US_Ch6_webquest2-Prohibition

=**Was Prohibition a failure and unpopular, which is why it was repealed by the 21st amendment?**=

For decades, the typical "story" was that Prohibition was passed by the efforts of a handful of hick, hayseed preachers who got it snuck into law because the public wasn't paying attention. Also, Prohibition is said to have failed except that it caused the "rise" of organized crime (bootleggers, speakeasies, Al Capone). The part that is correct is that Prohibition failed to end the production and sale of liquor and it was repealed by the 21st amendment. However, by the end of Prohibition, less alcohol was being consumed per capita than before. Attempts to control drunkeness and saloons didn't start with Prohibition (wasn't just a Progressive Era goal) as Lincoln had run with "temperance" in his platform and most states had laws against alcohol before the 18th amendment. Arrests for drunkenness, hospitalization, alcoholism, and incidents of cirrhosis of the liver declined steadily in the early years of Prohibition to low points around 1921. A survey of social workers found that working people drank less in Prohibition and living conditions among low-income workers improved. By the 1900s, the saloon wasn't viewed as a sports bar or friendly neighborhood pub like many view today's taverns, but as a depraved center for all of society's ills - prostitution, gambling, crime - all which came from the saloon and most people thought that certain diseases were therefore linked to saloons. The Mann Act was even passed to ban interstate transport of females for immoral purposes (prostitution). Your textbook (p381) isn't completely one sided but does lean heavy on blaming Prohibition for organized crime as if organized crime wouldn't happen if alcohol was legal.


 * 2. How was Prohibition showing early signs of success?**
 * 3. How were saloons viewed in the early 1900s?**

Since Prohibition was an amendment to the Constitution, it had to have overwhelming support (not just "hick, hayseed preachers who got it snuck into law"), not just support of fundamental Protestants, since 3/4 of the states would have to approve a proposed amendment for it to actually become an amendment to the Constitution. It was only after Prohibition had "failed" and was repealed that Progressives sought to pin the legislation on religion as a way to demean religion (remember, modern Progressives want large government and therefore must demean the Founders, the Constitution, and religion).


 * 4. Why would it be impossible for one small group to get the Constitution amended without wide spread public approval?**

Why did Prohibition "fail" and get repealed? First, it lacked enforcement mechanisms that were needed. The federal government provided 1,500 agents to support local law enforcement, while gangs like Al Capone's could almost match that number. Officers of the Prohibition Bureau were exempt from civil service requirements meaning politicians put in their friends to "enforce" the law. Professionals were the majority of those who held positions in the Prohibition Bureau. Second, there was a dual set of laws - state and federal - agaisnt alcohol. Neither level appropriated enough funding for enfocement since each level (state and federal) expected the other level to do so. In addition, some states that enforced their own laws before 1919, did not do so after since they expected the feds to enforce Prohibition.


 * 5. How should the federal level Prohibition Bureau have worked to properly handle Prohibition?**

People believed that a "crime wave" existed and organized crime grew as a direct result of Prohibition. First of all, criminal minds don't need an excuse - Prohibition - to commit crimes. Moreover, a study by criminologists found no evidence of one, but rather a slowly rising level of crime in urban areas that had not adjusted to the rise in population in the cities due to industrialization. Furthermore, by definition crime had to increase no matter what once alcohol was banned because alcohol related crimes weren't crimes before alcohol was illegal. Mobsters like Capone did get into bootlegging, but all other aspects of his organized crime were being done before Prohibition. It's just once Prohibition was in, bootlegging became one more crime he was committing. In addition, Prohibition became "uncool" as liquor became a luxury item and elites began to flaunt drinking as a sign of rebellion.


 * 6. How should one respond to a person who says Prohibition began organized crime?**

Repeal began with the press supported by the "most effective publicity campaigns of moder times," led by the Association Against the Prohibition Amendment, a group funded in the late 1920s by liquor industry money. Playing on journalists own bias and preferences, the AAPA "developed a virtual monopoly on liquor and Prohibitions press coverage." The final nail came in the Great Depression when both the federal and state governments saw additional revenue of alcohol taxes as irresistible. Elites decided drinking was cool and joined the journalists in their propaganda campaign that "crime was rising" and "enforcement didn't work." Prohibition's days were numbered with an interest group against Prohibition having support of the press who had control of what got put in the newspapers (no TV or Internet then to check out the facts for yourself). Many try to use this as to why morality cannot be legislated (current issue of marijuana), but don't look at the real history.


 * 7. Why might the average person who simply read the newspaper in the 1930s support repeal of the 18th amendment (Prohibition)?**

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