Q3
Source B, which is from ‘The American Issue’ an anti-alcohol paper dated 16 January 1920, is very positive about Prohibition. It states that no longer do ‘broken-hearted mothers’ cry at their ‘drunken sons graves, so what they mean with that is, that the death rate will decrease because of Prohibition. Also it states that there will be less crime, increase in respect for the law, no more fear of drunkenness and no more poverty. It kind of promises a better way of life and we can see that this magazine is an enthusiastic supporter of Prohibition. However this article has been written at the start, when Prohibition was introduced. The publisher of this article had no insight that instead of decreasing all these bad factors e.g. no more drunkenness, it increased it. If he would have that it would have come to that point, he probably would have been against the introduction of Prohibition.
From source D we can learn that the U.S. government had no success in prohibiting alcohol. The agents were just as corrupt as the gangsters who supplied alcohol. This source strongly disagrees with source B, as source B states that there would be an increase in respect for the law and less crime. U.S agents, who are working for the law, however had a lack of respect, while they were negotiating with those gangsters to fill their pockets. Corruption therefore increased rapidly even in some cities officers were quite prepared to direct people to speakeasies, which were secret places were people could drink alcohol.
Source H, which is a quote from Al Capone saying ‘I call myself a businessman. I make money by supplying a popular demand. If I break the law, my customers are as guilty as I am. You can’t cure thirst by law.’ From this quote we can learn that the demand for alcohol did not decrease, instead it increased. This demand was filled by gangsters who provided alcohol for the public. However those productions were done often at home in illegal ‘stills.’ This home made alcohol was often deadly and caused serious poisoning and blindness. It increased the death rate. This also proves source B wrong, as that source states that the death rate will fall down and there would be no more worries about drunkenness.
Prohibition also created a change for people to make money. More and more people tried to make profit out of it, so there were a lot of bootleggers coming into cities bringing illegal liquor supplies. Even well respected people such as Joseph Kennedy, father of future president John. F Kennedy made a big fortune in brining illegal liquor supplies. This again proves source B wrong, as the source says that there would be more respect towards the law and less crime. Instead the crime increased rapidly during the Prohibition, as everyone wanted to make profit out of it. Therefore the predictions of source B were totally the opposite of what happened during the Prohibition. Therefore Prohibition ended on 5 December 1933. However we must not forget that it the article was published at the beginning of Prohibition. I feel that the publisher of the article may have thought that crime and poverty were all supported by alcohol and therefore thought alcohol was the cause of the bad and evil. He supported Prohibition, not knowing it would turn even worse.
Q4.
Source F, which is a quote form Alec Wilder a New York composer speaking in the 1950’s, tells us that he was very positive about the speakeasies during the Prohibition. He says that the speakeasies were ‘so romantic’ and once you came inside these speakeasies, you belonged to a special society. Alec Wilder gives us a quite romantic view on the speakeasies. This source useful to a certain extend, because it ‘only’ represents one of the many public opinions about speakeasies. However it does gives us an insight of the attitudes of some people towards Prohibition. Then again we do not know how other people felt about it, and this opinion may disagree with lots of others. Also Alec Wilders opinion is given 20/30 years after the Prohibition. His memory may have become cloudy throughout the years, therefore it makes the source less reliable.
Source I, which is a photograph of Al Capone shown on the front of Time magazine in 1930, gives us an impression of a powerful man, as he is on a prestigious magazine. The magazine makes him appear as a celebrity and not as a corrupt gangster, which he actually was. This source only gives us one sight view. It is not telling what kind of man Al Capone was. It may suggest that the magazine was supporting him and not the government. They turn a blind eye towards his criminal activities. People wanted what he provided and therefore did not see anything wrong with that. Also the caption underneath the photograph, paints a homely picture of him. However he was a gangster who murdered people and did illegal businesses. Therefore I feel this source is not completely reliable, because it paints an unrealistic picture of Al Capone. We can see on the photograph a relaxed and smiling looking man, however Al Capone was infamous for his bad temper. Therefore this source is to an extend reliable, as the magazine only creates one sight view of him.
Source J, which is a quote from President Roosevelt announcing the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1933, saying; ‘I think this would be a good time for a beer.’ This was of course a joke he had made, but from what we can make up is that introducing Prohibition was an enormous fail, as alcohol productions became higher during that era and more speakeasies opened than saloons before Prohibition. It gives us a very clear impression that Prohibition was a bad law and it could not be enforced and even the president seemed to understand that.
Sources F, I, and J are very helpful in order to understand public attitudes towards Prohibition, although each source has a limitation of reliability. However from the three sources I have studied, I can say that all the sources indicate that the public attitudes towards Prohibition were negative, they were all against it. A large amount of people still went to speakeasies and there were more speakeasies than there were saloons before Prohibition.
Q5.
Being public enemy number one means that you are being seen as dreadful and unpopular. People think of you as harmful and need to be stopped as quickly as possible. In this section I will examine and analyse all the sources that have been presented to me. From this and my own knowledge I will conclude if Al Capone was seen by authorities as public enemy number one.
