Morning January 16, 1920 the 18th amendement officially came into affect. The ”Noble Experiment” had begun, the 18th ammendement, first published a year from there had stated that in January 1920 -a year from publishing- distribution, transportation, sale and manufacturing of ”Intoxicating substances” would be ratified and punished. 

In order to understand how prohibition failed, we need a basic understanding of it. How it came about, who supported it and who did not:

Temperance, the source of the idea of prohibition, was a group of societies that formed as early as the late 1800s. They sought the public support of people for various reasons, Primarily for the public good. Anti-immagrationalists wanted to punish Irish and German immigrants because they were stereotyped and thought of those who supposedly drank indefinitely. 

Temperance ”crusaders” such as Susan B. Anthony and Carrie Nation looked for public support for their cause to amend the Constitution of the U.S. Until eventually about 65 percent of the country had banned alcohol then state by state passed probational laws. Ultimately the number of states went from one (the first being Maine) to 7 to 19 states discouraging usage, baning manufacturing and punishing distribution of ”intoxicants.”

One of the main points that people were trying to get across during the 1920’s was that they thought prohibition would reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. The results of that experiment clearly indicate that it was a miserable failure on all counts. Instead, Prohibition itself became a major source of corruption, the biggest contribution to the growth in organized crime and almost doubled crime. It made place for bootleggers, smugglers, moonshiners and gangsters each one to benefit for their part in this new, crime business extravaganza. 

The biggest problem with prohibition was that many Americans still wanted to drink, it was a tradition. It was near impossible to administer enforcement to the prohibition, the multitude of thousands of people made enforcement a extensive provocation for the government and the established ”prohibition agents.” It was becoming more of a taunt to the officials coming from the die-hard alcoholics;

”The hip flask, filled with “bootleg” whiskey and displayed openly, soon became a familiar symbol of the era. Every community of any size had their “speakeasies,” where both imported and homemade alcohol could be purchased.”

The underground speakeasies opened a fashionably new, large scale business. Keeping saloons open and running was the occupation for many thousands of rum-runners, bootleggers, beer barons and eventually mobs who worked beyond the law. Gangsters made millions on this business. In the late 1920s, gangsters like Al Capone had a steady income from illegal ”intoxicants” reaching as much $60,000,000 yearly. And a total of about $75 million bribing politicians and policemen. 

Prohibition had a negative effect on the United States as a whole because it resulted in much organized crime, it resulted in corruption of government, and it lacked enforcement and organization required to enforce such a law. First of all, Prohibition opened up a market for the illegal production and sale of alcohol. From this business, mobs began to grow and spread their influence. This had a negative effect on the country because some civilians lost money, lives and security. Secondly, many Police officers violated Prohibition and consumed confiscated alcohol. This caused them to look the other way when others did the same, and therefore encouraged these lawbreaking others to spread their illegal activities into other fields, thus resulting in a negative impact on the U.S. Finally, prohibition was poorly designed and expected too much, and the result was that tax dollars were wasted. In conclusion, the 1920’s were a wonderful time for change, but some changes were not as good as anticipated. 

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, please dont forget to comment and rate

I’ll start with one we all know dictatorship. Dictatorship has one major part one main person and political party that is in charge of everything. One of the main dictators known to society was Hitler. He was appointed chancellor on January 30th of 1933. In August, 1934 when the former president of Germany, Paul Von Hindenburg, died Hitler combined the chancellors and presidents positions into one, and then he became the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor. That was when dictatorship in Germany was born.

The second type of government that was used to control countries by force in the 1930’s was totalitarianism. In this type of government there is only one political party allowed. Totalitarianism was used in Stalin’s Russia, the political party used to rule Russia was the communist party under Stalin’s lead. In totalitarianism all the criticism and opposition is eliminated. Stalin ruled Russia and the communist party as a dictator. He led purges against enemy parties and supporters, and also reinforced his totalitarianism government with a new constitution. He killed millions of opposers in some of his purges.

The third type of government is fascism used by Mussolini in 1930’s and WW2. Fascism considers and observe the future of humanity different from political considerations, and does not believe in peace. They accept life and love it, and dislike suicide. One great quote to describe fascism is ”He rather conceives of life as duty and struggle and conquest, but above all for others; those who are at hand and those who are far distant, contemporaries, and those who will come after…”.(  “Modern History Sourcebook: Mussolini: What is Fascism, 1932.” FORDHAM.EDU. Web. 28 Feb. 2010.     .)

Now that I’ve gone into types and how they work to help you, the reader, understand more I’m going to give you some examples of dictatorships, fascisms, and totalitarianisms, starting with Hitler and dictatorships. Hitler first served in world war one for the German army. Hitler joined because he hated Slavs. One of the main causes of WW1 was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Hitler trained less than two months when his regiment saw combat at Ypres. He narrowly cheated death in battle several times and awarded two iron crosses for bravery. The highest rank he got to was lance corporal. On October 1916 he was injured by an enemy shell and taken to Berlin hospital. Later in October 1918 he was temporarily blinded by mustard gas.

