When Prohibition started it opened up an opportunity for local gangsters to make some money and then expand their business and many of them took this opportunity. Probably the most famous of all the gangsters was called Al Capone. He was the leader of a huge organisation and he saw the business opportunities for himself to restore alcohol in America.
The first thing that Capone did was to start importing alcohol from Canada. He would then sell it on to some dealers for a fee.
When Al Capone started to help supply these speakeasies with alcohol the police started to investigate his transactions to try and catch him. He then proceeded to discover that many policemen who investigated him drank in speakeasies and so he offered them small lump sums to continually report back with nothing, this is how his business thrived.
Another way that Capone an from studentcentral.co.uk d his goons made money was to go through a process of ‘racketeering.’ This was a process where people who represented Capone asked shop owners for money, which would ensure that their establishment, would not be damaged in any way. This was a form of black mail because all it meant was that if the shop owners didn’t pay, Capone would simply have their shop smashed up, or in some cases blown up. This was a problem because the shopkeepers couldn’t go to the police and get Capone arrested because the police where indirectly working for Capone.
Capone will be long remembered for his actions with which he continually broke the law. But the one thing that will stand out the most is the case of the St. Valentines Day massacre.
On Valentines Day, 14th of February 1929, Al Capone’s men went too far. One of Capone’s rival gangs, The Bugs Moran Gang, had 7 of their members lured to a warehouse by Capone and his men. Capone’s men put Moran’s men up against a wall and proceeded to shoot them all. This event shocked America unlike any other scene of gang-related violence that they had seen before.
Capone was starting to make a name for himself and so was therefore becoming increasingly more cautious with his actions. The police tried to catch him many times when he was making the jump from Canada to America with fresh alcohol in motor cars such as these:
These hollowed out vans where used to smuggle alcohol across the border.
The police did catch Capone sometimes but could never pin down evidence on him because of the bribed policemen that they worked with, keeping some information hidden. Eventually some police officers caught and convicted Capone for tax evasion, thus ending the chapter.
Al Capone was one of the main characters who influenced the way America changed during prohibition, because of him and others changes that were supposed to be a positive change were tuned into negative ones.
For example, prohibition was designed to stop drunkenness and crime but instead of it decreasing they both rose. Prohibition was designed to stop bars from selling alcohol but instead more bars continued selling more alcohol.
The idea of this noble experiment was ultimately to stop the men drinking away their lives and money and to spend more time with their families. But as this was the time of the boom and people where doing away with all the old ways of life more women became drinkers and so now it wasn’t just the men in speakeasies, it was the women as well.
When the county hit economic depression it looked to be in trouble but then the newly elected president in 1932 called Franklin D. Roosevelt promised to do away with prohibition and so he did.
Prohibition, described as the noble experiment, was a failure. It made a growing and booming economy turn into a corrupt and dangerous one, which eventually led to the countries demise.
If it were not for Roosevelt, then who knows what kind of state America would be in today.
How Successful was the New Deal?
How Successful was the New Deal?
After The Great Depression America elected Roosevelt to be the President hoping he would get them away from the Depression which was effecting nearly everyone at the time. Roosevelt did get them away from the Depression he made the alphabet agencies, these were Relief, Recovery and Reform agencies helping America. During the New Deal unemployment fell from 25% to 14%, Roosevelt gave the average American Hope however not everything was perfect. With the new deal the N.R.A and the A.A.A were deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, little was done to help the Sharecroppers who didn't own they’re own lands and the consumer prices didn’t rise at the same rate as the earnings.
The Alphabet agencies were Roosevelt’s agencies that helped get America get back on its feet again.
The agencies like the C.W.A and the W.P.A gave jobs to approximately 13 million workers decreasing unemployment and they also repaired airfields, schools, hospitals and roads. The C.C.C gave work to 2.5 million unemployed single men who restored forests, beaches and parks the C.C.C gave the young men training which did help them get jobs later on in life. However everything was not perfect with Roosevelt’s Alphabet agencies, the N.R.A was a agency that dealt with the fair work fair wage giving the American workers who were signed up with them a fair competition. In 1935 two brothers broke one of their acts for selling diseased chickens the N.R.A took them to court where they were found guilty, the brothers appealed to the Supreme court where the supreme court declared that it was the business of the New York State and not Washington. After this 16 cases of the alphabet agencies were under trial and then later the New Deal was declared unconstitutional losing the American people money and jobs.
The unemployment fell from 25% to 14%; the New Deal had found job for 11% of the population this would mean that there were fewer jobs to find for the 13% still unemployed. Also that Roosevelt would be able to put more from studentcentral.co.uk taxes on consumer goods e.g. Fridges and Cookers so that the government would get back some of the billions of dollars they had stuck into the New Deal. Regardless of this the first New Deal was made unconstitutional making the rate of unemployment rise between the years of 1937-39 from 14% to 18% which brought less money into the American Government and Roosevelt. After 1939 the unemployment rated fell rapidly as America had just joined World War two and they were recruiting soldiers, Pilots, sailors and workers in the factories to make machinery and artillery.
Roosevelt connected with the ‘Normal’ American people better than the other presidents before him had done. Roosevelt did this with his fireside chat. Fireside chats were where President Roosevelt would speak to the nation over the radio in they’re own houses. Over The time of Roosevelt’s Presidential rule he had letters saying “Millions of others praying for you every night” and envelopes addressed to “Gods Gift to the USA, the White House”. Roosevelt was not loved by everyone the businessmen disliked Roosevelt as he had declared there would be unions for their workers, the Republicans disliked Roosevelt as they still believed in “Rugged Individualism” and anyway they were the opposition to the democrats. The upper class disliked Roosevelt’s actions as they had the most money out of the United States and they were the ones affected the most by Roosevelt’s taxes. The Radicals had said that the New Deal has done nothing for anyone.
With the New Deal people had jobs and therefore could spend their money or invest it. The economy does recover after the New Deal being made illegal it’s Gross National Product goes up but unfortunately not reaching the pre-depression rates the private investment goes up but the consumer prices do not rise as much. In my opinion the New Deal was a success in its own way it brought jobs for people after the Great Depression, it helped the dustbowl in Tennessee and it started to slowly turn America around from what it was after the Depression.
