Prohibition

Prohibition, A Complete Failure

Prohibition had become an issue long before its eventual induction as the 18th amendment in 1920. Organizations came about for the sole purpose of an alcohol free America. In 1833, an estimated one million Americans belonged to some type of temperance association (Behr 12). Many believed the absence of alcohol would help the poor as well as big business. Lower class people would put more money into savings accounts and productivity would increase among workers (Hanson 27). More importantly the “noble experiment”—was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, and improve the health and hygiene in America” (Thorton 1).

Although gangsters of the 1920’s were notorious for their violent turf wars,“the fundamental problem with prohibition was that an increasing percentage of American citizens refused to uphold the law” (Hanson 40). Not only did crime increase, ironically, prohibition turned ordinary citizens into lawbreakers.

“In San Francisco, a jury trying a prohibition case was found drinking up the liquor that had been used in court as evidence” (Edey 154). In Texas, shortly after the start of prohibition,” a still turning out 130 gallons of whiskey a day was found operating on the farm of Senator Morris Shepard, author of the 18th Amendment”(Edey 154).

“Americans bought machines for distilling liquor, called stills, at the hardware store.” (Hanson 28). Even if they did not know how to use them they easily get the

information from the public library (Hanson28). Everything you could imagine was put into use to make liquor, even bathtubs (Hanson 28). “In fact, bathtub gin became a common term to describe during the decade” (Hanson28).

“Doctors and druggists were legally allowed to dispense alcohol as medicine” (Hanson 34). “An average of 10 million prescriptions were issued each year during the thirteen years prohibition was in effect” (Hanson 34).

In summary, ordinary citizens were consuming alcohol, an illegal act. They were making alcoholic beverages. They were getting doctors to prescribe alcohol for them under questionable circumstances making the medical profession their accomplice.

Somebody had to satisfy the need for alcohol to an eager nation. This is where the rise in organized crime came in. “For the first time the United States experienced a massive ...

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...e or prohibition agents zeroed-in on breweries, Capone was forewarned and hastily converted the targeted facilities to production of near-beer (Heimel 38).

As one example of the amount of money changing hands, consider George Remus. He was one of the most profitable, if not the most profitable, bootlegger of the 1920’s. Out of the estimated $40,000,000 a year that he made, half of it went for bribes and payoffs (Behr 104).

Prohibition has been called the “noble experiment” that failed (Hanson 26, 27). One of the reasons behind its monumental failure is that it made criminals of ordinary

citizens. Decent, hardworking people broke the law simply because they took a drink of alcohol. And what a drink they took, consumption went from .8 to 1.3 gallons per capita between 1919 and 1929 (Thornton 2). To support this heavy demand for booze criminal gangs became more organized and ruthless, protected by corrupt officials. Corruption dramatically increased in prohibition. And who were people that were corrupted? Ordinary citizens were corrupted, who before prohibition, were decent, law abiding individuals.