SOCIAL STUDIES
a
A permanent ban on the sale, transportation, making, and exporting(sale) of alcoholic beverages was accepted by passage of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by Congress in December, 1917. The "noble experiment" claimed that the nation's health would improve dramatically without alcohol, and that crime would drop drastically.
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Billy Sunday delivered this quotation during a speech at the beginning of prohibition. Many people believed and hoped that prohibition would make the above true. However, as they watched and waited, they realized that nothing was improved, and somehow, things had gotten worse.
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It goes almost without question that Prohibition presented an enormous opportunity for organized crime. The people who were formally in the business of operating shady brothels and gambling rings now had a new vice to capitalize on—one that many people in big cities such as New York and Chicago could sorely do without. The police were hardly a problem. Tammany Hall, a powerful political machine in New York, was well entrenched in the practice of taking bribes and protecting underground crime spots.
b
Many boot-leggers had said that the Eighteenth Amendment did not prohibit the possession or drinking of alcoholic beverages privately. Also that the possession of liquor purchased before the 1920s' Prohibition act( 18th amendment) was legal. Many of these people did not see anything wrong with alcohol and didn't want it to be prevented, therefore they would do what ever they could to get some alcohol.
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Many people in todays society believe alcohol should be banned due to the high rate in teen and adults deaths while driving under the influence of an alcohol substance. This year there was already 1,064,250 deaths and increasing from alcohol for many reasons including Drunk driving, Alcohol poisoning, Fights, Suicide, and Overdose
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Not only did the number of serious crimes increase, but crime became organized. Criminal groups organize around the steady source of income provided by laws against victimless crimes such as consuming alcohol or drugs, gambling and prostitution. he contributing factor to the sudden increase of felonies was the organization of crime, especially in large cities. Because liquor was no longer legally available, the public turned to gangsters(Mafia) who readily took on the bootlegging industry and supplied them with liquor. On account of the industry being so profitable, more gangsters became involved in the money-making business. Crime became so organized because "criminal groups organize around the steady source of income provided by laws against victimless crimes such as consuming alcohol. As a result of the money involved in the bootlegging industry, there was much rival between gangs.
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On January 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Exactly one year later (January 16, 1920), this Amendment went into affect, making the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor illegal and beginning Prohibition in the United States.
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Police funding: INCREASED $11.4 Million Arrests for Prohibition Las Violations: INCREASED 102+% Arrests for Drunkenness and Disorderly Conduct: INCREASED 41% Arrests of Drunken Drivers: INCREASED 81% Thefts and Burglaries: INCREASED 9% Homicides, Assault, and Battery: INCREASED 13% Number of Federal Convicts: INCREASED 561% Federal Prison Population: INCREASED 366% Total Federal Expenditures on Penal Institutions: INCREASED 1,000%
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Rum runners or bootleggers worked together to earn a profit of the smuggling of alcohol during the prohibition act .Criminal elements organized because of the large profits in bootlegging. Much of the population had contempt for law enforcement during 1920s' Prohibition. Chicago's Al Capone and his organization were considered glamorous figures; supposedly, half the city's police were on their payroll
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The 18th amendment was a ban on all distribution, production, and the sale of any alcohol substance. This ban led to many organized crime incidents, bars going out of business, and people going insane.
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The Prohibition era lasted from 1920 through 1933, and was an attempt to legislate morality. It took a Constitutional amendment to enact it, and another one to repeal it. The attempt to decrease the "evils" of alcohol actually created more - and new - types of crime.
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There are many reasons why alcohol was banned during the 1920's including the extreme risk to health, the cost's, and the corruption of police and workers, Business's wanted sober strong active workers to increase the production rate. Also the police were going to work drunk and not being able to protect and do their jobs correctly.
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William Anderson was one of the most successful lobbyists of the Anti-Saloon League (ASL). The "dry warrior" used such tactics as false rumors, forged documents, character attacks, and intimidation. He attacked Jews, Irish, Italians and others whose cultures generally included the consumption of alcohol. However, Catholics were a special target of Anderson's bigotry. Anderson's tactics successfully helped the League and other's change the United States Constitution.
