William Jennings Bryan's success: Reflected in the nationwide outlawing of alcoholic beverages.
Unlikely alliance: United rural and small-town Protestants with urban political progressives.
"Old-time religion" adherents: Viewed drinking as sinful.
Social reformers (mostly women): Believed Prohibition would decrease social ills, such as divorces, prostitution, spousal abuse, and alcohol-related violence.
Ella Boole's claim: Asserted the elimination of saloons would eradicate social evil.
Elizabeth Tilton's statistics:
42% of broken homes.
45% of children cruelly deserted.
50% of crime.
25% of poverty attributed to alcohol, in addition to feeble-mindedness and insanity.
Shared Prejudices: Nativist movements were connected by ethnic and social prejudices.
Anti-Saloon League leader's statement: Derogatory remarks about German Americans.
Primary goal for many crusaders: Policing the behavior of immigrants, the working class, the poor, and Black individuals.
Impact of World War I:
Congressional response: Addressed the efforts of the Anti-Saloon League and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
Wartime necessity: Grain was needed for food instead of alcohol production.
Anti-German sentiment: Backlash against beer brewers with German heritage.
Shift in perception: Prohibition became equated with American patriotism.
The Eighteenth Amendment:
Congressional approval: Passed on December 18, 1917, and sent to the states.
Ratification: Occurred on January 16, 1919.
Banned the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors, effective a year later.
Prohibition in the 1920s:
Status: Became the law of the land.
Reality: Was not widely followed.
Ambitious social reform: Proved to be a major failure.
Reasons for failure: Government's inability to enforce, lack of public respect, and unforeseen consequences.
Unintended Consequences and Challenges of Prohibition
Bootlegging ingenuity: Torpedoes filled with malt whiskey discovered in New York harbor in 1926 demonstrated elaborate smuggling attempts.
Economic Impact:
Loss of federal revenue: Almost 30% due to the loss of liquor taxes.
Job losses: Closing of breweries, distilleries, and saloons eliminated numerous jobs.
Rise in crime and corruption:
Increased law-breaking: Many Americans violated the law.
Boost to corruption: Police corruption increased significantly.
Organized crime: Prohibition provided a major boost to organized crime.
The Volstead Act (1919):
Purpose: To enforce the Eighteenth Amendment.
Loopholes: Contained so many loopholes that failure was inevitable.
Example: Allowed individuals to keep and use liquor owned before January 16, 1919, leading to stockpiling.
Yale Club: Stored enough liquor for the entire thirteen years of Prohibition.
Inadequate Enforcement:
Lack of funding: Congress did not provide sufficient funding for enforcement.
Limited agents: Only 1,520 federal agents in the Prohibition Bureau to police 100 million Americans in 1920.
Public demand: High demand for alcohol and potential profits led to widespread bootlegging.
Arrests: Over half a million people jailed for violating the Volstead Act.
Targeting: Blacks and poor Whites were often targeted.
The Roaring Twenties and Organized Crime
Speakeasies:
Fuel for activities: Bootleg liquor supplied by organized crime fueled the Roaring Twenties.
Illegal saloons: Known as “speakeasies.”
Corruption: Often ignored by local police due to bribes.
Number in NYC: Estimated 32,000 in 1929, compared to 15,000 saloons in 1919.
Popular Culture:
Bessie Smith: Openly supported bootleggers.
Hypocrisy and Irony:
President Warren G. Harding: Publicly criticized noncompliance but privately drank and served bootleg liquor.
Congressional behavior: Majority of both houses were regular customers of bootleggers.
Alcohol Consumption:
Decrease: Total national alcohol consumption decreased overall.
Increase in some areas: Drinking increased in many parts of the nation.
Will Rogers's quote: "Prohibition is better than no liquor at all."
Al Capone and the Rise of Organized Crime
Impact of Prohibition: Turned Americans into criminals and created a new, large income source for organized crime.
Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone:
Background: Born in Brooklyn in 1899 to Italian immigrants, expelled from school for assaulting a teacher.
Nickname: “Scarface” from a knife wound during a fight at a brothel.
Career: Moved to Chicago and rose in the ranks of organized crime.
Control: By age 26, he was in charge of Chicago's most notorious crime family.
Empire: In 1927, his bootlegging, prostitution, and gambling empire involved 700 gangsters, spanned from Canada to Florida, and generated 60 million a year (over 1 billion today).
Corruption: Bribed police officials, judges, and politicians.
Capone's Image:
Flashy lifestyle: Known for extravagant clothes, jewelry, and cars.
Self-perception: Saw himself as a modern “Robin Hood,” helping the poor with cash handouts.
Ruthlessness: Murdered rivals and those who betrayed him.
Example: Bludgeoned two henchmen to death with a baseball bat for planning to turn him in.
Capone's Justification:
Claim: Stated he was merely providing goods and services demanded by the public.
Admission: Acknowledged violating Prohibition laws but omitted his violent actions.
Downfall:
Attention: Drew the attention of President Herbert Hoover.
Treasury Secretary: Andrew Mellon was tasked with finding a way to prosecute Capone.
Tax Evasion: Mellon pursued charges of tax evasion on Capone's illegal income.
Eliot Ness: Federal agent led efforts to dismantle Capone’s bootlegging operations in 1929.
Trial: Capone was tried, found guilty, and imprisoned in 1931.
Death: Died in 1947, bankrupt and suffering from degenerative syphilis contracted years earlier.