History Flash cards
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"Corruption extended to the highest levels of government." Thus, it didn't matter how high up you were or what your position was, chances were, that at one point or another you would give in and either sell alcohol or help an organized crime ring get away with it.
This is the Key card for the #'s 26-76
$$ .https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/corruption-during-prohibition-of-alcohol/ %%% https://www.alcoholproblemsandsolutions.org/prohibition-bootleggers-people-trivia/ 123 http://digitalexhibits.libraries.wsu.edu/exhibits/show/prohibition-in-the-u-s/negative-economic-impacts-of-p ** https://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/the-economic-impacts-of-prohibition/ ^^ http://prohibitionhistory173.weebly.com/corruption.html
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Also a chemist had proven that Near Beer only contained one third of 1 percent of alcohol and was not capable of intoxication. This case highlights the vague enforcement of prohibition. The police had no jurisdiction in this case because Near Beer was being transported as inter-state commerce and state police didn't have federal jurisdiction on the case.
^^ justice system
An abundant amount of criminals were caught, but many had to wait over a year to be put on trial because the government's legal system was unable to keep up. As Prohibition crime cases increased, the judicial system resorted to the plea bargain, where the defendant and prosecutor come to a mutual agreement on a criminal case with the court's approval, thus clearing a multitude of cases at a time.
^^ Corrupt police officers
An attorney general under Warren Harding (who was the President during that time) accepted bribes from bootleggers.[4] Many police officers were in the payroll as salesmen for George Remus, a Cincinnati bootlegger. [4] Charles Fitzmorris, the chief police to William Hale Thompson, who was the mayor of Chicago, stated, "60 percent of my police are in the bootlegging business." [5]
$$ EVIDENCE/ ACTUAL CASES
Boise, Idaho. Officials arrested the police chief, the sheriff and a deputy sheriff, and some others for moonshining. Edgewater, New Jersey. The mayor, chief of police, a sergeant, two detectives, a U.S. customs inspector, and eight others were guilty of conspiracy. A rumrunner confessed that he had paid them $61,000 to help land liquor worth one million dollars. These are cases where government officials, like police officers, were proven guilty of political corruption.
$$ 1/2
But Reeves quickly became disillusioned. Virtually everyone around him drank with impunity. Under political pressure, he had to promise not to raid the state legislature's annual dinner. But worse was the pervasive corruption of law enforcement officers and entire departments. Thus, even the toughest of the tough had to give in to social pressure and disobey the governments order of not drinking.
^^ wow
Charles Fitzmorris, the chief police to William Hale Thompson, who was the mayor of Chicago, stated, "60 percent of my police are in the bootlegging business." [5] 60% of Chicago's police force was involved in an illigal activity involving alcohol.
$$ PC
Corruption existed both among cops on the beat and the Attorney General. It also permeated alcohol enforcement between the extremes of the top and bottom."
$$ . The coast guard
Corruption existed wherever people were empowered to enforce Prohibition. Many members of the U.S. Coast Guard made huge profits by escorting rumrunning boats into ports. This is shocking, just based on the fact that this proves that nearly any person the worked for the government could help bootleggers in one way or another.
123- how much it cost to fight the prohibition
Crime syndicates also saw this as a golden opportunity and saw the power in being an alcohol producer and distributor. The government then had to spend more money to fuel the war against alcohol and other organized crime. The police force at the time was not enough to stop the production and sales of alcohol in the united states and therefore would need an increased budget. The amount of money used to enforce prohibition started at 6.3 million in 1921 and rose to 13.4 million in 1930, almost double the original amount.(Zwiebel 242)
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Customs agents could also confiscated liquor from those who hadn't paid graft. They could then force the rumrunners to pay them off for a high price. Or they could sell the seized alcohol to other smugglers. They could arrest uncooperative rumrunners. This would make it appear as if they weren't corrupt themselves. Agents would confiscate and then sell back liquor from bootleggers, inorder for themselves to not seem corrupt.
