The Prohibition
Prohibition began on midnight of January 16, 1920. After decades of crusade by prohibitionists touting the calamities of 'demon rum' many people got the idea that most of what was wrong with America was caused by booze. They saw prohibition as the silver hammer that would decimate all of their alcohol-related woes. Instead, it turned out to be the lodestone that led America into thirteen years of chaos. The Eighteenth Amendment was put into effect to prohibit the manufacture, sale and transportation of all intoxicating liquors. Shortly afterward, the Volstead Act, named for author Andrew J. Volstead, was put into effect. This complimentary law determined intoxicating liquor as anything having an alcohol content of more than 0.5 percent, omitting alcohol used for medicinal and sacramental purposes; this act set up guidelines for enforcement as well (Altman 15). After the Volstead Act was put into place to determine precise laws and methods of enforcement, the Federal Prohibition Bureau was developed in order to see that the Volstead Act was enforced. Nevertheless, bootleggers and commoners alike frequently violated these laws. Bootleggers smuggled liquor from overseas and Canada, stole it from government warehouses, or simpl
The prohibitionists made the seemingly valid argument that if drinking were not allowed, then Americans would drink less. "Vine-Glo", a type of grape juice, was sold with clear-cut instructions for preventing the product from fermenting into wine, which could then be counter-acted. They were hidden by basement and back door entrances, and usually operated under a "members only" basis. Capone ordered hitman Jack McGurn to murder Bugs Moran and the O'Banion/Weiss gang, which Moran had recently taken control of. In addition to the alcoholic option of speakeasies, many home products were sold to customers who wanted small quantities of alcohol. Although prohibition did reduce the availability of alcohol, it was still fairly easy to acquire. Although towards the start of prohibition the crime rate did, to some extent, drop; it soon skyrocketed to nearly twice what it had been previously. It eventually came down to the 1932 presidential election. With only 1,550 federal agents and over 18,700 miles of extensive coastline, it was quite impossible to prevent large quantities of liquor from entering the country. Capone, meanwhile, had a watertight alibi, as he was in Miami at the time. Accordingly, the consumption of alcohol fell immediately after the start of prohibition; however, there was a subsequent increase after less than a year. It was seldom enforced, and when it was, there was usually a massive outburst in response. In her book, Linda Altman points out that Chicago was the capital of the racketeers. James Barry sums up the cause for this well in his book The Noble Experiment, Barry states "As a result of one bad law, public regard for all laws diminished" (Barry 77. The natural result of this is that the number of federal convicts over the course of the prohibition period rose 561 percent.
Common topics in this essay:
O'Banion/Weiss Capone,
Volstead Act,
Eighteenth Amendment,
York City,
Experiment Barry,
,
Ezra Bowen,
Andrew Volstead,
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smuggled liquor,
bugs moran,
eighteenth amendment,
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bowen notes,
replaced saloons,
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Acceptance Essays
