Source E is a personal letter from JD Rockerfeller Jnr. This shows to us that he could have put in his personal thoughts, and it would be a more honest account of what he felt Prohibition did to the country. This source was also produced in 1932 (one year before the 21st Amendment to the Constitution). This is very important because it shows that he had the benefit of hindsight, and he could reflect on Prohibition. This is important because we can see that he knows what happened in prohibition. There was no motive for producing an inaccurate source, however, this does depend on whom the letter is being written to. Therefore, this Source is quite accurate. On the other hand, source F was a speech given by Kramer, who was the first Prohibition Commissioner. I think that this is biased because Kramer’s job was to install the public’s confidence in Prohibition. The motive for the Source was to induce a public confidence in Prohibition and as he was the Commissioner, he had to make sure that there was public confidence in him as well. This means that his speech was biased. He was also very optimistic and most of his points were opinions, as he said them just after the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.
Source E agrees with other sources. Source A agrees with Source E, as Source A says: ‘It created the greatest criminal boom in American history’. Source E says: “…Crime has increased to a level never seen before.” Al Capone decided to take advantage of this and did so by bribing the policemen, judges and politicians. This meant that he could control the state with very little fear of arrest. Al Capone ran ‘speakeasies’ or illegal bars where people used to drink. This seems to agree with what Rockefeller is saying in his letters. It also says that normal people resorted to crime. Source A says: ‘For no earlier law had gone against the daily customs, habits and desires of so many Americans’. This source is also a passage taken from an American textbook. This means that there is a balanced view of what happened. The textbook was also produced after Prohibition was finished. This meant that it had the chance to review prohibition as a whole. Source H supports Source E because it is a statistic table and shows drinkers increased during Prohibition. Source H shows that in 1920, one year after the Volstead Act, 14,313 people were caught drunk. In 1925, 6 years into Prohibition, 51,361 people were caught drunk. This showed a 360% increase, a total of 37,048 increase. This showed drinking had increased. In Source E, it says: “drinking has generally increased.” This shows that Source E is reliable, as it can be backed up.
Source G, which are official statistics produced by the American Federal Government shows that the number of illegal stills seized went from 9,746 in 1921 to 15,794 in 1929. This shows that the police were doing their best to enforce Prohibition. This showed some success in what Kramer was implying in Source F, where he says: “Where it [Prohibition] is not obeyed it will be enforced.” The statistics back up the Source. However, this could be just a small percentage of how many stills were actually made. If there was a figure for how many stills were made, it would make it easier to compare how many were made to how many were seized to see if Kramer was true to his word.
Source F is less reliable. Source J shows that Prohibition enforcers were taking bribes and were corrupt. Source J shows that the Prohibition enforcers were not doing their jobs properly. Source J says: “I opened it and there was $75 in it”. This Source is by a policeman, talking about Chicago in the early 1920s, and it shows that all policemen were bribed to not enforce the law, and so, goes against Source F, where Kramer says: “It will be enforced.” It obviously would not have been enforced as the top people in the state were bribed. Source I shows some of the reasons why the law was not being obeyed. Source I shows many people of high influence in administering Prohibition with their hands behind their backs. One can see from this that they are asking for bribes. This shows one of the reasons why the original enthusiasm by Kramer was quashed. Both these sources were against what Kramer promised. However, Source I also shows that that the number of illegal alcohol seized had drastically gone up. This possibly meant that the police were doing better jobs and were actually stopping the production of alcohol.
In conclusion I can say that I think that source E is more reliable than Source F. Firstly, because it was produced towards the end of Prohibition, which meant that the Source writer, Rockefeller, had the benefit of seeing the effects of Prohibition, a hindsight. Source F was a speech and at the start of Prohibition, and the speech-giver, Kramer, was being optimistic and hopeful that Prohibition would work. Secondly, he wrote all this in a personal letter. In a personal letter it is much easier to express his personal thoughts and feelings. Kramer spoke in a speech, and so, his views were more opinionated and were motivating rather than the truth, as he attempted to make himself look stronger. Thirdly Rockerfeller had no motive for writing what he did, whereas on the other hand, Kramer did. His reasons for these are that he was the Prohibition Commissioner and he had to make sure that he enforced the law. Although both sources are useful, Source E is more authentic and is more reliable.
