The Failures of Prohibition
Outlines the failures of Prohibition and evaluates some points.
- Created by: Grac3
- Created on: 24-04-14 12:07
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- The Failures of Prohibition
- Practical enforcement problems
- 3000 officers, on an average salary of $2500
- Could not have been enforced with so few officers
- Low salary led to corruption (10% of officers arrested for corruption)
- However, Eliot Ness led the team which put Al Capone in jail, therefore there were some successes with enforcement
- Medicinal alcohol was still legal
- George Remus made $5m in five years by selling medicinal alcohol to bootleggers
- Popularity of speakeasies
- Could get alcohol in 20 minutes
- Deaths from alcoholism rose by 600%
- Counties and states which supported Prohibition still made it impossible to get alochol
- Farmers could make illegal alcohol from crops
- One brand, ******* Brandy, could cause internal bleeding
- 3000 officers, on an average salary of $2500
- Growth of organised crime
- The money which the government could have gained from alcohol went to gangsters
- John Torrio retired with $30m
- Al Capone was on $60m a year
- Gangsters had 'friends in high places' leading to judicial and political corruption
- Mayor 'Big Bill' Thompson of Chicago allowed John Torrio free reign in the city
- Al Capone went to Alcatraz for 11 years on tax evasion, rather than for the (approx) 400 deaths that he ordered
- There was a growth in violent crime e.g. the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre
- The money which the government could have gained from alcohol went to gangsters
- Opposition within society and government
- Politicians were not willing to follow Prohibition laws themselves; at the Democratic Party Conference 1920, delegates were offered free illegal whiskey
- Business tycoons showed no intention of adhering to the laws (and they were rich and influential voters)
- Those who supported Prohibition couldn't decide whether education or strict law enforcement was the best way to prevent alcohol consumption
- Practical enforcement problems
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