4) Source D is published in 1931 as an advertisement to make ‘Vinto Santo’ – a grape drink. Nearing the end of the advertisement it tells you that you should consume the drink within 5 days or it may ferment and turn alcoholic. The fact that the police could tolerate an advertisement that tells you how to make an alcoholic drink says a lot. This source tells us that the cops weren’t very strict when it came to the prohibition laws.
I believe the source is reliable about attitudes because it is an advertisement and would not have over or under exaggerated.
Source E is a policeman’s report on a night that he was instructed to patrol 12th street. The policeman says that if you enforced the law they’d send you where there was nothing but weeds. This tells us that someone high up wanted people to drink as he probably did himself. The policeman says that he was assigned to 12th street, in Chicago. He continues to say that he was just going up and down and backed into a doorway to see what was going on. He reports that a fella dashed up to him and said ‘Here take this’. The man handed him the envelope. The policeman says that there was $75 in the envelope. This was obviously a bribe. This tells us that the police around there accepted bribes and there was corruption on the force. It also tells us that some policemen wanted to drink and never wanted the prohibition in the first place.
I feel that source E tells us more about the prohibition because tells us that people high up on the force wasn’t bothered about people drinking. It seems they were more bothered about policemen who were actually enforcing the law and stopping the people drinking. It also tells us that the common policemen accepted bribes.
I believe source E is quite reliable because it was wrote after the prohibition. The cop would not be telling lies after the prohibition, he is just recalling on the event.
Source D only tells us that the police where prepared tolerate an advertisement that tells people how to make an alcoholic drink.
5) ‘Prohibition was a good idea in theory, but a bad one in practice’ I would agree with this statement. That fact that many people saw the prohibition of alcohol as a good idea is understandable. Many people thought it would end bad behaviour in night-clubs, pubs etc. People also thought it would save people a lot of money, make their families happier and many thought the general happiness of the country would eventually increase. Also the theory was that the number of deaths and such in car crashes would dramatically decrease. Source C shows that people thought it wasted money, destroyed families, kept people poor, incited bad behaviour; it calls people slaves of the saloon suggesting that they want the prohibition to come around. Source C should be reliable because it’s a poster, it may be a little over exaggerated because its propaganda, but you find out the arguments against alcohol. But that’s all in theory.
There is a very big BUT in this equation.
The prohibition was introduced in 1920. During which there were no drunk drivers caught in Philadelphia, referring to source B. However in 1925 there was 820 drunk drivers caught in Philadelphia. This supports the quote.
The prohibition eventually created gangs, which grew in power because of the profits they made from selling home made alcohol. As you can see in source A. People like Al Copoene got rich of the prohibition. They guarded their shipments with men armed with machine guns and shotguns. This sometimes led to bloody battles between gangsters and cops. This is all violence and supports the fact that the prohibition is bad in practice.
Gangsters also threatened the Chiefs of Police or bribed them to stay out of their business. This led to a lot of corruption.
Source B tells us that the number of Drunks arrested went up from 14000 to 50000 people. This obviously states that people still drank even if it was prohibited.
Source D shows us how advertisements helped people to make alcoholic drinks, cementing the fact that prohibition is bad in practice.
Source E shows us how corrupted the police force was. It tells us how the police were often bribed to stop reporting them.
Source F tells us how a speedboat ride from Canada can get alcohol to America in 3 minutes. This shows how easy it is to smuggle liquor into the country. This is all evidence that supports the quote ‘The prohibition is a good idea in theory, but a bad one in practice.
