Timothy Pabustan

Per. 2

AP Language

Sober Drunkenness: Bootlegging in 1920s America

            “Everybody is calling me a racketeer. I call my self a businessman. When I sell liquor, it's bootlegging. When my patrons serve it on a silver tray on Lakeshore Drive, it's hospitality.” These are Al Capone’s words on Prohibition and bootlegging (Bailey 751).

            The 1920s was an era of great change and hypocrisy in American society. Prohibition, also known as the “Noble Experiment”, made it illegal to distribute, possess, and consume alcohol in the United States (Danzer 455). The success of the bootlegging industry showed the contradiction and change in the morals of society and the changing attitude of American people: fundamentalists and conservatives degrade alcohol consumption as the work of the “devil” himself, while the American public as a whole let the Bootlegging industry, led by the mob, grew into a multi-billion dollar empire. The irony was that while fundamentalist and conservatives celebrated Prohibition, common Americans drank at speakeasies and celebrated the works of bootleggers as heroes.

            Ever since the first settlers landed on America, laws were tried to pass to limit alcohol consumption, since excessive drinking or drunkenness halted the work done by citizens. New York and Virginia, for example, passed a law that made drinking in Sunday illegal because, on the Lord's Day, “people should be worshiping the Bible not the bottle.” These were the first laws enacted with the supervision from the church to favor abstinence from all alcoholic beverages. Through the beginning of the 19^th century up to its end many more laws were enacted by different states against drinking (McWilliams)

            Finally, on January 16, 1920, Congress, with the pressure from crusading churches and women, passed the 18^th Amendment that prohibited the selling, manufacturing, and consumption of alcohol. (Danzer 455) The day also marked the beginning of bootlegging and speakeasies, and signaled the rise of organize crime into a powerful institution of violence never before seen. The “Noble Experiment”, as conservatives, politicians, priests, and God-fearing Americans called it, was destined to fail from the beginning due to the unprotected border, political and police corruption, and the sheer number of people fond of drink who could not be controlled by the 25,000 agents of the prohibition bureau (Kallen 97).

            The Bootlegging years reflect America’s diversity and intolerance to immigrants and blacks. The abolition of alcohol was fairly popular at the bible belt South and Midwest states because of strong fundamentalist feelings and white people wanting to get the liquor out of the hands of blacks. (Bailey 749) White people in Southern and Midwest states felt the need for Prohibition because their “God” told them to do so, ironically even Jesus drank alcohol as he turned water into wine. (McWilliams)  However, large Eastern cities hated the Prohibition because of the large European immigrants residing on this cities resented to abandon their “wet” tradition. Irish, Germans, Polish, Italians, and other European immigrants were used to drinking in the “Old World” and felt the Government betrayed them because of Prohibition. Also feeling betrayed were many of the veterans returning home from World War I.  In Europe, they had seen that moderate daily alcohol consumption and ordinary life could co-exist, and drinking helps them cope through the hardships of war. (Bailey 750)

            The failure of the 18^th amendment was imminent from the start, as any entrepreneurs with some money could open an underground pub or “speakeasy” that supplied “dry” America with alcohol. Bootleggers then supplied speakeasies. The most infamous of all bootleggers was Chicago based mobster Al “Scar face” Capone.  He ran distilleries and breweries that made a profit of over 100 million dollars. Capone’s bootlegging business embodied the ruthlessness of gangsters competing for business deals; evident to this was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre where Capone men slaughtered 7 rival gangsters.(Kallen 98)  The bootleggers showed the great contradiction in American society. While prohibitionist and moralist hunted bootleggers, the common folk and immigrants hailed them as the “new Robin Hoods” of the 20^th century. The ‘20s is an era of transition from a fundamental society to a more liberal. (McWilliams)

            Prohibition did not cure the alcoholism of America; instead, it make it worse. During Prohibition, only rich people had access to expensive imported alcohol from Mexico and Canada. Common folk used grain alcohol, which was legal when sold for "industrial use only” to create their own bathtub alcohol. If not mixed right, the “bathtub alcohol” could be deadly, but with the right formula, however, it became safe to drink and occasionally palatable. Evident to the deadliness of the homemade alcohol was during the Noble Experiment, more than 10,000 people died from alcohol poisoning. (Kallen 139) Prohibition did not stop people from drinking instead it motivated them to find an alternative to illegal alcohol. The ‘20s society showed how Americans would find a way to have what they want, even if the way can be life threatening or illegal.

                        The Prohibition did not cure alcoholism instead it just made it worst. It did not cease immorality instead it led directly to an unparalleled explosion of immorality: unregulated speakeasies led to sex mingling freely that led to increase in unmarried sexual activity during the 1920s, gangsters became even more violent, it corrupted the police and penal system, and “dries” became more thirsty (McWilliams).

Although banning drinking, selling and transporting alcohol was supposed to reduce crime, poverty, death rates, and improve the economy and the quality of life the "noble experiment" only caused to do the opposite.