Which of these two sources is the more reliable as evidence about prohibition?
Source E is an extract from a letter written in 1932, nearing the end of prohibition, by John D. Rockefeller Jr., a wealthy industrialist. Rockefeller would have been a major employer at the time; he would have strongly supported prohibition as one of the concerns of employers was how alcohol decreased a workers performance making the business less efficient. To support the idea that Rockefeller was in favour of prohibition is that he initially claims to have “hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol be recognised” with “it” referring to the introduction to prohibition, this tells us that he was hopeful that prohibition would be successful and also that he personally sees alcohol as an issue. Rockefeller goes on to mention the failure of prohibition and how it had ,instead of ridding America of the evils of alcohol as intended, done the polar opposite and encouraged drinking more and more. He explains how the previous law abiding citizens openly ignored prohibition and went against the rules, attending speakeasies and drinking. Source A says how “no earlier law had gone against the daily customs, habits and desires of so many Americans” and this provides some excuse for good people committing crimes, as they are quite obviously angered at something they feel is a right being taken away from them. Source E is reliable in the way that Rockefeller had no reason to lie about prohibition seeing as from lying he gets no benefit, from previous knowledge as well we know that prohibition did fail and there was a great increase in crime and this source supports that.
