Woodrow Wilson's Bootlegging Research Paper Outline

Bootlegging started in the 1920’s in the U.S. history by doing illegal traffic in such as liquor in “violation of legislative restrictions on it manufacture, sale, or transportation.” The word “bootlegging” started in the Midwest around the 1800’s mainly to practice of concealing flasks of illicit liquor in boot tops when trading with the Indians. The word became part of the American “Eighteenth Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution effected the “National prohibition of alcohol” but it also repeal in 1933.

Just think, no wine.no beer,no whiskey. This is prohibition. The leaders of the prohibition movement were alarmed at the drinking behavior of Americans.The law was ratified by the Federal and state government In January,1919.Prohibition in the United States was a measure designed to reduce drinking by eliminating the businesses that manufactured, distributed, and sold alcoholic beverages. The Eighteenth Amendment (prohibition law) to the United States Constitution took away license to do business from the brewers, distillers, vintners, and the wholesale and retail sellers of alcoholic beverages.Prohibition was also given the nickname as “The Scofflaw.”The Scofflaw, One who habitually violates laws, especially laws that does not involve serious criminal offenses.America repealed Prohibition for three reasons.The various reasons include,economics,crime and concerns over enforcement ,and respect for the law.

Temporary fun with lifelong consequences; alcohol. In 1919 the 18th amendment was ratified, this amendment declared it illegal to manufacture, transport and sell alcoholic beverages. America repealed Prohibition due to the crime rate increasing, failure of enforcement and no money being made off of alcohol.

Bootlegging was the manufacture, distribution and sell of illegal goods. In this case it was Alcohol. During the prohibition Era, the rise of Speakeasies increased. A Speakeasies also known as “blind pigs” and “gin joints,”was an illegal bar or nightclub that sold illegal liquor during the Prohibition Era. The liquor was supplied by gangsters such as Al Capone. They were known as Speakeasies because they had to “Speak Easy” and/or stay quiet on where the bar was located. Speakeasies were typically located in Cellars, Attics and Basements. To enter a Speakeasies one had to whisper a password or know a secret knock in order to not be overheard by the law enforcement. Once inside, many Speakeasies establishments required code words to order Alcohol. Cocktails were created in order to mask the Alcohol inside the

The black market which was led by several mafia organizations, was the cause of this, which basically led to worse social conditions. New York and Chicago were the main states that rose to power through the successful selling of illegal liquor that the mafia organizations offered, but New York was the main home of a dozen big time mobsters. New York became one of the nation’s largest market for bootlegging alcohol. The mafia organizations found ways to avoid being detected by law enforcement during the prohibition. Some of these crimes included money laundering, bribing law enforcement, smuggling, and bootlegging. Amongst these mafia organizations were Johnny Torrio, Al Capone, Lucky Lucciano, and Salvatore Maranzano who were some of the main mafioso’s that were involved in bootlegging

Prohibition was a period of 13 years in U.S. history in which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of liquor was made illegal from 1920 to 1933. It was known as the “Noble Experiment” and led to the first and only time an Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was repealed.

In fact, it took a great effort and struggle for both the federal and local government to enforce it. Even after a noticeable 30% drop in alcoholic consumption and a decline in arrests for drunkenness, bootlegging and speakeasies kept increasing and were extremely successful, especially towards the end of the Prohibition, for those who wanted to drink found many creative ways to do so. The purpose of the Prohibition was to promote the nation’s health and hygiene and reduce poverty, the rate of crime, and the amount of deaths. The average workers’ productivity was expected to increase improving the economy and the overall quality of life. However, the opposite occurred. Crimes associated with bootlegging increased and led to the rise of powerful crime syndicates such as the famous Chicago gangster Al Capone, who made use of the bootleg operations and speakeasies and earned $60 million annually. The criminal activity and the rise in gang violence increased with the progression of the decade, with court rooms and jails overflowing with criminals. Some would even have to wait a year to be brought to trial. Drug use also increased, replacing alcohol. In addition to that, the desire to increase workers’ productivity failed and instead of reducing the consumption of alcohol, which succeeded in the early 1920’s, people actually started to consume more alcohol towards the end of the Prohibition. This excess consumption of alcohol lead to alcoholic poisoning, one side effect of the Prohibition. Since bootleg alcohol was carelessly made, its quality was never pure and often contained creosote, lead toxins and even embalming fluid. This caused paralysis, blindness and painful death to consumers, who were then forced to turn to drugs and other dangerous substances to avoid such

In 1919, Congress passed the 18th Amendment which banned the sale and consumption of alcohol in America (Doc B). Prohibitionists overlooked the tenacious American tradition of strong drink and of weak control by the central government. Thus, there was tension between the modernists and the traditionalists. Although the amendment was passed, alcohol was still distributed illegally. Actually, prohibition spawned many crimes, such as illegal sale of alcohol and gang wars. Specifically, Al Capone was one of the most well-known booze distributors and was labeled “public enemy number