The Free Corps formed after WW1 to defend against communist insurgencies in Germany at that time. The Free Corps destroyed this insurgency. After that the members formed the main part of the Nazi party the “Brown Shirts” (S.A.) the Nazi party army. Hitler served eight months of his five year term, that’s when he wrote the first part of his book Mein Kampf an autobiographical book that also stated his views of the future of the German people. Once he was released he began his political take over. He spoke to massive audiences “calling for German people to resist the yoke of Jews and communist and to create a new empire which would rule the world for a thousand years.

Hitler reestablished the NSDAP and organized it using the Fuhrer principle. In 1932 he ran for president but lost to Paul Von Hindenburg.  In August, 1934 when the former president of Germany, Paul Von Hindenburg, died Hitler combined the chancellors and presidents positions into one, and then he became the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor. Finally in September 1939 Hitler invaded Poland starting WW2.

The next leader is Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini born July 29, 1883 in Romagna, Italy. He moved to Switzerland in 1902; he failed at many jobs and became communist in1903 then returned to Italy in 1910. During December 1914 he joined an Italian socialist group and formed the first “fascistii” which promoted expanding Italy’s natural borders. He joined the army when WW1 started but got taken out because he was injured by a grenade in a training exercise.

Mussolini called for a dictator to take the weak government. He then launched the Italian Combat Fascists his fascist movement. They began marching on Rome but stopped when the king made Mussolini prime minister to avoid conflict. He took control of the senate and chamber of deputies using a coalition of Catholics, nationalists, and liberals. They won elections and banned all political parties except fascist and made his totalitarian government. Now there was no free press and secret police. Hitler and Mussolini met in June 1934 in Vienna; they were friends in public but argued in private.

Hideki Tojo climbed the ranks in Japan and was appointed minister of war in 1940. He was a strong supporter of Hitler. He wanted to make alliances with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy as well as continue war on china. His views of America were “they are lazy and incapable of being a strong, united nation. he eventually fell due to the prime minister.

These are prime examples of dictators in the 1930’s. they all have the same main view of one controlling party and expanding borders for a greater cause. The excess of dictators in the 1930s helped cause WW2 and majorly effected world economy. This is what I wanted to explain and separate facts from fiction and communism and fascism. This is a major subject of discussion and is highly misunderstood but I hope this cleared things up and explained the 1930’s dictators.

             To state that the roaring twenties was an era predominated by affluent and incautious spenders, although true, would be slightly contradictory. There existed within high society, apart from the nouveau riche, a sect of people who valued etiquette not as simple gestures of graciousness and politeness, but rather as guides for all aspects of life. Their activities and behavior dictated the movement of the rest of society, and all the intricacies of good behavior provided support for such a system. To succeed, one had to be perfect in the eyes of others.

            The perfect gentleman must never borrow money from a woman. The perfect gentleman must never talk about his money or possessions. The perfect gentleman must never monetarily take advantage of a woman. It’s rather interesting to note that while the differences in socioeconomic classes are largely due to different incomes, it’s very impolite, even looked down upon, to bring up the topic.

            Even more strict and perplexing is the etiquette revolving around marriage. A gentleman never criticizes the behavior of a wife whose conduct is scandalous. “No matter who he may be, whether rich or poor, in high life or low, the man who publicly besmirches his wife’s name, besmirches still more his own, and proves that he is not, was not, and never will be, a gentleman.”  ( Post ) Even when faced with adultery and scandals, a man must keep his cool temper controlled. Any signs of emotion, whether it be anger, fear, or hatred, are simply bad form in public. Men must conform to these strict standards almost to the point where their ability to be human is limited. Conformity is therefore, much more important than today’s world that values variety and self-expression.

            Last and most important of all, one must not act like a social climber. There is a very simple way to tell apart a social climber from a member of old money, and that is to pay attention to how many acquaintances he or she flaunts. A respectable, polite member of upper class society would never do the latter. As Emily Post concludes, “When you see a woman in silks and sables and diamonds speak to a little errand girl or a footman or a scullery maid as though they were the dirt under her feet, you may be sure of one thing; she hasn’t come a very long way from the ground herself.”

            For both men and women, upper class society and its expectations were brutal and unnecessarily staunch. The punishments for breaking any rules of etiquette repeatedly were harsh. One would not be accepted anymore or welcome to formal dinner parties. I personally believe this whole system to be ridiculously flawed, especially with all the high standards. I would approximate that ninety percent of the modern world does not practice any of this etiquette anymore, but this generation has left its mark on us. We still hold doors open for women and dine in the same manner, so all is not lost. Rather, it is just proper etiquette to be more casual.

