American Prohibition Essay Research Paper — страница 3
$1,000,000,000 a year was lost to the national governments, states, and counties in excise taxes (Ohio-State 2). That money went instead “into the pockets of bootleggers and in the pockets of the public officials in the shape of graft,” (Ohio State 2). It seemed that “the coin of corruption was sifting through the hands of all manner of public servants,” (Allen 246). The government was so bad that it even financed the bootlegging industry (Ohio-State 2). In 1925, 286,950,000 more of the $10,000 bills were issued than in 1920, and 125,000,000 more $5,000 bills were issued (Ohio-State 2). Fiorella H. LaGuardia made a clever observation, “What honest business man deals in $10,000 bills? Surely these bills were not used to pay the salaries of ministers. The bootlegging industry has created a demand for bills of large denominations, and the Treasury Department accommodates them!” (Ohio State 2). America’s own law makers and legislators, who had been the cause of the prohibition law, were now becoming corrupt with greed from the revenue of illegal alcohol. The most serious repercussion of the prohibition law, however, was organized crime. When immigrants came here they were often placed at the bottom of the social rung (Kutler 1579). Some of the immigrants chose to take illegitimate pathways out of their poverty by committing petty crimes (Kutler 1579). Then when prohibition was enacted suddenly Jewish and Italian gangsters were faced with an unprecedented amount of criminal opportunities (Kelly 79). Instead of being dirt poor in the slums of a city suddenly these gangsters were able to get money and respect in the illegal liquor, gambling, and labor racketeering businesses (Kutler 1579). As a result of prohibition, there was a wave of organized criminal activity (Encarta 1-4). Over night it seemed, “Men like Bugsy Siegel helped turn crime into a big business; organized crime became the American way,” (Kutler 1579). Organized crime was proof that prohibition was a failure, and the mob got its start with Johnny Torrio in Chicago (Allen 261). He, being a business man, saw that there could be lots of money to be made with bootlegging (262). Johnny called on a fellow 5 Points gang member, Alphonse Capone, to help him organize a business in which they would sell alcohol while eliminating the competition through intimidation (262). In 3 years Al Capone had replaced Johnny Torrio as the boss and had 700 men at his disposal (Allen 263). He ruled Cicero, the entire west side of Chicago, and had all the politicians living there in his pockets (Time-Life 45-46). In 1927 federal agents estimated Capone’s revenue from booze alone to be $60,000,000 a year(Allen 264). Al Capone credited his success directly to the law of prohibition saying that, “It looked like a good opening for a lot of smart men,” (Time-Life 45-46). Al Capone and his men were not the only smart men in Chicago. Soon other gangs were trying becoming involved in the bootlegging operations. The O’Banions were the only real competition in Chicago’s bootlegging industry, and because of that the two gangs fought daily (Allen 264). It was said that “Chicago was afflicted with such an epidemic of killings as no civilized modern city had ever before seen, and a new technique of whole sale murder was developed” (Allen 265). In short prohibition was allowing the mob to turn Chicago into a war zone where “beer running trucks being hijacked on the interurban boulevards by bandits with sub-machine guns” was an everyday event (Allen 243). Another important failure of prohibition was its lack of a tangible decrease in the amount of alcohol in America (Thorton 72). Between 1924 and 1926 13-15 million gallons of illegal industrial alcohol was diverted each year (Allen 247). From this amount, three more gallons could be made from every one gallon of diverted alcohol (Allen 258).It had become exceedingly easy to obtain alcohol. Smuggling too was so successful that in 1925 assistant Secretary of Treasury General Lincoln C. Andrews reported that only 5% of the liquor was recovered, and the profit for moonshine and diverted alcohol was estimated at $40,000,000 (Allen 247). Alcohol’s continued success was attributed to its availability. Approximately 50-100 gallons of alcohol could be produced from a still, which only cost $500 to set up (Allen 255). Yet, the dry leaders still argued that there was less alcohol consumption in America. To this, opponents of the law said, “Presumably there was a good deal less, except among the prosperous,” (Allen 247). “What’s more, the annual spending on alcohol ended up being greater during prohibition than it had been before
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