Crime rates went up and increased in numbers rapidly soon after the prohibition laws were put in place. The population continued to grow throughout the war with about forty- five million people that lived in the states, countries, or cities that forbade both the manufacture and selling of alcohol(Slavicek). With such a high population, much money was put into enforcing prohibition. The annual budget of the Bureau of Prohibition went from approximately $4,000,000 to $13,500,000 during the 1920s (Thornton). Prohibition just kept failing no matter how much money or law enforcement the government put into it. Journalist Richard Cowan invented The Iron Law of Prohibition stating that the more intense law enforcement was on a prohibited substance, the more popular the prohibited substances became(Thornton). When anything becomes prohibited, the product will become more popular, be adulterated with unknown or dangerous substances, and will not be produced and consumed under normal market constraints . Due to alcohol having such a high popularity imports began to take place through many ports. Bootleggers began smuggling liquor into the United States not just from Canada and Mexico but from other seacoasts and ships under foreign registry such as the Bahamas, Cuba, and the French islands and off the southern coast of Newfoundland(Prohibition). Prohibition made it more difficult to supply weaker, products, such as beer, than stronger, compact products, such as whiskey, because(Thornton). As prohibition laws were suspected to be broken more, and more law enforcement began to get involved. Law enforcement agencies began to use sting operations. Elliot Ness, a prohibition agent, that went undercover trying to catch people selling consuming, and producing alcohol, used the method of wiretapping to reveal the secret locations of breweries, while

Guns, gangs, women, alcohol, gambling, are just some things that come to mind when I hear prohibition. According to the online source American History, The Prohibition is the act of prohibiting the manufacturing, storage, transportation, and sale of alcohol, including any alcoholic beverage. This led to the biggest crime rates of all time. At the head of all the crime was one man. His name, Alphonse Capone aka (Scarface) . “You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.” This was Al Capone’s favorite saying. Which summarizes his can do attitude and how he expects things to get done. Al Capone was born January 25, 1899 and died January 25,1947. Although Capone’s life was short, he impacted America more

There was very weak enforcement. For example, there was only 3,000 to 3,500 federal Prohibition agents in 1923 (document C). There were hardly any officers to enforce, so it was difficult to control bootlegging (document C). Law in general was so corrupt at this point. Mabel Walker Willebrandt states how upset she is at the fact law enforcers themselves aren’t following the laws (document D). It was a double-standard. It was a waste of time and funds trying to enforce something they can’t. Especially if lawmakers can’t follow the laws themselves (document

Crooked Agents were bribed to “look away” from people buying liquor. Even workers in the government wouldn’t help with the prohibition, they wouldn’t spend any money on enforcing it. When criminals smuggled alcohol they could easily get away with it because there would be so little patrol at the many miles of the country 's border. (Document C) The men who made the prohibition were not following its rules. Many congressmen were violators of the Volstead Act. (Document D) People still drank alcohol throughout Prohibition, the consumption didn’t stop at all. (Document K) Infact throughout the whole prohibition time the consumption of alcohol had barely dipped down.

As a nation coming out of a devastating war, United States was in the midst of making major social changes in laws and regulations; one of the most prominent examples of this was the 18th Amendment to the Constitution. The 18th Amendment, prohibition of the manufacture, sale and transport of alcohol, was established during the Roaring Twenties when United States went through a decade full of industrial, economical, and social growth. Originally, President Woodrow Wilson instituted a temporary wartime prohibition to save grain for producing move, but at the same year Congress decided to submit the 18th Amendment. In January 16, 1920, the National Prohibition Act went into effect. Although religious groups, politicians and social organisations advocated the idea of prohibition to reduce crime rate, solve social problems and improve public health, it did not lower the crime rate, it became a major source of corruption, and effected the US economy in a way that it was just a waste of money and time.

The 1920s was a time of entrepreneurship, big spending, and partying. At the heart of these parties was the popular 1920s activity of drinking, Which was threatened by prohibition. The law of prohibition came into effect on January 16, 1920 and was intended to end drinking and drunkenness. However this policy backfired and sent the American alcohol industry into black market functions. Prohibition is found throughout the novel, “The Great Gatsby”, especially in the life of the character Jay Gatsby.

As the roaring twenties reached their end the battle against alcohol in the United States is just arising to a turning point. With serious controversy over the Volstead Act the country was greatly divided. There was also the extreme rising occurrences of crime, the creation of gangs and a newly established, unorganized criminal justice system. Prohibition was a disaster across America and the more reforment from the government just made things worse.