Sean B.C Coursework Question C
Which of these two sources is the more reliable as evidence about Prohibition?
Source E was written by John D. Rockefeller; he was a wealthy industrialist and believed strongly in Prohibition in the 1920’s. Source E gives us some very reliable evidence about Prohibition, it tells us that “drinking has generally increased, many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition” “and crime has increased to a level never seen before”. We can also tell that the writer of this letter was for Prohibition, “when prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion”. The main reason for Rockefeller being supportive of Prohibition was because he was an industrialist; they liked the idea of Prohibition. They thought that many of their workers who drank and were late as a result of drink would change; this meant that the business would make more money. I know that source E is reliable as evidence about Prohibition; because I know from the way its written and the caption at the bottom that it is an informal letter, which was probably written for private reading. This source is also reliable because it was written in 1932 after Prohibition, it tells us a lot about the truths of what it was really like, how it didn’t work and went wrong.