Al Capone is often portrayed as the public enemy number one. However looking at source D, which is taken from a book, written by an US journalist in 1931, tells us that the government could not stand a change to the black market of alcohol producers, as the police officers were just as corrupt as the black market and there were not enough of them to fight against the massive alcohol productions. This tells us that even the people who worked for the law disagreed with Prohibiting alcohol. Therefore I can say that source D disagrees with the statement of Al Capone being public enemy number one. Source E, which is a table showing arrests for drinking offences in Philadelphia 1920 to 1925, shows us that the arrest for drinking offences went dramatically up after the Prohibition of alcohol became a law. People now started to drink more than before the Prohibition of alcohol. Therefore also source E disagrees with the statement of Al Capone being a public enemy number one, because people wanted what he had, so he must have been a quite popular man. Moving on to source F, which is a quote of Alec Wilder, a New York composer from the 1950’s, speaking out 20 years later after the Prohibition of alcohol was abandoned . We can make up that Alec Wilder has very positive memories about the speakeasies. He says he loved them, and they gave him a feeling of belonging to a special society. Therefore he must have seen Al Capone as a good man, because Al Capone supplied alcohol for those speakeasies, which again made it available for the public. Therefore also source F disagrees with the statement of Al Capone being public enemy number one. Source H, which is a quote from Al Capone himself, saying that he is only a businessman supplying a popular demand, and thirst can not be cured by law. We get a sense that people supported what he did. They knew it was wrong, but they wanted what he supplied, and that was alcohol. Therefore they must have seen him as a favourable character and not see him an enemy, but as a friend. Therefore source H disagrees with the statement of Al Capone being public enemy number one. Looking at source I, which from Times magazine, with on the front cover Al Capone in 1930, displays Al Capone as a celebrity, who is very favourable. It demands a lot of respect and the fact that he is on a front cover of a prestigious magazine, shows us how powerful he is. People saw him as businessman, not as a criminal. Therefore source I disagrees with the statement of Al Capone being public enemy number one. Moving on to source J, which is a quote from president Roosevelt, after announcing the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment in 1933, saying, ‘I think this would be a good time for a beer’ It tells us that even the government knew that the Prohibition of alcohol could not be enforced and it was unpopular to the public. Therefore also source J disagrees indirectly with the statement of Al Capone being public enemy number one, because Prohibition was unpopular from the beginning.
However there are also other sources which do agree with the statement of Al Capone being public enemy number one. Source A, which is a poster issued by the Anti-Saloon League trying to convince people that alcohol is the source of problems for households such as the working class. It wants alcohol to be prohibited and was therefore most likely to be against Al Capone’s activities, as he kept alcohol coming in for people. Therefore this source agrees with the statement of Al Capone being public enemy number one, as he supplies alcohol, which keeps the poor people still spending their money on alcohol. Looking at source B, which is an anti-alcohol paper, from 16 January 1920, saying that the new law of prohibiting alcohol is a good law, as no more people will die from it and families will not be thorn apart by it. It is completely against alcohol. However Al Capone still made alcohol available during the Prohibition of alcohol, so therefore this magazine may have seen Al Capone as a threat, as alcohol still could reach the public and cause them in ‘danger’. Therefore this source agrees with the statement of Al Capone being public enemy number one. However this issue was written at the beginning of Prohibition. If it would have known how crime would rise and disrespect for the law was more common, it probably would be against Prohibition of alcohol. Source G tells us that Al Capone had been corrupting a lot of people; he even gained complete control of the suburb of Cicero. This shows us a darker side of Al Capone, as he was a gangster after all who corrupted a lot of people. This made a lot of people go against him and hate him. Therefore this source agrees with the statement of Al Capone being public enemy number one. Source C, which is a German cartoon, commenting on the Prohibition in the 1920’s. We can see Uncle Sam, which represents the U.S government smashing down the bottles the devil like person is keep bringing in. Uncle Sam looks very frustrated. The devil creature represents the black market, so also Al Capone, because the creature is shown as an ‘evil’ person, it must suggest that the black market was indeed evil as well. Therefore this source agrees with the statement of Al Capone being public enemy number one.
On the 14th of February 1929, seven of the O’Banions (gang rivals of Al Capone) were sitting in a garage, waiting for a promised consignment of hijacked liquor. A car drove up to them, and three men dressed as police officers got out, followed by two others in normal clothes. The three supposed policemen entered the garage alone, disarmed the seven O’Banions and told them to stand in row against the wall. The O’Banions did as told, thinking that it was an inspection as any other they had in the past. However suddenly the two men who were dressed in normal clothes came and shot the seven O’Banions with a machine-gun. The three supposed policemen and the ones dressed in normal clothes drove off leaving the O’Banions dead. Al Capone however was not present at the event; he was at the time on a holiday to Florida, sending his men to do the dirty work. This had caused a huge damage to Al Capone’s ‘good’ name, as people liked him for supplying alcohol. People looked past the fact that Al Capone was corrupt as any other gangster. This made him very unfavourable and therefore people started changing their attitudes towards him, leaving him as a public enemy number one.
Although Al Capone was a gangster, he supplied what the public wanted; alcohol. He knew that Prohibition could not be enforced and saw big business in supplying alcohol. The public supported this, as they kept demanding more. This made him a powerful and a respectable man. However he still was handling corrupt and he was still acting against the law, so other people such as the Anti-Saloon league and the U.S government did see him as a threat, as he kept supplying alcohol illegally. Also after what happened at the Sint. Valentines Massacre, changed people onions about Al Capone and they might have seen him as a public enemy number one. In my conclusion I think that Al Capone was not public enemy number one, but he was not the public’s favourite either.
