Table of Contents How has prohibition helped or harmed America? Pg. 3 Reveal the Repeal Pg. 4 A Threat to the Greater Good? Pg. 6 Take the Dry Way or the Highway Pg. 7 Was Prohibition Successful? Pg. 9 Prohibition is the Mission Pg. 10
How has prohibition helped or harmed America? Prohibition has had a various amount of effects on the American culture, not all of them were negative effects. Prohibition is a time period where buying, selling, and drinking alcohol was illegal. Most people in the 1920s reacted very positively to prohibition, although some people reacted negatively to the passing of the 18th amendment. Prohibition was ratified in the 1920s because people thought drinking was the cause of crime in big cities. They thought that it would cut down on violence and family problems. Prohibition effectively reduced the amount of drinking that happened in big cities and made a lasting impact on some communities that is still shown today. Prohibition also helped people deal with alcoholism so that they could better their lives and not be so abusive to their friends and family in their communities. We disagree with the bad things such as the gang violence because of the fact that random people are getting killed, the importing of illegal alcohol is hurting our economy, and the corruption of the government isn’t good at all it hurts the strength of the country such as the bribing of officials. Also officials were getting killed for protecting the law.
Prohibition was helpful in many ways due to the fact of how it cut down on some crime in the city. Most people, men preferably, spent most of their money on alcohol and when the prohibition law got passed more people started to save more money and people got wealthier. With prohibition, fewer people were sent to jail and fewer work absences occurred during this time. There was a major drop in the number of young deaths and injuries. Prohibition was a lifesaver for many families, children and wives. They stopped getting beat by their husbands, and families stopped getting split up. The main point of prohibition was to turn drunkards into honorable citizens and make the US dry for the greater good. So in conclusion, prohibition solved more problems than it created. It put a balance in society and saved people from being harmed due to petty crimes. Even though there was a rise in organized crime, there are more problems that were solved by prohibition. Prohibition helped families and businesses grow and expand, and be better than they were before. Even though other problems arose, more problems were fixed.
Reveal the Repeal Should the U.S. Repeal Prohibition? Prohibition is the illegalization of alcohol. This means you can’t buy, sell, or drink any kind of alcohol. Prohibition, or the 18th Amendment, was put into action because people were getting hurt while intoxicated. Officials thought alcohol contributed to organized crime and many other unlawful acts.
Other reasons communities wanted to ban alcohol was the increase of gamboling which helped cruise ships and bars. In addition, there was a decrease in younger people’s deaths. A crazy fact, prohibition actually lead to the beginning of Nascar. They couldn't drink to pass the time so they raced each other instead.
Many people said prohibition was a good thing. It cut down on crime, property damage and accidents. They also believed that if they had no alcohol, less immigrants would move into their cities, towns and communities. Things really began to change when men didn’t drink anymore. Businesses did very well with this change. Less absences, fewer accidents, the efficiency of the workers increased substantially. Now that alcohol was not being sold or mass produced it opened doors for new products to be developed and sold. The 18th Amendment also helped families. Women and children did not get beaten as often, more and more fathers were in the home rather than in jail, and families were saving more. They’re getting richer because the men are not spending the family's money on alcohol. Also, women thought drinking was a sin; prohibition, in their eyes, was a good thing. Men weren’t drunk, they went to work and church more often with their wives and they could actually pay attention. Women were all for it; their men would get home sooner and there was a dramatic drop in prostitution.
Olivia Hall
Now there were some negatives to prohibition such as an increase in illegal behavior, like importing and exporting alcohol. Organized crime went up because people were working together to get alcohol back and fighting against government officials. However, there are many more reasons that say prohibition is a good thing or the safer thing.
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Olivia Hall
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A Threat to the Greater Good? By Mike Meiburg
Who’s The True Threat I’ve Concluded that organized crime has become a threat to america by the random acts of violence such as the one in chicago capone’s gang dressed as cops and made seven men go on a wall and then fiercely murdered them in a pure act of rage. The views of for and against the 18th amendment the drys and the wets the drys the drys supported the prohibition they thought the main cause was foreign influences because they were normally poor and a little violent. Other reasons they would bribe officials such as judges and police officers. There were multibillion dollar bootlegging businesses lawlessness violence and corruption increased after the 18th amendment. Based on the documents I analyzed the first was the number of prison inmates from 1912 to 1922. Document B was the homicide rate from 1910 to 1944. Document C was Al Capone’s Mugshots and Document D was a newspaper article about the valentine's day massacre.
Take the Dry Way or the Highway Is Prohibition fueling the rise of Organized Crime? By: Kael Klosterman
Many people had views on whether prohibition fueled the rise of organized crime or not, but after the data i’ve accumulated I have made a decision. I do believe that prohibition is fueling the rise of organized crime. People in the 1920s didn’t want prohibition. Prohibition was the banning of the sale, production, and consumption of alcohol. When this amendment got passed it made two groups of people who called themselves “dries”, who thought that alcohol caused violence and believed that it created more unnecessary crime and it caused families to be split apart. They thought that banning all alcohol would result in a happier, healthier society. Even though most of this is true, there were others who had different opinions. With prohibition many bars had to be shut down, which got replaced with twice as many speakeasies. Speakeasies are secret drinking clubs most commonly known to the upper class. The name speakeasies was a rule that everyone had to follow, they had to “speak easy” and try not to alarm any law enforcement and get busted. A secret code was used for people to be let in. With prohibition there was getting to be little to none alcohol in citizens possession, this led to citizens brewing or making their own liquors such as bathtub gin and other spirits. Also with the speakeasies, this led people to start to bootleg liquor from either up North or down South. Bootlegging was the act of someone smuggling alcohol back into the United States illegally. Most gang members specialized in bootlegging alcohol, which led to them getting their cars modified in order to outturn police and smuggle large amounts of alcohol back into the U.S.
