Question

After reading about the subject, define the word "Prohibition" as it pertains to the 18th amendment.

Answer 1

Prohibition led to widespread disrespect for law. New York City alone had about 30 thousand (yes, 30,000) speakeasies (undercover bars). Even public leaders flaunted their disregard for the law. They included the Speaker of the United States' House of Representatives, who owned and operated an illegal "still."

Surveys showed the Prohibition Bureau's agents were managing to stop only five percent of rum runners and just 10 percent of stills.

Prohibition spurred the growth of organized crime and gang warfare and was the direct cause of hundreds of murders. Chicago alone had over 700 gang murders directly related to the liquor trade. It gave rise to notorious criminals such as George Bugs Moran, Dion O'Bannion, and Al Capone, who in 1927 took in $105 million from bootlegging and other illegal enterprises.