Source E is more useful because it is not just a snap shot in time but shows us how the alcohol was destroyed after wards. It is an action drawing, which portrays a much more violent, chaotic scene than that in source D. Source E is reliable because it was drawn by a credited Historian Michael Duffy and published in 1964. This means that many years of research by historians had passed after prohibition, before the picture was drawn. This is evident as the man in the right hand corner holding a wheelbarrow is an exact copy of a photograph, which I have discovered in Modern America G.C.S.E history written by Chris Mc Donald and John Nichol on page 22. However as it is most likely depicted from many photographs it is not an illustration of a particular raid and therefore it is impossible to tell where or when it is based on. However this is less relevant as the question of corruption is compensated for by the fact that the source shows what happens to the alcohol.
Source D is a photograph, which was taken in the 1920’s and, has obviously been used by The Government, as propaganda; to prove that the 1500 prohibition agents hired to deal with illegal speak easy were successfully cracking on the illegal sale of alcohol. However, this is not true as before prohibition there were about 15000 legal saloons in New York. By 1932 there were about 32000 illegal speak easies in the city.
Source E was published in 1964 for “the twentieth century” this was a textbook produced for use in British schools. This means that the artist would have no need to be biast as unlike source D he was just providing information and not trying to convince anyone of anything.
Source E is most reliable for what should have happened and for how the alcohol should have been destroyed. However source D is more accurate to what in reality happened after a raid, in that there was an uncertainty about what would happen to the alcohol and this is a good representation of how corruption played such a big part in the failure of prohibition.
Question 3
“Prohibition failed to meet its aims”
The aims of prohibition were to prohibit the production, transportation or sale of alcohol beverages containing 0.5 per cent alcohol or more. The volstead act came into effect at midnight on the 16th January 1920.by banning alcohol America aimed to prevent the poverty, misery, depravity and violence that alcohol was perceived to produce. It could also be interpreted that prohibition was a method of the state to have control over people’s lives especially in industry where there was a rise of the trade unionists through the teamsters. However there was a loophole in the law as it did not prevent the consumption of alcohol. This had to exist in order for it to be prescribed by doctors and the church.
It could be argued that prohibition was successful in meeting its aims. Source D is a photograph of a raid on a speakeasy and shows how the 1,500 prohibition agents were preventing illegal speakeasies. Source C is a table showing the amount of drink offences in Philadelphia 1920-1925. Although source C shows that overall the amount of drinking offences have increased by 1925, the annual amount of disorderly conduct dropped by from 8,076 in 1923 to 5,522 in 1925.This shows that people were starting to take prohibition seriously. Further evidence of this is how the amount of registered alcoholics rose dramatically in1924 from 177-874. This shows that people were starting to address their problems so that they can try to abide by the law. However as this source was created by the Philadelphia police department who would have wanted to be seen as doing a good job in tackling prohibition they may not be entirely reliable.
It can also be argued that the state was taking prohibition seriously and was investing a lot into preventing it from failing. Source C shows that in Philadelphia from1920-1925 the amount of arrests for drinking offences rose from 20, 443 to 58,517 it could be argued that this is showing that Prohibition failed to meet its aims because of the amount of offences, which were occurring. However when compared to source B which shows that “out of 6902 cases involving people breaking the law about drink, 6074 were dropped for “ not enough evidence” and 400 were never even tried.” This could be showing that a lot of corruption was evident during prohibition. Or it could be suggesting that the state was actively trying to pursue the offenders of the 18th amendment. That they wanted be seen to be making a lot of arrests, to show that they were serious about tackling people who broke the law, but when it came to trial there was never enough proof.
It could also be suggested that Prohibition failed to meet its aims because of the corruption, which existed in the American justice system. Source F is a contemporary cartoon, which shows the main bodies of the American justice system all with one hand behind their backs. It is titled; “the national gesture.” Because of prohibition the manufacturing of alcoholic drinks was transferred from the hands of legitimate businesses to criminal organisations. Crime was able to buy political influence to groups previously without power. Gangsters like John Torrio were treated like celebrities. He escaped the law by buying ‘protection’ of Mayor Bill Thompson and ensured his political support by rigging elections.
Prohibition did fail to meet its aims because the amount of alcohol consumed during prohibition increased. In New York the amount of places to drink rose from 15,000 legal saloons before prohibition, to 32,000 illegal speakeasies by1932.the amount of drunks (source C) rose from 14,313 in 1920 to a staggering 51,361 in 1925. Also because a lot of the alcohol was brewed illegally by fermenting corn “moonshine” people did not know how strong it was this had devastating effects on peoples health and well-being. The amount of cases of alcohol related deaths and blindness all rose during prohibition. To prevent the consumption of alcohol was prohibitions main aim and the fact that it rose meant that the 18th amendment had failed
I agree with the statement “prohibition failed to meet its aims”. National prohibition in U.S.A from 1920-1932 was an experiment to try and improve America’s social reputation by controlling what Americans consumed. Its intention was to promote morality, but it instead had the opposite affect. It gave ‘gangsters’ power and money to invest in prostitution, racketeering and gambling. It violated the rights and freedom of the individual, which was cherished by the bill of rights and constitution. The government lost $300 million for every year of prohibition just from taxation of beer 3.2% alcohol. This money could have been invested into education about the effects of alcohol or help centres for alcoholics. Overall prohibition did not stop people from drinking alcohol. It only pushed it under ground and made it more fashionable. There were many tragedies most famously the St. Valentines Day massacre (14th February 1929). Such incidents as this inspired the U.S government to finally realise that prohibition was not working so finally in 1933 the 18th amendment was repealed and after signing Roosevelt decided that “I think this would be a good time for a beer”.
