Do these sources support the view that the failure of Prohibition was inevitable?

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David Baines

Question (f) – Do these sources support the view that the failure of Prohibition was inevitable?

I am going to structure my answer by first saying how each source proves that the failure of prohibition was inevitable, and then I am going to say how each source shows that the failure of prohibition was not inevitable.

Source A says how some states in America had tried prohibition before, they tried prohibition in 1917 and it was not successful, this shows how that if it had not succeeded in a few states, then the chance of it succeeding nationwide was slim. It did not work because as the source says, ‘for no earlier law had gone against the daily customs, habits and desires of so many Americans’, this is saying how the law was going against what people did on a daily basis, and the law was stopping them doing this, and they thought that this was unacceptable and so they carried no drinking even though it was illegal.

Source B says how there were 1500 prohibition agents, and this would seem like a lot of people to enforce prohibition but from my own knowledge I know that this was never enough agents to properly enforce the law, there was also the 30 000 speakeasies across America which were not closed, this is because there will always be a demand for alcohol and it is such a big business.

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Source C is a picture of a man at a bar, he is handing over his week’s wages and the slogan is ‘a club member in good standing paying his dues’, this picture is showing that the failure of prohibition is inevitable because it is saying how the tradition and custom of Americans was impossible to stop, and therefore prohibition was never going to succeed.

I believe that source D is also saying the same thing as source C as it is the children’s father who is in the pub everyday, as it is such a tradition to drink ...

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