Works Cited

Post, Emily. Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home. New York: Funk &    

            Wagnalls, 1922. Bartleby.com www.bartleby.com/95/. [4/6/09].

The Ku Klux Klan was mainly based in the south of America. Here they targeted those set free after the American Civil War – the African Americans. The KKK didn’t think that the former slaves as free and terrorised Africa American families based in the South who were once slaves. During the 1920’s America suffered great economic downfall, and is one of the main reasons the Ku Klu Klux Klan formed, because of the racism mixed with the anger due to the economic crisis.

Many different groups during the 1920’s emerged, over the years. One being the blacks who emerged after the abolishment of the slavery in 1865, however at the same time, a sinister group called the KKK. Only White Anglo Saxons Protestants were allowed to join, and it is known that the KKK attacked black people, Jews, Catholics and liberals.

The KKK has existed since 1865 and the KKK during the 1920s and 1930s is known as the second Klan. This was the peak of it’s existence and is estimated that it had roughly 4,000,000 members.

The KKK began murdering black soldiers (still in military uniforms) when they were returning from World War I from 1918 onwards, in which they murdered 416 African Americans over the course of 9 years, predominantly in the south.

The KKK at first was only a harmless gang, who at began riding around in white cloaks disturbing towns and the peace. They then saw this as an advantage and later when they began accepting new members, moved and became responsible for violent crimes against other ethnic groups. Nathan Bedford Forrest was the first leader of the Klan and in the 1920’s the KKK thought that they had to compete against immigrants and other ethnic groups for jobs which then resulted in rivalry between them.

In conclusion the KKK was a very dangerous organisation during the 1920’s through to the 1930’s and often people were forced to join or leave America, if they could. More often than not people didn’t have enough money especially after the war and the economic crisis. The KKK than began committing violent crimes against other ethnic groups, and with the KKK being at its peak in the 1920’s it was difficult to retaliate. The KKK however declined during the depression in America and during World War II. Whilst the KKK is partly still around to date, it is not as fierce as it once was. 

The roaring twenties was an era when our country prospered tremendously. The nation’s total realized income rose from $74.3 billion in 1923 to $89 billion in 1929. However, the rewards of the Coolidge Prosperity of the 1920’s were not shared evenly among all Americans. In 1929 the top 0.1% of Americans controlled 34% of all savings, while 80% of Americans had no savings at all. Automotive industry mogul Henry Ford is one example of the unequal distribution of wealth between the rich and the middle-class. Henry Ford reported a personal income of $14 million in the same year that the average persons income was $750. By present day standards Mr. Ford would be earning over $345 million a year! This lack of distribution of income between the rich and the middle class grew throughout the 1920’s. A major reason for this large and growing gap between the rich and the working-class people was the increased manufacturing output throughout the 1920’s. From 1923-1929 the average output per worker increased 32%. During that same period of time average wages for manufacturing jobs increased only 8%. As production costs fell quickly, wages rose slowly, and prices remained constant, the bulk benefit of the increased productivity went into corporate profits. The federal government also contributed to the growing gap between the rich and middle-class.

Calvin Coolidge’s administration favored business. An example of legislation to this purpose is the Revenue Act of 1926, which greatly reduced federal income and inheritance taxes. Andrew Mellon was the main force behind these and other tax cuts throughout the 1920’s. Because of these tax cuts a man with a million-dollar annual income had his federal taxes reduced from $600,000 to $200,000. Even the Supreme Court played a role in expanding the gap between the socioeconomic classes. In the1923 case Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, the Supreme Court ruled minimum-wage legislation unconstitutional. The large and growing difference of wealth between the well-to-do and the middle-income citizens made the U.S. economy unstable. For an economy to function properly, total demand must equal total supply. Essentially what happened in the 1920’s was that there was an oversupply of goods. It was not that the surplus products were not wanted, but rather that those who needed the products could not afford more, while the wealthy were satisfied by spending only a small portion of their income. Three quarters of the U.S. population would spend essentially all of their yearly incomes to purchase goods such as food, clothes, radios, and cars. These were the poor and middle class.

Families with incomes around, or usually less than, $2,500 a year. While the wealthy too purchased consumer goods, a family earning $100,000 could not be expected to eat 40 times more than a family that only earned $2,500 a year. Through the imbalance the U.S. came to rely upon two things in order for the economy to remain on an even level: credit sales, or investment from the rich. One obvious solution to the problem of the vast majority of the population not having enough money to satisfy all their needs was to let those who wanted goods buy products on credit. The concept of buying now and paying later caught on quickly. By the end of the 1920’s 60% of cars and 80% of radios were bought on installment credit. Between 1925 and 1929 the total amount of outstanding installment credit more than doubled. This strategy created a non realistic demand for products which people could not usually afford. People could no longer use their regular wages to purchase whatever items they didn’t have yet, because so much of the wages went to paying back past purchases. The U.S. economy was also reliant upon luxury spending and investment from the rich to stay afloat during the 1920’s.

