PROHIBITION IN THE 1920’S

What does it mean? Prohibition was an attempt to forbid by

law the selling and drinking of intoxicating beverages

Before the War

From the early 1900’s until the end of the First World War the Canadian Government controlled and regulated alcohol production and sales

Meanwhile the law provided loopholes which allowed distilleries to make liquor for ‘non-drinking’ purposes such as scientific, artistic and medical uses. These were government controlled

dispensaries

Alcohol Prescription

“Kind of Liquor, Quantity, Directions”

Canada Prohibition laws were controlled provincially during

the early 1900’s They were known as Provincial

Temperance Acts Most were maintained until shortly after the First

World War

After World War One

There was a shift – Opponents maintained that prohibition violated British traditions of individual liberty

-Québec rejected it as early as 1919 and became known as the "sinkhole" of North America

Tourists flocked to "historic old Québec" and the provincial government reaped huge profits from the sale of alcohol

United StatesThe eighteenth Amendment

By constitutional amendment, the United States had prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of all beer, wines, and spirits were forbidden there

Approval of the 18th Amendment in 1919, law enforcement officials all over the nation were charged with stopping "the manufacture, sale, transportation, export and import of intoxicating liquors within, and from the United States “

Local Implications Most of the liquor being illegally sold in

the US had been smuggled across the border from Canada

Windsor and the surrounding area is where a large part of the smuggling took place

Recognize this???

Hiram Walker Distillery

Hiram Walker

Production inside Hiram Walker during the early 1920’s. Whiskey was often flying out of the doors into waiting Canadian and American hands

PIPE LINE TO DETROIT????

Rum Running Smuggling or transporting illegal

alcoholic beverages

New York Times

“Free Rum-Running on Canadian Border”“Law is violated hundreds of times daily”“Detroit smugglers have had a great deal of notoriety”“Police arrest five Detroit residents after finding 158 quarts of Canadian Whiskey from Windsor”• 75- two litre bottles at

$50-$100

Rum Running

Bill McCoy - nicknamed the “Real McCoy” Sea Captain and alcohol smuggler Received the nicknamed because

he never diluted his product

Bootlegging Bootlegging: the illegal sale of alcohol as

a beverage Increased dramatically as prohibition

continued, as did the number of unlawful drinking places known as "speakeasies" or "blind pigs"

Blind Pigs and Speakeasies

New institutions and cultural practices appeared: bootleggers and speakeasies, hip flasks and bathtub gin, rum runners smuggling liquor by any means possible!

Yes to Prohibition! Temperence Groups

Church groups Anti-Saloon League (United States) Dominion Alliance for the Total Suppression of

the Liquor Traffic Why would they be opposed to the consumption

or distribution of alcohol???

Christian Women’s Temperance

The anti-alcohol (or temperance) movement was created in early nineteenth century America by physicians, ministers, and large employers concerned about the drunkenness of workers and servants.

Insisted that alcohol slowly but inevitably destroyed the moral character and the physical and mental health of all who drank it.

Were supportive of all Governmental liquor control acts

Organized Crime

FOR? Against?

Al Capone

-One of the most notorious gangsters in history-Lead a crime syndicate that controlled the majority of the bootlegging and liquor smuggling activity during the prohibition era of the 1920’s

St. Valentine’s Day massacre

Most famous gangland killing of the Century

Seven deaths of rival “North Side Gang” Capone suspected of being behind the

killings but was never charged.

The Noble Experiment In 1933 the United States of America

moved away from the Volstead Act. It repealed prohibition under President

Franklin D. Roosevelt "Noble" because the goals of keeping

families together and reducing or eliminating alcohol abuse were noble goals. An "experiment" because most observers felt like it was an experience that failed. Too many in the country saw nothing wrong with drinking alcohol in moderation.

Change in the Air Just as World War I had provided the necessary

context for rallying popular support to pass prohibition, the Great Depression provided the necessary context for repeal. Prohibition's supporters had long argued that banning alcohol would ensure prosperity and increase law and order. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, prohibition's opponents made exactly the same argument. Repeal, they promised, would provide jobs, stimulate the economy, increase tax revenue, and reduce the "lawlessness" stimulated by and characteristic of the illegal liquor industry.