to the IRS. Later it had been transferred to the justice Department. Prohibition was enforced much more strongly in areas where the population had more sympathy towards the legislation. The illegal manufacturing and sale of liquor went on throughout the decade. As well as operations of speakeasies, smuggling alcohol across state lines, and informal production of liquor in private homes.

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.