Prohibition
- Created by: Christanina
- Created on: 16-04-17 15:03
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- Prohibition
- Causes
- Groups against the sale of alcohol like the Anti-Saloon league were well organised
- 75% of US States had voted in favour of prohibition following WW1
- Alcohol became associated with absenteeism
- People saw it as damaging to the economy and family life
- Alcohol seen as a cause of poverty and crime
- Main breweries were German - seen as unpatriotic
- Volstead law passed in January 1920, accepted by many but not obeyed
- Effects and Problems
- Speakeasies (illegal bars) opened up
- Number of Speakeasies - 250,000
- Sold Alcohol from abroad (bootlegging)
- People brewed alcohol illegally. Called Moonshine
- Government appointed 4,000 agents to enforce the law
- There wasn't enough agents to enforce the law and some happily took bribes
- Izzy Einstein and Moe Smith managed close down 3,000 speakeasies in early 1920s
- Organised Crime
- Alcohol trade driven underground
- Gangs of criminals ran bootlegging schemes
- Most notorious criminal - Al Capone
- Employed 1,000 men
- Seen as a celebrity
- Popular with the public for supplying them with alcohol
- Less popular after 1929 St Valentines Massacre
- 6 members of the bugs Moran gang were gunned down
- End of Prohibition
- Ended by FDR
- Great Depression hit America hard
- Ended in 1933
- Legalising alcohol would create many legal jobs
- Causes
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