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Prohibition In The 1920's

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The 1920’s were a time of great political and social change. One of the events that shaped the 1920s and the years to come was Prohibition. Prohibition was a period where the manufacturing, transportation, and sale of intoxicating liquors was banned. January 16, 1919 the bill was passed and became the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The law took effect on January 17, 1920, along with it came many negative societal effects. Gang violence, bootlegging, and dangerous protesting broke out. Many of these events were under the control of Al Capone, the most powerful gangster in Chicago. Through all of the bad, some good still came out of Prohibition. Things such as health benefits, prevention of addiction to alcohol, and saving …show more content…
Eventually the government struggled to enforce Prohibition. The enforcement was originally assigned to the IRS but then re-assigned to the Justice Department. Enforcement was stronger in small towns and weaker in urban areas. There was an immediate 30 percent drop in alcohol consumption, but people who really wanted to drink found ways to do it. Illegal ways of producing and manufacturing, known as bootlegging, went on throughout the decade. Speakeasies were nightclubs that sold alcohol throughout Prohibition. Smuggling of alcohol across state lines and homemade alcohol became easy ways for people to obtain alcohol. A rise of criminal activity in association with bootlegging was encouraged by Prohibition. Chicago gangster, Al Capone, was the most widely known law breaker during the time of Prohibition. He earned 60 million dollars annually from his bootleggers and speakeasy operations. These operations caused many others such as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Crime steadily rose and caused support for Prohibition to wane. Costs for jails and prisons grew. The country was left weak by the Great Depression and creating jobs by legalizing the liquor industry was very appealing. FDR won the presidency while calling for Prohibition's repeal. In December of 1933 Prohibition was repealed and by 1966 all states had abandoned the Prohibition …show more content…
Prohibition was an experiment that shaped the 1920’s. Prohibition was aimed to increase the efficiency of the economy, improve the safety of society, and improve the lives of families. Immediately it did this but after time people figured out how to work around the laws. Prohibition encouraged new forms of crime and new crime bosses evolved, such as Al Capone. This caused cities to become less safe and gang violence to increase, defeating one of the main purposes that Prohibition was created for. The liquor industry also created a lot of jobs for people and helped to sustain the economy. By abolishing alcohol the industry was destroyed. Many jobs were lost and families with parents who worked in this industry lost their main source of money. Towards the end of the decade the Great Depression had dawned and left the economy and families very weak. Prohibition was a factor in this. Eventually it was repealed in order to create jobs and help improve the economic situation at the time (Swick). Prohibition hurt the 1920’s by destroying the economy, many jobs, and decreasing the amount of opportunities for positive changes in the

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