The Roaring 20s Model T Installment Plans Prohibition

The Roaring 20’s Model T Installment Plans Prohibition Scofflaws Speakeasies

Proposed Laws Regulating Social Behavior

Growth of Cities • A reported 2 million people leaving farms for the cities each year. • “Cities were the place to be”

Night Life • Movie Theaters • Vaudeville Houses • Drinking • Gambling • Casual Dating • City behavior considered shocking and sinful to those who still lived in small towns.

Case Study: Prohibition • PBS: Prohibition

Prohibition • The Women’s Christian Temperance Union and The Anti-Saloon League • January 1920: 18 th Amendment launches The “Prohibition Experiment” • Manufacture, Sale, and Transportation of Alcohol were legally prohibited • Caused corruption, crime, abuse, accidents, bankruptcy, and social problems

Loopholes • After WWI Americans did not want to give up drinking • The Volstead Act set up a Prohibition Bureau • Underfunded • Impossible to enforce. • Alcohol allowed for medicinal and religious purposes: Prescriptions skyrocketed!! • People distilled their own alcohol • Bootleggers: Smugglers carrying alcohol in their boots.

Speakeasies • Hidden underground saloons and nightclubs • Speak easy (softly) to avoid detection • Found everywhere from penthouses to office buildings and the back of grocery stores. • Needed a card/ password to enter • Fashionable men and women filled the inside

Organized Crime • “evading the law and making a mock of it…has become a sort of national sport” H. L. Mencken • Led to organized crime in major cities • Chicago: Al Capone: Gangster who established a bootlegging empire that made over $60 million a year by killing off his competition. • 522 killings in 1 year

Cause/Effect • We will complete this cause and effect chart as a class and then you will be responsible for answering the question below: • Was the “Prohibition Experiment” successful? • Did it alleviate the initial problems regarding alcohol? Sentence Starters: The Prohibition Experiment failed because… Although Prohibition benefited … it led to…