There were great problems enforcing the law, the prohibition bureau was set up to fight the bootleggers, yet many of the authorities in the bureau were on the payroll with the big gangs. There was a lot working against the enforcers. The USA had 18000miles of coastline and borders with Canada, Mexico and so was hard to prevent all smuggling from abroad. This meant that a lot of liquor could be redirected. Many juries during prohibition were lenient with offenders as they to be part of the illegal trade. Jurors were found threatened by the gangsters. With authorities, being lenient people found it easy to disrespect the prohibition law. This was a political factor.
Some of the police members took bribes from gangsters because they felt threatened, or were part of the trade to. This was the same for some of the public. They usually hid alcohol, and would not testify against bootleggers because they often found themselves being bribed, threatened or just too scared to tell the truth due to the consequences.
Gangsters would stand up for each other in court so no case would ever stand as there were no witnesses and there was no evidence.
Some people started to change their minds on the law of prohibition as they thought they could handle the alcohol without the law and since the law had been introduced, people were misusing the alcohol. This caused more crimes as more people got drunk and fought each other. People believed that if they were able to disobey the prohibition laws then they could also disobey any other law, which also caused more violence in streets and crimes increased. Those who once supported prohibition realised that by repealing the law they would be creating more jobs and helping the taxes. They thought that if they legalised alcohol at least they could watch people and know how many people were drinking, whereas with the law the speakeasies were uneasy to find. People realised that by enforcing the prohibition law it was more dangerous than without it as drinks were poisoned.
The Wall Street crash in 1929 caused a Great Depression throughout the 1930s. Many people became unemployed and banks and businesses went bankrupt. The American economy was caught in a downward spiral. Without any money, people were unable to go to saloons and buy illegal alcohol, and those who did have money left drowned their sorrows in the illegal liquor. This lead to the decrease in Gangsters and crime as their businesses in the liquor was not needed if no body had any money.
People wanted to reintroduce alcohol because it would create jobs in saloons and in brewing the liquor. It also meant that the government could get taxes to be used for unemployment benefits. It was seen that those who were unemployed would be more likely to keep up the brewing of illegal alcohol and produce moonshine so they could earn money, but the same applied for these people as it did for the gangsters; that without money others wouldn’t be able to buy the liquor from them. This was an economic factor.
Roosevelt was the Democratic candidate for President in 1932. By this time, Hoover had become the most unpopular president in American history. Throughout the year of 1932, the Democratic Party found that its support grew. Roosevelt was determined to help the poor and the unemployed. He would do this by setting up unemployment benefits and large government industrial projects, which would create the new jobs he had promised. This would see them out of the depression.
Hoover was a Republican candidate who believed in self-help achieving through his or her own efforts. He believed businesses would end the Depression; yet, many people believed that he was to blame for it.
Roosevelt spoke out to what he believes was needed to end the depression, and his biggest aim was to repeal prohibition, which had become extremely unpopular. With Roosevelt as president, America saw banks re-open the industry and the American welfare was sorted out.
Due to the prohibition law, gangsters and brewers bribed local officials, police, judges and the prohibition officers into leaving them alone. Yet, many of these authorities were in the illegal liquor trade themselves. This meant that officials, police and other authorities would be persuaded easier than others would be. The Prohibition of alcohol in United States damaged the economic and social aspects of American culture, that it was designed to heal. Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve. On 16th January 1920, the eighteenth amendment was implemented, making all importing, exporting, transporting, selling and manufacturing of intoxicating liquors absolutely prohibited. This law was created in the hope of achieving the reduction of alcohol consumption, which in turn would reduce: crime, poverty, death rates, and improve both the economy, and the quality of life for all Americans. These goals were far from achieved. The prohibition amendment of the 1920's was ineffective because it was unenforceable. Instead, it caused various social problems such as: the explosive growth of organized crime, increased liquor consumption, massive murder rates and corruption among city officials. Prohibition also hurt the economy because the government was not collecting taxes on the multi-billion dollar a year industry. These were all long-term causes in America’s future.