Most people thought that the passing of the 18th amendment was going to be good but it had the opposite effect on what people wanted it to be. After this happened there was an increase in manslaughter, murder, burglary, and theft. Most of this was due to most of the gangs and crooks of the time like Al Capone, an American mobster and the boss of the Chicago outfit. Another crook of the time was Bugs Moran whose arch rival is Al Capone, he was involved in the St. Valentine's day Massacre, Bugs and his fellow gang members were gunned down by some of Al Capone's comrades. Them and more gangs were all involved in the Chicago Bootlegging Wars. Most gang members got themselves out of trouble with the law by bribing or making deals with local police. People like the “dries” believed that prohibition was going to be a good thing and have a good effect on people and the rest of society. They believed that prohibition would keep the cities under control. They said that they would “turn drunkards into honorable citizens”. They explained that men would walk upright again, women would smile, and children would laugh again. Also that the slums would only be nothing but a memory and that prisons and jailhouses would be turned into factories and stores. There was a lot of diversity in people's views on the topic of prohibition but I do believe that prohibition did more bad than good and it fueled organized crime immensely.
Time for a Drought America! By: Kael Klosterman
Was Prohibition Successful? Was Prohibition a Good Idea? Did prohibition succeed in ending the use of alcohol? I believe prohibition did not succeed in ending the use of alcohol. It lowered the number of people drinking substantially, but ultimately did not end the use of alcohol in the United States. I believe it actually created more problems in the long run for the United States. Even though the number of people drinking went down, the number of arrests for being drunk actually increased, as did the number of arrests in general. Prohibition effectively had the opposite effect, it was supposed to lower the amount of crime in the city, but it actually increased it, because people didn’t want to stop drinking. Prohibition caused so much more crime, arrests for all charges increased by 1 million after only the first year. It’s too hard for law enforcement to keep up with all of the illegal drinking, because the amount of people drinking outnumbered law enforcement too much. They had to deal with bootleggers, rum runners, gangs selling their own liquor, and just the casual citizens who didn’t want to give up drinking. It was too much for the local police stations to handle on their own. Prohibition created more problems than it solved in the 1920s. Even though it made some people stop drinking, it paved way for much more illegal activity regarding speakeasies and organized crime. It became just another thing that piled on the plates of the police force and didn’t stop the amount of crime in New York city. Furthermore, Prohibition put a strain on everyone’s lives. People started riots, drank illegally, and flat out rebelled against prohibition.
-Alex Dueker
Prohibition Is The Mission Did prohibition fuel the rise of organized crime?
A not only interesting but also important question would be, did prohibition fuel the rise of organized crime? In my opinion I would say yes, prohibition made the rate of gangsters and organized crime rise immensely. After the production, distribution and consumption of alcohol was illegalized America was basically split in two. Some people who considered themselves as “dries” believed that prohibition made America better. They thought that alcoholism caused violence, crime, and the breakup of families. Although this is true, it was magnified by prohibition as explained later on. Dries also thought that prohibition would lead to a healthier and happier society. Most of these people lived in rural areas where organized crime was rare and not often talked about. Traditionalists and progressive reforms thought prohibition was going well and was great. The other half of Americans considered themselves to be “wets”. The number of wets was small at first but rose over time. Wets believed that alcohol was needed to have a functioning, well run city. The wet perspective was that prohibition restricted freedom and bred crime. Back to the idea that alcoholism caused violence, crime, and the breakup of families. When people drank excessive amounts of alcohol these things would happen. When prohibition went into effect people turned to underground sources and bootlegging for alcohol. Because of the hard work and
Madison Nesham
secrecy of this people started to take extreme measures to make sure they wouldn’t get caught. The organized crime rate went up as well as the murder rate. People were on the move looking for alcohol anywhere they can get it. This lead to the rise and fall of speakeasies. Al Capone, a well known gangster of the 1920’s and the leader of the Chicago Outlet made roughly 60 million dollars a year by supplying beer to about 10,000 speakeasies. “Prohibition practically created organized crime in America. It provided members of small-time street gangs with the greatest opportunity ever — feeding the need of Americans coast to coast to drink beer, wine and hard liquor on the sly. Organized racketeers dominated the illegal “bootlegging” industry as well as the urban machine “bosses” and the vice kings. They understood banking and other legitimate business and bribed policemen, judges, juries, witnesses, politicians and even federal Prohibition agents as the cost of doing business.”
Madison Nesham
Work Cited Works Cited Benefits of National Prohibition..., www.prohibitionists.org/Background/Benefits_of _Prohibition.htm. Hanson, Ph.D. Prof. David J. “Benefits of Prohibition Were Many, but Rarely Recognized.” Alcohol Problems & Solutions, 28 Mar. 2017, www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/benefits-p rohibition-many-rarely-recognized/. Hart, Diane, and Bert Bower. History Alive!: Pursuing American Ideals. Teachers' Curriculum Institute, 2013. “Prohibition: An Interactive History, Presented by The Mob Museum.” Prohibition: An Interactive History, prohibition.themobmuseum.org/. “Prohibition: An Interactive History, Presented by The Mob Museum.” Prohibition: An Interactive History, prohibition.themobmuseum.org/. Study.com, Study.com, study.com/. www.kannacodemy.org.