Why did Prohibition fail?

Question 1

Geographical factors made it too difficult to enforce

Answer 1

• USA has 18,700 miles of coastline and border, meaning smuggling alcohol into the states became incredibly easy
• Smuggling was so successful that only 5% of the illegal alcohol being smuggled was intercepted
• In 1924, Prohibition enforcers seized $40 million worth of alcohol, but the actual value of alcohol was $800 mil

Question 2

There was no effective enforcement from the Government

Answer 2

• No one in government seemed to be prepared to say openly that prohibition could not be enforced because Americans liked to drink alcohol
• Congress did not enforce prohibition because they did not want to alienate the rich and influential voters who enjoyed a drink

Question 3

There was no effective enforcement from Treasury Agents

Answer 3

• 3000 Treasury agents were employed to enforce prohibition and were only paid a salary on $2,500 to shut down illegal industry
• Many treasury agents were corrupt due to the low wages, one agent made $7million selling illegal licences and pardons to bootleggers

Question 4

It was easy for the public to obtain illegal alcohol through bootleggers or industry

Answer 4

• ‘Bootleggers’ went into business, as producers and distributors of illegal alcohol
• The ‘King of the Bootleggers’, George Remus, bought up various breweries on the eve of Prohibition to hijack the manufacture of medicinal alcohol; he then arranged 300 gangsters to hijack his products and divert them to the illegal stills of the big cities.

Question 5

Organised crime was extremely powerful and could ignore prohibition

Answer 5

Mobsters controlled territories by force and established monopolies in the manufacture and sale of alcohol. These territories and monopolise were defended violently as potentially hugely profitable enterprises were involved