The Role Of Prohibition Of Alcohol In The 1920's

    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

In 1919, The US ratified the 18th Amendment which is declared illegal to manufacture, transport, and sell alcoholic beverages. Between from 1920 to 1933 America has promulgated prohibition who drunk because most men drunk in most times even during break time off work. They gradually lost their control and taking abuse, crime on their children. A lot of problems happened in the family like violence, fighting, and the worse thing is the divorce. Drunken men who did not work at all would not be able to afford, provide, and care for their families. America repealed Prohibition for three main reasons during this time: the Volstead Act because it was a law, the act of Congress that helped to prevent people from selling alcohol, illegal but it failed, Progressive Movement because it showed how many serious problems happened behind drinking that affected to life, and social evils of drinking. While there are three main causes, the most significant cause the repeal of Prohibition in America was social evils or consequences of drinking because in (Doc. B) homicides increased which made crime raised and thousands of Americans killed, the scenes of the US government (Doc.D) because the governor violated the law, and depression (Doc. A) because Uncle Sam, the US government worked with gangsters, racketeer, bootlegger, and dope seller.

Prohibition had existed way before the whole country grew into chaos and terror trying to ban alcohol throughout United States. It was the act of banning the manufacture and sale of alcohol. In the early 1700s, many colonists directed Prohibition towards the Native Americans. Colonists created local laws that prevented people from selling or trading alcohol to them. They were concerned with their behavior due to alcohol. Although there were laws with the ideas of Prohibition, the laws were not enforced. This allowed liquor trade to continue and created a critical effect on the use of alcohol by Native Americans. In the 1900s, Prohibition did well trying to stop the promotion and the process of alcohol, but caused disruption, crime, and confusion

Bootlegging took its rise to help Speakeasies, and any other business opportunity they saw. Bootlegging is the act of manufacturing or smuggling alcohol. So while trying to lessen crime with the prohibition, they ended up creating one of the most violent and crime filled years for a while. But it wasn’t just gangsters, since everyday people wanted to wet their lips a little

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

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.

People continued to drink, sell, buy, and transport alcohol (possibly even more than before prohibition got underway) they were just doing it in secret now. In some places, the state government could not ignore the amount of smuggling going on near the coasts and borders. It was impossible to patrol the thousand mile borders and bootleggers would maintain huge fleets of trucks and cars going through Mexico and Canada. In New York and New Jersey there were so many bootleggers that a regulation was passed stating as long as smugglers stayed outside a 3-mile limit the government would not interfere with their illegal actions. So many people were already smuggling and it was concluded that there was no point in having alcohol banned when everyone didn’t abide by the law anyways

Prohibition was a well known law. Prohibition is the 18th amendment that prevented the manufacturing and marketing of alcohol. Many places and people smuggled alcohol and made money off of it. Prohibition began to reduce crime and corruption which was a fail. Also to reduce the tax burden and improve health and hygiene in America.

¬¬¬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

The necessity of alcohol caused by Prohibition generated organized crime to give the leaders of the underworld incredibly more

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

The US government had their reasons for putting prohibition in place. Alcohol was ruining families as the fathers would spend all day at the bar getting drunk. Removing their option to drink would hopefully help to fight addiction. The consumption of alcohol lowered by 30% of the pre-prohibition

The other way to get alcohol was in “speakeasies;” underground saloons. Oftentimes the bartenders at speakeasies would not actually mix drinks, but only supply glasses and ice. The only real skill involved with being a bartender was the ability to remain calm during police raids. Some considered the bartenders at speakeasies to be cheapening the profession (Cocktail). Still, many of these establishments are still open, and boast of their activity during Prohibition. There are more than fifteen bars currently open in Chicago that operated as speakeasies in the 1920's and use that fact as an advertisement.

Prohibition created more crime because it was leading to corruption and the “cure” was worse than the original problem (Sifakis 725). The number of crimes increased during the Prohibition which caused organized crime to be very “popular”. Many criminal groups had a regular income of money through illegal actions such as drinking and selling alcohol (Organized Crime and Prohibition 1). Alcohol increased the organized crimes during Prohibition through loopholes in the 18th Amendment, speakeasies, doctor’s prescriptions, and bootlegging.

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.