PROHIBITION

Attachments:

• Prohibition

1. WHAT WAS IT?
   1. the selling, transporting or drinking of alcohol
      1. the 18th amendment made it part of US Constitution
   2. it was the final success of groups who thought alcohol brought poverty, broke up marriages, caused crime and destroyed industry
      1. Temperance Union
         1. founded in 1874
      2. Anti-Saloon League
         1. founded in 1895
   3. VOLSTEAD ACT
      1. defined an alcoholic drink as any more than 0.5% alcohol
      2. 1917
2. EFFECTS
   1. the ban wasn't popular most people saw nothing wrong with having a drink and found ways of getting round the law
      1. 'MOONSHINE'
         1. home brewed alcohol that often caused illness and even death
   2. an illegal industry started with illegal bars and imports
      1. they sold smuggled in alcohol from the West Indies and whiskey from Canada
         1. 'BOOTLEGGERS'
      2. 'SPEAKEASIES'
         1. there were a quarter of a million in the USA
         2. 30, 000 in New York alone
3. ORGANISED CRIME
   1. vast profits could be made from illegal alcohol this attracted gangsters
      1. AL CAPONE
         1. Italian immigrant
         2. 700 men
            1. armed with sawn-off shot guns and machine guns created his own privet army
               1. rival with the 'Bugs' Moran gang
         3. operated in Chicago
         4. many of Chicago's judges, police officers and politicians were in his pay
            1. POLICE CORRUPTION
   2. many gangsters ran speakeasies and protection rackets. they were involved in prostitution and drug trafficking
      1. gangland murders increased as rival gangs found for each others territory
         1. in Chicago 277 gang members were murdered in 4 years without anyone being convicted
            1. POLICE CORRUPTION
   3. St. Valentines masacure
      1. 1929
      2. Al Capone's men machine gunned down 7 members of the 'Bugs' Moran gang
4. FAILURE OF PROHIBITION
   1. Roosevelt repealed the 18th amendment
      1. December 1933
   2. the Prohibition Bureau employed only 4000 agents for the whole of America most of whom were ineffective
      1. 1 in 10 were sacked
      2. some were effective notably Eliot Ness

         Annotations:

         • leader of the famous law enforcement team 'THE UNTOUCHABLES' in Chicago. 
   3. popular support didn't back prohibition so more Americans were prepared to break the law than stick to it
   4. the crime associated with prohibition was gradually brought under control
   5. all they could eventually arrest Al Capone for was tax evasion
      1. 1932