The largest problem with this reliance was that luxury spending and investment were based on the wealthy’s confidence in the U.S. economy. If conditions were to take a downturn (as they did when the market crashed in the fall of 1929), this spending and investment would slow to a halt. Lastly, the search for ever greater returns on investment lead to wide-spread market speculation. Lack of distribution of wealth within our nation was not limited to only socioeconomic classes, but to entire industries. In 1929 a mere 200 corporations controlled approximately half of all corporate wealth. During World War I the federal government had encouraged farmers to buy more land, to modernize their methods with the latest in farm technology, and to produce more food. This made sense during the war since Europe had to be fed too. However as soon as the war ended, the U.S. abruptly stopped its policies to help farmers. Farm and food prices tumbled. A last major instability of the American economy had to do with international wealth distribution problems. While America was prospering in the 1920’s, European nations were rebuilding themselves after the damage of war. During World War I the U.S. government lent its European allies $7 billion. American foreign lending continued in the 1920’s climbing to $900 million in 1924. 90% of this money was used by the European allies to purchase U.S. goods.

The nations the U.S. had lent money to (Britain, Italy, France, Belgium, Russia, Yugoslavia, Estonia, Poland, and others) were in no position to pay off the debts. The majority of their gold had been sent into the U.S. during and immediately after the war; they couldn’t send more gold without completely ruining their currencies. In the 1920’s the United States was trying to be the world’s banker, food producer, and manufacturer, but bought as little as possible from the rest of the world in return. This attempt to have a “constantly favorable trade balance” could not work for long. If the United States would not buy from our European countries, then there was no way for them to buy from the Americans, or even to pay interest on U.S. loans. The weakness of the international economy certainly contributed to the Great Depression. Europe was dependent upon U.S. loans to buy U.S. goods, and the U.S. needed Europe to buy these goods to do well. From early 1928 to September 1929 the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose greatly. This sort of profit was tempting to investors. Company earnings became of little interest; as long as stock prices continued to rise huge profits could be made. Through the miracle of buying stocks on margin, one could buy stocks without the money to purchase them. Buying stocks on margin worked the same way as buying a car on credit.

Investors’ craze over the plan of profits like this drove the market to extremely high levels. The exploratory boom in the stockmarket was based upon confidence. In the same way, the huge market crashes of 1929 were based on fear. Prices had been drifting downward since early September, but generally people were optimistic. Speculators continued to flock to the market. Then, on Monday October 21 prices started to fall quickly. Investors became fearful. Knowing that prices were falling, but not by how much, they started selling quickly. This caused the collapse to happen faster. Prices stabilized a little on Tuesday and Wednesday, but then on Black Thursday, October 24, everything fell apart again. By this time most major investors had lost confidence in the market. Once enough investors had decided the boom was over, it was over. Partial recovery was achieved on Friday and Saturday when a group of leading bankers stepped in to try to stop the crash. But then on Monday the 28th prices started dropping again. By the end of the day the market had fallen 13%. The next day, Black Tuesday an unprecedented 16.4 million shares changed hands. This stock market crashes acted as a trigger to the already unstable U.S. economy.

Due to the lack of distribution of wealth, the economy of the 1920’s was very much dependent upon confidence. The market crashes damaged this confidence. The rich stopped spending on luxury items, and slowed investments. The middle-class and poor stopped buying things with installment credit for fear of loosing their jobs, and not being able to pay the interest. Industrial production fell by more than 9% between the market crashes in October and December 1929. As a result jobs were lost, and soon people starting failing to pay their interest payment. Thriving industries that had been connected with the automotive and radio industry started falling apart. Without a car people did not need fuel or tires; without a radio people had less need for electricity. To protect the nation’s businesses the U.S. imposed higher trade barriers (Hawley-Smoot Tariff of 1930). Foreigners stopped buying American products. More jobs were lost, more stores were closed, more banks went under, and more factories closed. Unemployment grew to five million in 1930, and up to thirteen million in 1932. The country spiraled quickly into catastrophe. The Great Depression had begun.

Farmers couldn’t pay their rent and payments so many lost their land to the bank. And the banks had to close because they weren’t getting any money from the citizens. Many were forced to leave their homes to find work. Citizens had to take out loans in order to pay for most of their debts and needs. Around 2.5 million people had to leave their homes during the 30’s. Water was scarce. It wasn’t until 1941 when rain had been seen, and when World War 2 started to need more wheat, that the farmers could resume their old lives.