One of the main reasons that prohibition failed was because it was difficult to control the mass flow of illegal liquor from various countries, mainly Canada. Bootleggers smuggled liquor from oversees and Canada, stole it from government warehouses, and produced their own. The newly established Federal Prohibition Bureau had only 1,550 agents, and “with 18,700 miles of vast and virtually un police able coastline, it was clearly impossible to prevent immense quantities of liquor from entering the country. Hardly any of smuggled liquor was ever actually captured and seized from the hands of the bootleggers. Bootlegging had become a very competitive and lucrative market with the adaptation of prohibition. This illegal underground economy fell into the hands of organized gangs who over powered most of the authorities. Most of these gangsters, secured their businesses by bribing an immense number of city officials. Mainly government agents and people with high political status such as: Mayors, Judges, Police Chiefs, Senators and Governors, found their names on gangster’s payroll. To some surprise, the consumption of liquor in the years before prohibition, was actually very lower then that of the years throughout prohibition. Because of this new law, a new social problem arose. Not only did Americans continue to manufacture and possess alcohol; they drank more of it. Americans, who supported prohibition, argued that if drinking alcohol were illegal, the public would recognize and respect the law, and in turn, would give it up. During the start of prohibition, it appeared as though it was working. However, what was really going on, was that since the transportation and production was not allowed, bootleggers had to find ways to do it without being caught. The price of beer rose, because it had to be transported in large barrels, which was more difficult. As a result, people started drinking more potent hard liquor. It took less to get drunk, therefore it was easier to transport, and making it was cheaper. Americans would drink this potent
Liquor and get drunk a lot faster, for less money. As a downfall, however, the liquor had no standards. The rate of alcohol related deaths due to poisoning rose.
One of the biggest outcomes of prohibition was the development of organized crime, because liquor was no longer legally available, the public turned to gangsters who took on the bootlegging industry and supplied them with liquor. Because the industry was so immensely profitable, more gangs participated. Because of the money involved in the bootlegging industry, there was much rival between gangs. The profit motive caused over four hundred gang related murders a year in Chicago alone. The most famous gangster of all time was Al Capone. He ran his business out of Chicago. It is estimated that he alone, pulled in over 100 million dollars a year, because of prohibition. Capone dominated the protection business as well as bootlegging. Any rival gang, who was seen as a threat, was simply wiped out. This was the case for all gangsters, which changed the attitudes of the public. Illegal speak-easies, which replaced saloons after the start of prohibition. Alcohol had become easier to acquire during prohibition, then before prohibition. The bootlegging business was so immense that customers could easily obtain alcohol by simply walking down almost any street. The drop in alcohol related deaths before prohibition quickly rose during prohibition. Arrests for drunkenness and disorderly conduct increased, while arrests for drunk driving increased twice as much during prohibition. Several economic problems grew out of prohibition. The main one was the fact that the government was not taxing this billion dollar a year industry. Every penny the bootlegger made went into the pockets of them and bribed city officials. The American Government never saw one dollar of it. Instead, they were busy at work spending taxpayer’s money on programs to enforce this law. Many of those officers found themselves in the midst of the exchange of dirty money between the bootleggers and themselves. Tax dollars were also spent on prosecuting bootleggers who were captured. Millions of dollars annually were meant to be spent convicting and keeping the prisoners in jails. Other economic problems were that citizens found themselves drinking away their pay cheques. These economic problems resulted in the government not taking in as much money as they could have, and spending money in areas that could have been avoided, if prohibition hadn’t existed in the first place. It was apparent that Prohibition did not achieve its goals; instead, it added to the existing economic and social problems, as well as creating new problems that would be prominent in today’s society. Organized crime grew into an empire, disrespect for the law grew, city officials fell to gangsters, and the government lost money. It is obvious that prohibition was a miserable failure from all points of view. Reasonable measures were not taken to enforce the laws, so they were practically ignored.
I believe the main importance of the failure of prohibition was the fact that there were not enough authorities doing their jobs, many being bribed or being part of the trade themselves. This did not help reduce the rate of crime though that was what their jobs were about. With supporters of prohibition changing their attitudes towards the law meant that there were even less people to support the law, and if they realised how easy it was to disobey the law then those who were already against it would also see it easy to disobey causing more crimes. The role of organised crimes was a dramatic factor as to why the law failed. This is because it did not make it easy for those authorities that tried to do their jobs, speakeasies were hard to find yet the drunken were always noticeable. The speakeasies were a greater threat than the drunken because they were harder to find and so could keep serving the illegal liquor causing more crimes. The Political factor was hugely important during the law as Roosevelt helped America out of the depression prohibition had seen itself into. He helped put America back onto its feet without the need of prohibition.
Prohibition ended because of the St Valentines massacre due to the increase of gangsters and violent crimes sweeping the USA It seemed Prohibition had failed. It had made the USA law-less, the police were corrupt and the gangsters were rich and powerful. When the Wall Street crash followed by the great depression the economy was helpless. People were out of jobs businesses went bankrupt and the country suffered. However, by repealing prohibition it would create jobs, raise the taxes, and free the impossible task of enforcing prohibition. This would help bring money back into America. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt-democratic candidate-won the presidential elections and in 1933, the prohibition law was repealed.