Prohibition (T1)

Question 1

When was the 18th amendment act put in place?

Answer 1

1918

Question 2

What was the 18th amendment?

Answer 2

Banned the sale, transportation and manufacture of intoxicating liquor

Question 3

What was the loophole in the 18th amendment?

Answer 3

The consumption of alcohol was not illegal

Question 4

What was the Volstead act?

Answer 4

it defined an ‘intoxicating liquor’ as any drink containing more than 0.5% alcohol

Question 5

Why did women want prohibition?

Answer 5

Women saw alcohol as a means by which men oppressed them

Question 6

Why did big businesses want prohibition?

Answer 6

• drunkenness in the workplace lead to ineffective working

- examples; Henry Ford, Harding, Coolidge, Heinz and The Rockefeller Corporation

Question 7

Why did religious groups want prohibition?

Answer 7

They saw alcohol as the work of the devil and was overwhelmingly responsible for sin and wrongdoing

Question 8

What was a typical supporter of prohibition like?

Answer 8

• Protestant
• Live in small towns in the South and West
• (except in the south) tended to vote Republican

Question 9

When was the Volstead act?

Answer 9

1920

Question 10

What were opponents to prohibition like?

Answer 10

• Likely to be urban
• Of non-northern European ethnic origin
• Roman catholic
• Democrats

Question 11

By 1917 how many states had already passed prohibition laws?

Answer 11

27

Question 12

What 2 factors lead to increased popularity of prohibition?

Answer 12

• The impact of the war

- Disorganisation of the opposition

Question 13

Why during WW1 was grain used much less for alcoholic drinks?

Answer 13

They used it for food instead, therefore people felt it was patriotic to live without alcohol

Question 14

What year was the Lever Act?

Answer 14

1917

Question 15

What was the Lever Act?

Answer 15

Grain was banned from being used in the manufacture of alcoholic drinks

Question 16

Why did many people not want to buy alcohol from large brewers such as Ruppert, Plabst and Leiber?

Answer 16

They were German brewers and during the war there was a strong anti-German feeling

Question 17

Why was the opposition to prohibition not successful?

Answer 17

They were not well organised, there were a few rallies, but other than this there was little protest

Question 18

What were the main 5 reasons for the failure of prohibition?

Answer 18

• Bootleggers
• Geography/scale of the aim
• Industrial alcohol
• Disagreements between the “dry lobby”
• Speakeasies and the desire to have a good time

Question 19

Why was the size of America an issue when in came to enforcing prohibition?

Answer 19

• America had 18,700 miles of coastline and land border

- Waters on the east coast became known as ‘rum row’

Question 20

How successful was the smuggling of alcohol due the the size of America?

Answer 20

• In 1925 Kramer guessed only 5% of all alcohol smuggled in was intercepted
• In 1924 around $40mil worth seized, business was estimated at around $800mil

Question 21

What did bootleggers do?

Answer 21

• They bought alcohol from chemists on prescription as this was still available
• They brewed it and then sold it on

Question 22

Who was George Remus?

Answer 22

• The ‘king of bootleggers’
• Made $5mil in 5 years
• would manufacture medical alcohol then an army of 3,000 gangsters would hijack his products and would divert them to illegal stills

Question 23

How many people died in NYC from alcohol poisoning?

Answer 23

34

Question 24

Why was the illegally manufactured alcohol called moonshine?

Answer 24

The alcohol was made in remote areas by the light of the moon

Question 25

Why was moonshine dangerous?

Answer 25

There was no quality control as it was not regulated - people died

Question 26

How did people try to remove the horrid taste from moonshine?

Answer 26

By making exotic cocktails

Question 27

Who would run speakeasies?

Answer 27

Gangsters

Question 28

Who tended to go to speakeasies?

Answer 28

fashionable city dwellers

Question 29

What were the 4 main reasons for prohibition?

Answer 29

- Influential supporters - Pressure from temperance groups and religious groups - Aim was to stop alcohol trade - Gov. supporters concerned with moral regulation of a changing society

Question 30

How many treasury agents were employed to enforce prohibition?

Answer 30

3000

Question 31

How much were treasury agents compared to the profits of illegal industry?

Answer 31

$2,500 compared to $2 billion

Question 32

Why was there a divide in the oposition?

Answer 32

The anti-saloon league was divided as some members wanted stricter enforcement and others wanted education to stop people from drinking in the first place.

Question 33

What did the Anti-saloon league estamiate that would be needed to enforce the prohibition compared to what was given?

Answer 33

$5 million $2 million

Question 34

What did the prohibition led to?

Answer 34

A huge growth in organised crime.

Question 35

Give an example of an illegal alcohol bossiness in Chicago?

Answer 35

John Torrio, ran most of the illegal alcohol businesses in Chicago and retired in 1925 with savings of $30 million

Question 36

Who was the most notorious gangsta? | how much had he made when he went to prison in 1932?

Answer 36

Al Capone $70 million

Question 37

How was Capone a man of violence give examples?

Answer 37

Had an army of 700 and gangsters committed 300 murders.

Question 38

What did supports say about the successes of prohibition

Answer 38

That consumption fell from 2.6 gallons per year to 1 per year per person Arrests and deaths from alcoholism fell Fewer accidents in the work place

Question 39

What did Hoover do in may 1929?

Answer 39

He set up the Wickersham Commission to investigate the effectiveness of prohibition?

Question 40

What did the Wickersham Commission deliberate?

Answer 40

that the prohibition law could not be enforced. It took up 66% of the law in enforcement budget

Question 41

When was the 18th amendment abolished?

Answer 41

In 1933 by Roosevelt

Question 42

What were the reasons for its failure?

Answer 42

Geographical size made enforcement impossible Bootleggers Easy to redistill industrial alcohol Lack of resources or enforcement Desires for pleasure among many Americans Disagreements amount 'Dry lobby"