why did prohibiotn fail question F

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C/W     Was prohibition bound to fail?  

Question F: Study all the sources.

Do these sources support the view that the failure of prohibition was inevitable?

It was clear from the day the law was passed that many American citizens were against the Volstead act and this is obvious because of the amount of Americans who enjoyed alcohol prior to the act, and were willing to break the law during the act to acquire it. Other evidence includes the rise of gangsters and organised crime. The consumption of alcohol was still taking its place; it needed to be in hiding from fundamentalists such as the Anti-saloon league and thus widespread crime showed the biggest increase in American history.

On the other hand, there was a lot of evidence to show prohibition could have been a success. The vast amount of supporters of the Anti-saloon league and Women's Christian Temperance Union gave the impression that prohibition would succeed. Also, the decrease in cases of liver disease caused by excessive drinking implies that despite many violations of alcohol prohibition, overall drinking nonetheless did decline. Unfortunately, this decline shown at the beginning of prohibition subsequently increased as prohibition continued. Besides, the government lost a huge source of tax revenue - and if the government loses money, it is likely that the source of money loss is going to be terminated.

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Prohibition had a chance of success for lots of reasons e.g. Saloons were always thought of as somewhat "seedy" places, and were portrayed as dark, gloomy hangouts for absent fathers and husbands.

Source A does because it created a criminal boom and widespread crime. It also went against the everyday habits of ordinary law abiding citizens "for no earlier law had gone against the daily customs, habits and desires of so many Americans"; This is proved in source A where saloons were a "bad influence" and also in the cartoon in source D where two children look wistfully at ...

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