ia_2011_b_borja

=B. Summary of Evidence (500-600 words) Tips]=

__**The Volstead act**__ Prohibition in the United States, also known as the noble experiment, came around to the whole country with the the 18th amendment which prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States. . . for beverage purposes." [1 ] (see Appendix 1) to clarify the language used in the amendment, the congress wrote the National Prohibition act more comonly known as "Volstead act" (See Appendix 2 to see the first page) named after the Congressman Andrew J. Volstead, which although was the one which made the final touches to the act, it was mostly the work of Wayne Wheeler legal adviser of the Anti-Saloon League (ASL), since the progress of the Prohibition act in Washington is attributable to the “canny tactical decisions of Wayne Wheeler” [2 ]

**__Bootleggers, rum-runners and Speakeasies.__** As a result of the prohibition, criminal underworld figures such as Al Capone came to light and even eventually became “mythic heroes” [3 ], it is suspected that Al Capone’s income in 1929 was “$60,000,000 (illegal alcohol), $25,000,000 (gambling establishments), $10,000,000 (vice) and $10,000,000 from various other rackets.” [4 ]However not all of the famous and most successful of the bootleggers were criminals, the best example of that of the criminal lawyer George Remus. (See Appendix 3) Remus started his working life in a pharmacy at the age of 14, by the time he was 19 he had already bought it and become a licensed pharmacologist, using the income from his first pharmacy he opened a second one and notably he managed to “run two drugstores, write out prescriptions for glasses, act as an unlicensed doctor, raise a family [and] study law at night school” [5 ] when the prohibition came to Chicago and Remus found that his clients were quickly becoming rich he “he had no great respect for their intelligence” [6 ] and believed that being more intelligent than they, he could gain more money. Using a loophole in the prohibition act (No one but a physician holding a permit to prescribe liquor shall issue any prescription for liquor [7 ]) he managed to buy distilleries and sent the alcohol in trucks to his pharmacies, however the liquor “fell off the truck” on the way, but in fact he sold it illegally. In three years it is suspected he made a total of $40 million ($760M in 1995 dollars) [8 ]. Speakeasies were the bars which during the prohibition era still sold alcohol illegally, in New York City alone there were suspected of being a total of 100,000 [9 ]. __**Law Enforcement Officials.**__  However what enabled the bootleggers to continue their activities was the fact that those which were supposed to enforce the law were easily corrupted (Appendix 4). Al Capone’s organization in Chicago for example “took in $60 million in 1927 and had half the city's police on its payroll.” [10 ] Remus himself had “thousand salesmen on his payroll, many of them police officers.” [11 ] A group of brewers were known to have offered 300,000$ [12 ] monthly for the officials to look the other way. Roy A. Haynes, the assistant secretary of treasury assigned with enforcement of prohibition, even described that bootlegger saw the agent’s badge as “Nothing but a license to make money” [13 ]

**__Harding and the “Ohio gang”__** President Warren Harding’s presidency started at the same time that prohibition became law, although he wasn’t a corrupt man himself he had a “character flaw” [14 ], he trusted everybody and believed that everybody was good natured. His entourage during the time he was in office received the name of the “Ohio Gang”, they were all childhood friends which knew they were effectively untouchable by prosecutors. Notably, Harry M. Daugherty, the man which had thought of Harding’s election campaign, managed to get himself the job as attorney general and Jess Smith “Daugherty’s devoted admirer, aide and hireling” [15 ]became his assistant, the two of them received massive sums of money from “those shrewd enough, and wealthy enough to buy immunity from prosecution ” [16 ] like George Remus (View appendix 7).

[1] 18th amendment of the United states

[2] Daniel Okrent, (2010). //Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition//. Scribner (ISBN: 0743277023). Pg 109

[3] Edward Behr, (1997). //Prohibition//. Arcade Publishing (ISBN: 1559703946).

[4] [] (28/8/2010)

[5] Edward Behr, (1997). //Prohibition//. Arcade Publishing (ISBN: 1559703946).

[6] [] (29/8/2010)

[7] ibid

[8] [] (29/8/2010) [9] [] ( 29/8/2010)

[10] [] (30/8/2010)

[11] ibid

[12] Edward Behr, (1997). //Prohibition//. Arcade Publishing (ISBN: 1559703946).

[13] ibid

[14] Edward Behr, (1997). //Prohibition//. Arcade Publishing (ISBN: 1559703946). Pg 105

[15] Ibid pg 109

[16] Ibid pg 119