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Customs agents often enjoyed a very common method of bribery, the 'free night.' Bootleggers paid agents to be absent for a specific period of time on a specific night. During that time, smugglers could bring in large amounts of alcohol. A law enforcement agent was paid for a specific amount of time, during the night, when they could smuggle alcohol, drugs, etc
2/2- follow up to the previous one
Enforcement was hard because of rampant corruption during Prohibition. Col. Ira Reeves had served in the army during WW I and was a hero. He became head of the New Jersey district for the Prohibition Bureau. The teetotaling Reeves strongly supported Prohibition and fiercely wanted to make it work. He energetically led raids all over the state. Reeves shut down speakeasies, roadhouses, stills, breweries, and bottling plants. He confiscated bootleg shipped by car truck, train and boat. Col. Reeves was indefatigable. How tough and for the prohibition Reeves really was.
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Federal Building was one of the pollution, that the air of corruption had even descended into the civil parts of the courts, and reports were made to the senior United States judge of attempts to bribe jurymen even in the toilets of the building."[1] When the government is unable to enforce and implement the 18th Amendment, Americans loose trust in public law.
123
For the year 1914, the revenue collected in taxes from liquor alone was 226,000,000. (Ames. 264) By prohibiting these sales the United States economy would see large losses directly and indirectly from alcohol sales. Supporters of the prohibition expected an increase in the sales of other products such as other beverages like juice, soda, to replace the money made from alcohol sales, but this could not be further from reality.
$$ EVIDENCE/ ACTUAL CASES
Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Officials arrested the sheriff, the assistant chief of police, and seventeen others for conspiracy. The others included policemen and deputy sheriffs. Morris County, New Jersey. The former county prosecutor was guilty of accepting bribes from liquor-law violators.
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From police officer to bootlegger This Seattle police sergeant arrested many bootleggers. He saw their lack of organization any their many mistakes. Using a more systematic approach, he began moonlighting as a bootlegging. After being caught and fired, he went full-time. Within a short period of time Roy Olmstead became one of Puget Sound's largest employers.
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Government officials that created the 18th Amendment, were obligated to impose the law, yet they were the ones breaking the law. Therefore, the government officials were hypocrites by enforcing a law, that themselves were not even following.
^^ Follow up on Olmstead
He decides to go into bootlegging alcohol full time. His business was a success, making more money than he would earn as a police officer. Olmstead would pay the police and city officials regularly to keep their mouths shut. Suspicion arose, and Olmstead was caught and convicted to four years of labor. He challenged his conviction, which became a U.S. Supreme Court case, Olmstead v. U.S. (1928) [6]
$$ Al Capone talking about political corruption; paying cops
He said 'I got nothing against the honest cop on the beat. You just have them transferred someplace where they can't do you any harm.' Of course, there were always plenty of corrupt officers to replace them. Police officials often warned speakeasies of impending raids or let evidence, such as liquor, disappear, and judges dismissed charges.
!!@- who was bootlegging
He states that 30% of the criminals in Chicago where of Italian background, 29 percent were of Irish background 20 % were Jewish background and 12 percent were black.(3) Thus, mainly immigrants from foreign countries, trying to achieve the American dream.
%%% What the jury would do
In 1928, a Los Angeles jury drank the evidence against a bootlegger on trial. They said they had go be certain that it contained alcohol. The bootlegger had to be released for lack of evidence.
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In a hearing before the subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary, military men were assigned of "preventing the smuggling of liquor from the seas into the United States, 7 temporary warrant officers, 11 permanent enlisted men, and 25 temporary enlisted men have been convicted of yielding, in one form or another, to the seductions of money or liquor in connection with prohibition work."[3]
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Instead, the unintended consequences proved to be a decline in amusement and entertainment industries across the board. Restaurants failed, as they could no longer make a profit without legal liquor sales. Theater revenues declined rather than increase, and few of the other economic benefits that had been predicted came to pass. They were wrong, and many businesses failed.
