Prohibition (1920-1933)
How Prohibition really started organized crime.
A Brief History of Prohibition
In the years following the American Revolution (1775–83), alcohol consumption in the United States increased dramatically. Men, women, and sometimes even children accepted alcohol as part of their daily lives. During World War I (1914–18), the idea of prohibiting alcohol sales and consumption (Prohibition) became a patriotic issue because several of the largest breweries were owned by immigrants from Germany - the United States's enemy in the war. So, with the abolishment of the legal production, sales, and consumption of alcohol in 1919, citizens, immigrants, and foreigners alike looked elsewhere for their supply. The government’s ban on alcoholic beverages offered opportunities for the creation of a black market to make and sell alcohol to all those in need. Saloons were built in every city and village and provided a setting for illegal activities such as prostitution (which led to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases) and gambling. Saloons were also, gathering places for the various ethnic groups, and later organized crime groups, to hold meetings and social events. While many saw Prohibition as divisive time in the nation’s history, it was the turning point in the rise of organized crime, as it gave criminal groups the economic foothold they were looking for in America. Historically, in the eyes of the reformers, drinking was a sin that led to disease, crime, and the ruin of family relationships. Yet for many, drinking was a way to cope with those same issues. At first, reformers encouraged people to cut down on the amount of drinking, but eventually they called for total abstinence, meaning they wanted all drinking to stop. In early 1836, those advocating for temperance formed the American Temperance Union and called for an end to all alcohol consumption. The temperance movement took hold of government and politics, and by 1855 thirteen states had banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. By the mid-late 1800s, a number of other groups who were concerned about alcohol consumption formed, including the Prohibition Party in 1872; which helped to sponsor presidential candidates who opposed alcohol. While men were the primary buyers and consumers of alcohol before prohibition, it was mostly women, considered the moral guardians of society, who primarily headed the prohibition movement. These women had a special interest in seeing alcohol consumption outlawed, as they often suffered the most from their husbands’ or fathers’ drinking habits. With the increase in drinking, domestic violence also became more commonplace as men spent the family money on too much alcohol, leaving wives and children with little or nothing to eat. Little did the pro-prohibition (reformer) forces know, but alcohol consumption would actually increase after the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919 - which outlawed the manufacturing and selling of alcohol in the United States. Prohibition was enacted in 1920 and was repealed in 1933. |
Italian Involvement
In 1919, Congress passed the Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, outlawing the manufacturing, sale, importation and transportation of alcohol nationwide. Passage of the Volstead Act immediately followed, outlawing even those beverages containing as little as 0.5 percent alcohol, which included beer and wine. Although many Americans initially were in favor of Prohibition, they thought that only hard liquor, like whiskey, would be outlawed. They were not in favor of banning the consumption of beer and wine, and thus the Volstead Act prompted many to withdraw their support of Prohibition. Prohibition began to divide the nation in many ways, yet most evidently, into two distinct groups; the Drys, who supported the law, and the Wets, who urged an end to the total ban. For some, it wasn’t always that clear. While the ban on alcohol seemed to initially reduce the number of heavy drinkers and drunks hanging around, the illegal industry provided a means for those people to continue drinking with no restrictions. Immigrant groups also found Prohibition particularly difficult, as they came from societies in which the consumption of alcohol was acceptable and part of everyday life. While bootleggers (those who manufactured alcohol illegally) had existed long before Prohibition, the passage of the law compounded by the surge of Italian immigrants in the U.S, who were poor and needed work created a perfect storm for the expansion of the illegal manufacture and sales of alcohol. Because they did not have to compete with government sanctioned suppliers, bootleggers could charge what they pleased for their supply. Those who could not afford it simply made their own—often in bathtubs. Bathtub gin, as it was called, was not always safe, and was often responsible for causing blindness and even death. The danger of the drink lay in the distillation process required to turn medical-grade alcohol into a drink that would not taste too horrible. People who had no idea what they were doing often made bathtub gin, and their incompetence put drinkers at risk of consuming unsafe concentrations of wood, or denatured, alcohol. "Liquor prohibition led to the rise of organized crime in America, and drug prohibition has led to the rise of the gang problems we have now."
Drew Carey |
Organized Crime Rise to Power
Speakeasies were establishments where liquor was sold and consumed during Prohibition. Usually people with ties to organized crime ran the speakeasies. The name came from the unwritten rule that customers ordering alcohol at these places should not be obvious and or draw attention to themselves and "speak easy” to the bartender. New York City alone boasted about thirty thousand speakeasies (secret drinking establishments) in the 1920s, according to the police commissioner, yet, as he said, “I am sure that is only a fraction of the total number.” Another type of “secret” drinking establishment, a Blind Pig, was disguised to look like a legitimate business from the front and from the inside, yet deeper into the building, in back rooms, were bars, gambling tables and strip joints. A secret password was often required in order to regulate who was admitted. Bootleggers provided the liquor sold in speakeasies and blind pigs, which was supplied to them by rum runners who brought the liquor into the country either by ship or over the Canadian border. The federal government struggled to regulate all of the illegal activity, as they provided just fifteen hundred agents to uphold Prohibition across the entire nation. During the first year of Prohibition alone, crime rates rose 24%. Eventually the immense violence and death that was a consequence of the illegal activities and turf wars of organized crime families caused the U.S. Department of Justice to establish a special force known as the Untouchables, headed by agent Elliot Ness (1902–1957), to crack down on illegal Prohibition activity, yet even they were largely ineffective. Prohibition was never truly enforceable. The American public simply did not consider moderate drinking a sinful activity and refused to have its morality policed by the government. Despite the failed efforts to sustain prohibition in the United states, it was finally overturned in 1933 with the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment.
Speakeasies were establishments where liquor was sold and consumed during Prohibition. Usually people with ties to organized crime ran the speakeasies. The name came from the unwritten rule that customers ordering alcohol at these places should not be obvious and or draw attention to themselves and "speak easy” to the bartender. New York City alone boasted about thirty thousand speakeasies (secret drinking establishments) in the 1920s, according to the police commissioner, yet, as he said, “I am sure that is only a fraction of the total number.” Another type of “secret” drinking establishment, a Blind Pig, was disguised to look like a legitimate business from the front and from the inside, yet deeper into the building, in back rooms, were bars, gambling tables and strip joints. A secret password was often required in order to regulate who was admitted. Bootleggers provided the liquor sold in speakeasies and blind pigs, which was supplied to them by rum runners who brought the liquor into the country either by ship or over the Canadian border. The federal government struggled to regulate all of the illegal activity, as they provided just fifteen hundred agents to uphold Prohibition across the entire nation. During the first year of Prohibition alone, crime rates rose 24%. Eventually the immense violence and death that was a consequence of the illegal activities and turf wars of organized crime families caused the U.S. Department of Justice to establish a special force known as the Untouchables, headed by agent Elliot Ness (1902–1957), to crack down on illegal Prohibition activity, yet even they were largely ineffective. Prohibition was never truly enforceable. The American public simply did not consider moderate drinking a sinful activity and refused to have its morality policed by the government. Despite the failed efforts to sustain prohibition in the United states, it was finally overturned in 1933 with the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment.