Source B uses the word “victory” to describe the earlier work of the Anti-Saloon League. This shows that the writer of Source B thinks that the Anti-Saloon League were doing well at this time, and there was an outlook of further success. In the second paragraph of Source B, it says that the first Prohibition Commissioner had “no doubts that he would stamp out the evils of drink”, and “1500 Prohibition agents were appointed.” This is suggesting that Prohibition had a good chance of success and it’s failure was far from inevitable; it was likely to work because it had the right ingredients. However, it then goes on to describe the failure: “By 1928 there were more than 30, 000 ‘speakeasies’ in New York.” But overall, Source B holds the message that Prohibition had a good chance of success.
Sources C and D are posters that aim to make the viewer feel guilty about drinking. If they can manage to do so, then they may be helping to make Prohibition successful. There is hope among these two sources that Prohibition doesn’t need to fail, and they are trying to stop this from happening. The idea was to influence the opinions of the public, and make them agree that Prohibition served a good purpose. Therefore, Sources C and D are not giving out the message that the failure of Prohibition was inevitable. However, the artists were obviously recognising the fact that the public were going to need some bribing, and they were going to need to be provided with some good reasons to stop drinking. The artists must have realised that the Prohibition laws were not going to go down well unless the public could see the point of it, and so there is also a slight worry behind these posters that the public were not going to be talked into Prohibition easily.
The writer of Source E says that he hoped that Prohibition would be “widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognised.” This shows that there was some hope among people that Prohibition would work, and not everyone was against the idea. It could also be showing that propaganda was working, and public opinion (among some people at least) was now in agreement with the law. This would therefore be showing that Prohibition was on it’s way to success, as long as more people saw the propaganda that would change their minds about drinking.
Source F definitely does not agree with the view that the failure of Prohibition was inevitable. It is the first Prohibition Commissioner talking, and he was confident that Prohibition would work, whether people liked it or not: “The law will be obeyed… Where it is not obeyed it will be enforced.” However, he had no idea how much people were going to resent Prohibition; but he did realise (like the artists of Sources C and D) that the public not only needed to be provided with good reasons to stop drinking, but they also needed to be made aware of the consequences of disobeying the new laws. He was probably hoping that this would scare them into just obeying the new laws with no arguments and ‘yes buts’. The overall message given by Source F is that Prohibition was going to work, no matter how many people were against it. He had obviously not realised just how many people this was going to turn out to be.
Sources G and H (the tables of statistics) could be showing that increasing numbers of people insisted on going against the law and had no intention of stopping, in which case Prohibition was bound to fail, as so many people had lost respect for the law. However, you can also see these statistics another way; the police could have been catching more criminals over time and therefore successfully enforcing Prohibition. This would suggest that Prohibition was on it’s way to success, and the police were making sure of that. Sources G and H were not showing that Prohibition was a success, but they were not showing it’s failure was inevitable either.
Source I suggests that most people, at whatever level, were disobeying the law, and accepting bribes from gangsters. This shows that Prohibition could not be a success, because so many people were going against the law. It also shows that there must be a large number of criminals, and so Prohibition was failing already. It shows that there was hardly anybody (if anyone at all) who was prepared to enforce Prohibition despite offers of bribes. Overall Source I is agreeing with the view that the failure of Prohibition was inevitable.
Source J explains how desperate people were to keep the police quiet and out of their business so that they could keep on drinking. It describes how people wouldn’t allow the police to enforce the law, and they would give the police money to keep them quiet: “A man dashed up to me and said, ‘This is for you’. He handed me an envelope… I opened it and there was $75 in it.” This shows that Prohibition was very likely to fail, because the police were not doing their job, and if no one was enforcing Prohibition properly, then success was completely out of reach.
In conclusion, these are the overall messages given in each source;
Source A suggests that Prohibition was never given a proper chance to work.
Source B is saying that Prohibition had a good chance of success.
Sources C and D do not agree with the view that the failure of Prohibition was inevitable.
Source E shows that there was some hope among people that Prohibition would work.
Source F definitely does not agree with the view that the failure of Prohibition was inevitable.
Sources G and H do not show that Prohibition was a success, but they were not showing it’s failure was inevitable either.
Source I is agreeing with the view that the failure of Prohibition was inevitable.
Source F shows that Prohibition was very likely to fail.