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It sounds like people stayed home back then too. Of course, some people would say that we are not living in a new prohibition era because the sale of tobacco has not been prohibited. However, while you can still buy tobacco (at vastly inflated prices), you have been prohibited from smoking it almost everywhere. Smoking was on the rise.
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Judicial corruption also hindered prosecution. For example, police caught bootleggers red-handed unloading moonshine from a barge in the Rancocas Creek in New Jersey. Yet prosecutors dropped all charges for supposed 'lack of evidence.' there was also judicial corruption when a judge or jury would vote in favor of the criminal/ bootlegger at hand being proven guilty
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Ku Klux Klan strongly supported Prohibition and its strict enforcement. In the face of lax enforcement, it took it upon itself to attack bootleggers. Surprisingly, the KKK were in favor of the prohibition, and took the side with the government and fought against the bootleggers. One would think that they would fight against the government, but nope.
$$ . PC
Major bootlegger George Remus had a thousand salespeople on his payroll. Many of them were in law enforcement. The Prohibition Bureau bugged his hotel suite when he had a meeting with 44 men. It was to work out some of the logistics of his illegal operation. All 44 were on his payroll. They included politicians, prohibition agents and federal marshals. Remus estimated that half his receipts went as bribes.
$$ political corruption
Many of the high profits of bootlegging went to corrupt law enforcement officials. It was a cost of doing business. Bootleggers went to corrupt law officials in order to get around the system and make money by any means necessary.
123- movie theaters/ night life shut down?
Movie theatres although expected to increase revenues found themselves losing them, from a result of not being able to sell alcohol. The money brought in through night life also saw a dramatic loss. Many bars had to shut down due to the fact their business was now considered illegal. Night clubs and dance halls which heavily depended on alcohol sales found themselves losing customers and revenue.
The economy $$
National Prohibition (1920-1933) put the fifth largest industry in the U.S. out of business. That industry had satisfied the demand for beer, wine and spirits from tens of millions of consumers. Naturally, illegal producers quickly stepped in to supply the demand.
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On the whole, the initial economic effects of Prohibition were largely negative. Thus, the prohibition did not help America's economy at all and only helped the organized crime leaders make more money.
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One of the most powerful prohibitionists in the U.S., Clarence True Wilson, argued that bootleggers should be killed. He insisted that 'The only good bootlegger is a dead bootlegger.' Wow
$$ EVIDENCE/ ACTUAL CASES
Philadelphia. A jury found a city magistrate guilty of taking $87,993 in liquor bribes during his ten months in office. That's about $1,250,000 in todays dollars. South Jacksonville, Florida. A federal grand jury indicted almost the entire city administration. It included the mayor, chief of police, president of the city council, city commissioner, and fire chief.
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Prohibition clearly benefited some people. Notorious bootlegger Al Capone made over 800,000,000 in today's dollars...per year untaxed! Just how much money was going into the prohibition, and obviously no0 need to stop for most immigrants.
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Prohibition laws were interpreted differently by different states. The consumption of alcohol was illegal during prohibition, but alcohol replacements had existed. Near Beer was an alcohol replacement. One place it was brewed was in the Manitowoc brewery in Wisconsin. The people in Iowa still thought Near Beer was an alcoholic beverage and the transportation and consumption of Near Beer were illegal in some states each stat interpreted the 18th amendment. Differently, some thought that beer completely illegal, while others still viewed it.
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Prohibition made consumption and distribution of alcohol illegal. It was also thought to improve some of the violence and crime that already existed in the United States. Though that was the intention, it also caused many political, criminal and even judicial issues. Prohibition was then later repealed in 1933.
^^ Police couldn't keep up with enforcing the 18th amendment
Prohibition proved to fail because the 18th Amendment was nearly impossible to enforce. Many law enforcers in the Bureau of Prohibition and at the state and local level, were corrupt and took briberies.
