Prohibition (T1) Flashcards
When was the 18th amendment act put in place?
1918
What was the 18th amendment?
Banned the sale, transportation and manufacture of intoxicating liquor
What was the loophole in the 18th amendment?
The consumption of alcohol was not illegal
What was the Volstead act?
it defined an ‘intoxicating liquor’ as any drink containing more than 0.5% alcohol
Why did women want prohibition?
Women saw alcohol as a means by which men oppressed them
Why did big businesses want prohibition?
- drunkenness in the workplace lead to ineffective working
- examples; Henry Ford, Harding, Coolidge, Heinz and The Rockefeller Corporation
Why did religious groups want prohibition?
They saw alcohol as the work of the devil and was overwhelmingly responsible for sin and wrongdoing
What was a typical supporter of prohibition like?
- Protestant
- Live in small towns in the South and West
- (except in the south) tended to vote Republican
When was the Volstead act?
1920
What were opponents to prohibition like?
- Likely to be urban
- Of non-northern European ethnic origin
- Roman catholic
- Democrats
By 1917 how many states had already passed prohibition laws?
27
What 2 factors lead to increased popularity of prohibition?
- The impact of the war
- Disorganisation of the opposition
Why during WW1 was grain used much less for alcoholic drinks?
They used it for food instead, therefore people felt it was patriotic to live without alcohol
What year was the Lever Act?
1917
What was the Lever Act?
Grain was banned from being used in the manufacture of alcoholic drinks
Why did many people not want to buy alcohol from large brewers such as Ruppert, Plabst and Leiber?
They were German brewers and during the war there was a strong anti-German feeling
Why was the opposition to prohibition not successful?
They were not well organised, there were a few rallies, but other than this there was little protest
What were the main 5 reasons for the failure of prohibition?
- Bootleggers
- Geography/scale of the aim
- Industrial alcohol
- Disagreements between the “dry lobby”
- Speakeasies and the desire to have a good time
Why was the size of America an issue when in came to enforcing prohibition?
- America had 18,700 miles of coastline and land border
- Waters on the east coast became known as ‘rum row’
How successful was the smuggling of alcohol due the the size of America?
- In 1925 Kramer guessed only 5% of all alcohol smuggled in was intercepted
- In 1924 around $40mil worth seized, business was estimated at around $800mil
What did bootleggers do?
- They bought alcohol from chemists on prescription as this was still available
- They brewed it and then sold it on
Who was George Remus?
- The ‘king of bootleggers’
- Made $5mil in 5 years
- would manufacture medical alcohol then an army of 3,000 gangsters would hijack his products and would divert them to illegal stills
How many people died in NYC from alcohol poisoning?
34
Why was the illegally manufactured alcohol called moonshine?
The alcohol was made in remote areas by the light of the moon
Why was moonshine dangerous?
There was no quality control as it was not regulated - people died
How did people try to remove the horrid taste from moonshine?
By making exotic cocktails
Who would run speakeasies?
Gangsters
Who tended to go to speakeasies?
fashionable city dwellers
What were the 4 main reasons for prohibition?
- Influential supporters
- Pressure from temperance groups and religious groups
- Aim was to stop alcohol trade
- Gov. supporters concerned with moral regulation of a changing society
How many treasury agents were employed to enforce prohibition?
3000
How much were treasury agents compared to the profits of illegal industry?
$2,500 compared to $2 billion
Why was there a divide in the oposition?
The anti-saloon league was divided as some members wanted stricter enforcement and others wanted education to stop people from drinking in the first place.
What did the Anti-saloon league estamiate that would be needed to enforce the prohibition compared to what was given?
$5 million
$2 million
What did the prohibition led to?
A huge growth in organised crime.
Give an example of an illegal alcohol bossiness in Chicago?
John Torrio, ran most of the illegal alcohol businesses in Chicago and retired in 1925 with savings of $30 million
Who was the most notorious gangsta?
how much had he made when he went to prison in 1932?
Al Capone
$70 million
How was Capone a man of violence give examples?
Had an army of 700 and gangsters committed 300 murders.
What did supports say about the successes of prohibition
That consumption fell from 2.6 gallons per year to 1 per year per person
Arrests and deaths from alcoholism fell
Fewer accidents in the work place
What did Hoover do in may 1929?
He set up the Wickersham Commission to investigate the effectiveness of prohibition?
What did the Wickersham Commission deliberate?
that the prohibition law could not be enforced.
It took up 66% of the law in enforcement budget
When was the 18th amendment abolished?
In 1933 by Roosevelt
What were the reasons for its failure?
Geographical size made enforcement impossible
Bootleggers
Easy to redistill industrial alcohol
Lack of resources or enforcement
Desires for pleasure among many Americans
Disagreements amount ‘Dry lobby”
