Prohibition Flashcards
Prohibition
The nationwide ban on the production, transportation and sale of alcohol from 1920-33
What group had campaigned against alcohol since the 19th century?
The Temperance Movement (religious people who thought drinking was bad for social standards and morals)
What were the main pro-prohibition groups?
The Anti-Saloon League
The Women’s Temperance Society
What did people in rural areas hope?
Prohibition would help to restore a more traditional way of life- worried at the influence which cities were having
Why was making alcohol seen as a waste of grain?
Many Europeans were starving following the destruction of farmland during WW1
What did drinking cause because of the drunkenness?
A drop in factory and farm output
Who thought prohibition would make a more reliable workforce as there would be less hangovers?
John Rockefeller
How many babies were smothered each year by drunk parents?
3000
Why was drinking seen as unpatriotic?
It gave German brewers large amounts of money because many beers on sale in America were either imported from Germany or brewed by German immigrants
After 1917, it was said that the Bolsheviks drank alcohol
How did the government enforce prohibition?
Ran information campaigns
Prohibition agents arrested offenders
How many prohibition agents were there?
Around 1500
Two famous prohibition agents
Issy Einstein
Moe Smith
How many arrests did Einstein and Smith make?
4932
How did Einstein and Moe make arrests?
Keep raids low key
Enter speakeasies and order a drink
Einstein had a hidden flask where he preserved the evidence
What type of admissions to state mental hospitals decreased?
Alcoholic psychosis
How did alcohol consumption fall?
80% to 50%
In 1921, how many arrests did Federal agents make? How many did this rise to by 1929?
34,000
67,000
What % did death rate due to alcohol decrease by?
42%
What % did the death rate due to cirrhosis of the liver decrease by?
70%
What % did crime decrease by?
54%
What % did insanity decrease by?
66%
What % did arrests for public drunkenness and disorderly conduct decrease by?
50% between 1916 and 1922
Where did prohibition gain widespread approval?
Rural mid west
What did the government run to gain approval for prohibition?
Information campaigns
How did prohibition agents try to enforce the law?
Locate places that sold or made alcohol then make arrests and confiscate the alcohol
How many miles of coastline and land borders did the USA have to control?
18,600 miles
What was bootlegging?
Alcohol being smuggled in by sea or over the border from Mexico or Canada
Why was prohibition difficult to enforce?
Millions willing to continue drinking, breaking the law
Bootlegging
Why was it very easy to get alcohol?
Criminal gangs got involved in making and supplying it
What did gangs run?
Illegal bars (speakeasies)
What did speakeasies sell?
Bootleg alcohol
Moonshine
What was moonshine?
A home made spirit
Where were speakeasies hidden?
Cellars or private hotel rooms
How did gangs avoid arrest and prosecution?
Bribed police officers, prohibition agents, border guards and judges
How else did gangs make money?
Fixing horse and dog races
Running brothels
Racketeering
What was racketeering?
When businessmen paid money to gangs to stop them smashing up their premises
What phrase was coined to describe the gangs’ behaviour?
Organised crime
How much did Al Capone make from racketeering?
$10 million a year
Where was prohibition never supported?
Cities
What did states do that didn’t agree with prohibition?
Repealed the law and left it up to the Federal Government to enforce it
Why did millions not support it?
They wanted to drink
Where was prohibition not even introduced?
Maryland
By 1925, what were there more of than there had been legal saloons in 1919?
Speakeasies
What did George Remus give men?
$25,000 cuff links to turn a blind eye against his activities
Ratio of agents that were corrupt
1:12
What mayor was corrupted?
Bill Thompson in Chicago
What did prohibition lead to?
Organised crime and violence
Where did gangsters control?
Cities
How much did Capone make a year in Chicago from illegal alcohol?
$60 million a year
What were hoodlums?
Gangs’ private armies of gangsters who fought to defend their business
Example of gang violence associated with prohibition?
Valentine’s Day Massacre- 14th February 1929
How many unsolved murders took place in Chicago?
300
In Cooks County, Chicago, how many gangland murders took place? How many killers were arrested?
130
None arrested
How much did gangsters make in total?
Over $2 billion
What did moonshine cause? Why was this?
Blindness and death
Made from industrial strength alcohol
What was the government losing by banning the alcohol industry?
A large amount of tax
How many speakeasies were there?
200,000
What group protested against prohibition?
The Association Against the Prohibition Amendment
What would be created if alcohol was legalised?
Legal jobs in the brewing industry
Why were there not enough agents?
Poorly paid
Each responsible for large areas
How many distilleries were seized?
280,000
Who supplied speakeasies?
Bootleggers
Fraction of illegal alcohol coming from Canada
2/3
What was the name of a famous bootlegger who brought in alcohol by sea?
Caption McCoy
This is where the phrase ‘the real McCoy’ comes from
What did Captain McCoy specialise in?
The finest Scottish whisky
Who caught their corrupt agents?
Don Chaplin
New York FBI boss
How did Don Chaplin discover his corrupt agents?
Ordered his 200 agents ‘put your hands on the table. Every son of a bitch wearing a diamond is fired’
5 reasons why prohibition was ended
Lacked support (many ordinary people broke the law) Not enough agents Led to organised crime and violence Health problems Lost vital taxes