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Prohibition's supporters were initially surprised by what did not come to pass during the dry era. When the law went into effect, they expected sales of clothing and household goods to skyrocket. Real estate developers and landlords expected rents to rise as saloons closed and neighborhoods improved. Chewing gum, grape juice, and soft drink companies all expected growth. Theater producers expected new crowds as Americans looked for new ways to entertain themselves without alcohol. People/ companies/ businesses thought that when alcohol would become illegal, then Americans would buy other products.
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Reeves tried to shut down a brewery. So the chief of police in Trenton had Reeves' agents arrested for carrying concealed guns without a permit. In Essex County local police showed up to protect a still. Reeves then discovered that his own agents had been accepting bribes. (He became convinced that Prohibition was unenforceable. Reeves resigned and later became a leader in the movement to repeal Prohibition.) Even when Reeves tried to shut down illegal bootlegging operations, he was stopped by the police and was caught off guard by his fellow co-workers accepting bribes. Eventually ending in his resignation, because he thought that the prohibition was unfightable.
123 Mass loss of jobs, across the USA, hundreds of businesses
Since alcohol sales were now prohibited, these large companies would now have to shut down not only halting the revenue collected in taxes through alcohol sales but also put thousands of Americans out of jobs. But these companies were not the only ones hurt by the new law. Establishments that would strictly sell alcohol were shut down, creating even more loss in jobs and revenue in the economy. The Beareau of Internal revenue estimated that the prohibition cause the shutdown of over 200 distilleries, a thousand breweries, and over 170,000 liquor stores
123- no tax=larger loss in revenues
Since these establishments participated illegal sales of alcohol none of the transactions for alcohol were being taxed by the government which caused an even larger loss in revenues.
123- never ending sales
Some of the problems in stopping these syndicates were that they would often bribe or pay the police forces or political powers in order to ship and continue their production safely. The corruption during the time was a huge problem as the crime syndicates were essentially above the law. As long as there was corruption and the demand for alcohol in the united states there would be a never ending battle against the alcohol sales in the united states and a costly one at that.
$$PC
Some policemen, on salaries less than $4,000 a year, had up to $200,000 in the bank. That's about $2,750,000 in today's dollars. Thus, it was obvious and evident that the some/ most cops had no problem getting paid to look the other way when mobsters were selling and dealing alcohol.
!!@- Bad for the government, but good for the people.
The Day, a newspaper in Iowa, stated some of the effects prohibition had on the economy. It stated that the direct cost of crime in the city Rochester, New York was nearly $1.5 million in 1929.(2)
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The federal government intentionally poisoned industrial alcohol that could be diverted to beverage use. The head of the Anti-Saloon League and other leading Prohibitionists defended this practice that killed thousands of people. I cannot believe that the united states government would kill its people by poisoning what they drink, genuinely astonishing.
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The highest law enforcement officer in the country is the Attorney General. U.S. Attorney General Harry Daughtery was guilty of selling alcohol illegally and giving licenses and pardons to offenders. He also took bribes from other bootleggers.
^^ Drinking was a past time for Americans
The ratification of the 18th Amendment on January 17, 1920 was also intended for the citizens and officials to assimilate to the law but became a disastrous event to the nation. Going to bars and having a good time with alcoholic beverages was apart of society's culture. To take that away suddenly caused people to find other ways to get ahold of alcohol or participate in illegal alcoholic activities.\ Drinking was a part of America's halftime, and by the government just taking it away all of a sudden, people were going to find another way to continue with that.
$$ Cartoon
This popular cartoon was about corruption during Prohibition. Titled "The National Gesture," it suggests the widespread nature of corruption. It portrays a prohibition agent, police officer, politician, magistrate, petty official and member of the clergy. Each has his hand extended in the "national gesture."
^^ Photo rep
http://prohibitionhistory173.weebly.com/uploads/1/8/3/8/18389853/1365101471.png Photo rep
