Was Prohibition A Failure?

As a result of the lack of enforcement of the Prohibition Act and the creation of an

By 1925 there were at least 3200 speakeasies and stores who sold liquor in order to get some extra income in New York. The smuggling of alcohol was a very good business that involved money. Some of the direct distilling and home brewing were secretly installed in garages, tenements, and warehouses. With the fear of being hijacked, the bootleggers hired gunmen to protect the goods; so illegal gun market was a side effect of the Prohibition that brought big amounts of money. The illegal alcohol and gun market brought gangs to everywhere, these gangs fought constantly to maintain the territory and respect. Chicago and New York where the cities where the Mafia gain more power, gang wars and assassination became an everyday thing. On May 11th, Jim Colosimo was the first of the Chicago mafia bosses to be assassinated.

The price of alcohol has gone wild and average worker could barely pay off for the alcohol. This leads to people buying less alcohol and there tends to be less violence and crimes going on. Also, alcohol is only available for medication yet people still had faked their pain and took alcohol as “medication”. Even people today tend to get drugs from the doctors and sell it those who can’t have the access to it which most likely be teens. Therefore, prohibition was a big impact on many families and parents themselves to drinking

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.'

Prohibition would cause Americans to want alcohol. Underground bars known as speakeasies would supply alcohol to those who wanted it. Organized crime would commit many crimes in order to gain wealth. In 1929 prohibition would see an increase caused by the Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression.

In the 1920’s the prohibition of one substance controlled the people of the United States along with many businesses causing the economy to plummet. This particular substance was alcohol. In 1926, William H. Sayton argued that prohibition was a failure rather than a success (Dudley 94). William Sayton was the founder and leader of the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment which began in the year 1922 (Dudley 94). Mr. Sayton noted that prohibition was not effective due to the increase of alcohol usage and the decrease of economical growth (Dudley 96). One should concur that the illegalization of alcohol impacted the United States in a negative way, and was a failure.

Prohibition affected the nation because it led to the rise of organized crime, more socialization

The prohibition era was the period in the US when the manufacture, sale and transportation of liquor were banned. To completely eliminate alcohol from society was always going to be an impossible task due to the limited amounts of prohibition officers and the easy manner in which illegal alcohol could be made and old, so in that aspect of its ambition it failed. However it was able to reduce alcoholism, and as a result of prohibition fewer arrests for drunkenness were recorded. With those thoughts in mind, it is important to remember that whist some positives came from Prohibition, the negatives that came from the policy were far greater and more significant, so therefore it becomes nigh on impossible to call it a success.

Because of Prohibition, “well-organized crime syndicates behaved like giant corporations; they controlled the entire stream of liquor’s production, pricing, distribution, and sales” (Shi & Tindall 887). For an illegal business, selling alcohol looked as legal as it could. Mob-families started an enterprise to keep their business strong. After a notorious bootlegger, John Torrio, held a peace conference, mob leaders from numerous criminal families assembled in Chicago to enact a national company under the authority of a permanent ruling body called the “Commission.” These criminals were once just local petty criminals, but have turned, in a sense, into a corporation.

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.

From 1920 to 1933 the government had prohibited the making, selling, and consumption of alcohol. The general population was torn. Some people agreed and some did not. Those who opposed the Prohibition rebelled against the law. The Prohibition brought organized crime, bootlegging, corrupt police forces, speakeasies, and drastic economic effects.

The high price of bootleg liquor made working class and poor far more restricted during Prohibition than middle or upper class Americans. Even though costs for law enforcement, jails and prisons were on a rise, support for Prohibition was coming to an end. With the country sinking from the Great Depression in 1932, they had to create jobs and revenue somehow. They had no choice but to legalize the liquor industry because it would create jobs and revenue. Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt

Prohibition did in fact decrease alcohol consumption in the beginning, but “it subsequently increased” (Mark Thornton). It simply took a bit to figure out how to get alcohol without getting in trouble. But soon enough, Speakeasies became popping up and alcohol was smuggled across the borders of America. Because of the Speakeasies, “Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; crime increased and became ‘organized’; the court and prison systems were stretched to the breaking point; and corruption of public officials was rampant” (Mark Thornton). Alcohol was banned to get rid of crime, and it ended up increasing everything bad.

The Consequences of Prohibition On the midnight of 28th October 1919, importing, exporting, transporting, selling and manufacturing of intoxicating liquor came to a halt in America. Possessing substances above the 0.5% alcohol limit was illegal. This was Prohibition. This Eighteenth Amendment was meant to have reduced the consumption level, consequently to have reduced death rates, poverty and principally crime, in the USA.

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.