(c) Out of sources E and F the reliability can be gathered mainly from who was saying it and when it was said. Source E was written in 1932 so prohibition had been going for many years and was almost at an end. This means that they will have had time to fully realise how well prohibition was working and who followed it. It was written by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who was for prohibition at the start, because he believed it would make his workers work harder and never turn up drunk. Because of this he may have been bias towards prohibition, but because he wrote how alcohol consumption has increased and the speakeasies have made an army of lawbreakers who just ignored the law, which has lost a lot of respect. I know that this is a very accurate from other sources such as H, which shows a rise in drunkenness from 1920-1925. Sorce F is not as reliable for many reasons, first of all it was written in 1920 when prohibition had just started so it would be too early too tell how well prohibition was really working. It is also written by the prohibition commissioner, John F. Kramer, this means that he will be very pro-prohibition and therefore bias towards it. As well as all this what he has written is speculation of what he wants to happen and does not give any facts or even opinions of what has happened, so it is not a reliable source of what happen during prohibition only what he wanted to happen.
(d) Sources G and H both have more than on way of interpreting them so neither of them conclusively say that prohibition was successful or a failure. Source G how through from 1921 to 1929 more and more illegal stills and spirits were seized. There are two different things that you could say from these numbers, first is that prohibition was successful as there was more and more things seized by Federal agents so there was less and less getting to the public. But on the other hand because the numbers seized is going up this must mean that there is more and more produced illegally and there is still more getting to the public s prohibition was failing. You can tell that there are still people getting alcohol in 1925 because in source H there are even more drunks arrested then in 1920. So source G by its self is almost entirely inconclusive about how successful prohibition was in the 1920’s because you do not know the reason behind the numbers, whether it was increased federal action through the years or more and more illegal stills making more alcohol. Source H is the number of arrests for drinking-related in the City of Philadelphia from 1920-1925. The number of drunks arrested more than tripled in the five years; this obviously shows that the amount of alcohol being drunk by the people was going up, so prohibition was failing. Another way this chart shows that prohibition was failing is in the number of drink driver which goes from 0 to 820 on 1925, although this may look like a clear failing there is another reason that there are so many more drink drivers later is the number of people who own cars. In 1920 cars were only own by the very wealthy so not many were being driven, but by 1925 many more people owned cars so there were many more people who could drink drive. There is another way that source H shows prohibition failing, this that these are the number of people who were arrested not the number who were prosecuted and there were a lot less who were prosecuted than arrested. This is partially to blame on the fact that much of the legal system was corrupt meaning that a bribe would normally get you out of trouble. This corruption went from this small level to gangsters such as Al Capone paying millions to anyone that would oppose him and making a business empire out of prohibition.
So together both sources G and H show us that prohibition was no successful with many people perhaps more continuing to drink illegal alcohol, and the police failing to truly control it.
(e) Source I and J are both talking about the amount of corruption and bribery there was during prohibition, source is a cartoon showing all the different people who were being bribed and source J is a diary account of a policeman in Chicago in the 1920’s. Source I shows many different types of officials such as policemen and politician lined up with there hand behind their backs, they want an bribe or ‘backhander’ and this is how they were often handed over. This source makes it clear the amount of people who were taking bribes and the type of people that were taking bribes, we know what type of people they are because it is written on their backs. Source I strongly back up what the policeman in source J is saying about the bribery he receives, first of all the are both based in the same time, during the 1920’s when prohibition was in place. The policeman is writing about the way he was bribed and the way his superior officers were being bribed, we can confirm that this is happening because on of the nearest characters in the cartoon is a policeman. The fact that a policeman is one of the closest characters this shows that the artist thought that the police were one of the main people to bribed out of all the officials. Another way that you know the policeman in source J is telling the truth is fact that he is from Chicago which was one of the main places where corruption took place, this is because of Al Capone who was bribing hundreds of people in Chicago in order to run his business of making and selling drink to the speakeasies. Source I does not fully support te policeman’s diary because the police man says how he would be expected to go and have a drink for free then leave the saloon and not enforce the law, but in the cartoon there is no suggestion to any other type of bribery other than money. Apart from this the cartoon strongly supports what the policeman is saying about bribery and corruption at the time.
(f) The view that the failure of prohibition was inevitable is a lot more strongly supported by some sources than other, some sources are not decisive either way and some believed that it would always work. Source A gives reasons why it both succeed and why it would fail, it starts by describing reasons why it would succeed, these are mainly also the reasons that it was first implemented. The reasons that it would succeed were the bad influence of saloons, the influence of the Anti-Saloon League and the moral feeling among Americans that it was wrong. There also reasons it would fail, the wartime concerns of conserving grain, these would not be a reason to keep prohibition once the war had ended. As well as the feelings against the German-Americans who were major in alcohol trade, these feeling would also go with time. Another major reason was that the law went against something so ingrain with American society and everyday life, so people were never going to like it and want too follow it. Source B includes similar reasons why it would work such as the influence of the Anti-Saloon League, and the influence of the Women’s Temperance Union who saw alcoholism as one of the great evils of the time and fought to get it banned. But source B also says how the law encouraged a criminal boom and gangsters like Dutch Schulz and Al Capone who turned prohibition into a business.
Sources C and D show how prohibition will help everyone and the negative affects of alcohol on men and their families. They both show alcohol as very bad because the Anti-Saloon League made them and they wanted to show prohibition as a good thing. Both posters show how alcoholism is a cause of poverty, suffering and hunger because the men are spending the money that they need for something more important. Because of this you think that people will support prohibition and it will succeed, because it will stop these terrible things from happening.
Source E is very much saying that prohibition will not work, this is not only because it was written in 1932 just before prohibition was abolished in 1933 but because of the affect he says it has had on the people. He describes how ‘a vast army of law breakers has appeared’ showing that people were just ignoring the law and weren’t concerned about it. Also it had lost the law a lot of respect so a new level of crime was in America that meant that this law couldn’t stay because it was causing to many problems. Source F by the Prohibition Commissioner is trying to convince the listener that prohibition would work and that it would be enforced. But this does not give any real evidence that it would or wouldn’t work, because it is only what he wants to happen and he will be very biased towards prohibition and never have any doubts about it working, especially when speaking in public.
Sources G and H show fairly clearly how there was always a problem with drunks and people making illegal alcohol. The numbers show that through out prohibition there were still plenty of people who were willing to make illegal alcohol and plenty of people to drink it. When the number of drunks and illegal stills is increasing it shows how prohibition is not stopping people from drink and therefore failing. So these sources show that the failure of prohibition was always going to happen.
Sources I and J tell about the one biggest problems with prohibition, corruption. Source I shows that many of the people who were meant to be enforcing prohibition were taking bribes and not doing their jobs properly. When the people who are meant to be enforcing prohibition are not then regular people aren’t going to stop drinking alcohol and prohibition will never work. Source J says how no regular policeman could have enforced prohibition because of they weren’t bribed then their superior officers would be and stop them enforcing the law. This continued all the way to the very top of the legal system so no one person could do a lot about prohibition because someone would always stop them. Because of h prohibition would eventually fail.
Overall there are reasons why prohibition was going to fail and reasons why it would succeed, but the amount of people who believed that alcohol was evil and caused poverty and suffering was a lot smaller or more importantly a lot less powerful than the people want to drink and carried on drinking alcohol. Because of this lack of respect for the law and the way alcohol was a part of everyday day life for so many people, I think that prohibition was always going to fail.
