Was Prohibition Bound to Fail? Sources Questions.

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Was Prohibition Bound to Fail? Sources Questions

b) Study Sources C and D. Were the artists of these two posters for or against Prohibition?’

Both Sources C and D are for prohibition. This is apparent because in source C by the way the picture shows a picture of a man handing over his weekly wages for alcohol while his wife and children sit at home with no money. This shows that alcohol kept the poor, poor and was a reason for prohibition it also seems to be a comment on the social cost of prohibition by the heading “the poor mans club, the most expensive in the world to belong to” this seems to comment on how the cost of the saloon is more than economical i.e the mans wages, but also social and emotionally on his family , his wife is shown as distressed and breaking down. This was one of the main reasons the Anti saloon league crusaded for prohibition.

Source D shows its support for prohibition. We can tell this because of the way the picture shows two children in tattered clothes, looking sad and longingly towards the saloon door. The caption underneath the picture is the most important thing, because it underlines the economical effect of the saloon. It says that their ‘shoes and stockings and food are in the saloon too, and they’ll never come out’. This is suggesting that the father of the children is in the bar and is spending all the money that should be used on the children’s shoes, stockings and food. This poster is definitely for prohibition because it is trying to make people feel for the children in a family and blame alcohol for the poverty and pain it causes. Women were not allowed to enter saloons so they would send the children to fetch the fathers from a saloon in the hope that it would make the father feel guilty. This picture seems to show the children failing in the attempt to retrieve there farther

It is important to remember that both these posters are examples of propaganda designed to encourage prohibition there for the images they portray are biased.

c) Study Sources E and F. Which of these two sources is the more reliable as evidence about Prohibition?

Source E is more reliable as evidence about prohibition for many different reasons. One reason is that Source E is written in 1932 just as prohibition was ending and Source F is written in 1920 just as prohibition was starting. This means that the person writing Source E had seen personally the effects of prohibition thought the period it was in force. Source F is less reliable because the person speaking only knew about the very beginning of prohibition they wouldn’t have seen the increase in organised crime during the prohibition years this would mean that he wouldn’t have foreseen the difficulties in enforcing a law which very few people really wanted.

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Another reason why Source E is more reliable than Source F is because source E is just a general person who apart from not being allowed to drink alcohol is not really linked to prohibition or enforcing it. Source F is by a person who was ‘the first Prohibition Commissioner’. This means that it is his job to enforce prohibition. This makes him biased because he will want to encourage people to not break the law also obviously he would want people to think they would be punished if they broke the law.

The only thing that makes Source ...

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