Page 30 - All About History - Issue 09-14

What if...

Prohibition had

stayed in place?

PROHIBITION, USA, 1933

Written by Jonathan O’Callaghan

DR JACK BLOCKER What if Prohibition hadn’t been repealed in 1933? Is it likely the law would not have survived this
increase in crime?
Jack Blocker: It’s hard to imagine enforcement of national
Jack Blocker Prohibition improving and it’s easy to imagine it deteriorating Blocker: Anybody transporting, selling, manufacturing or
is Professor
of History if Prohibition had remained in place. The problem was the importing liquor was by definition a criminal, but they might
Emeritus at division of authority between the states and the federal not have been part of a criminal organisation. In other words,
Huron University
College, an government that was mandated by the 18th Amendment. the deterioration of enforcement might have opened up a
affiliated college of the That caused problems during the Twenties because some lot of space for ordinary citizens to make their own booze
University of Western Ontario, states devoted few resources to enforcement, leaving the and pass it back and forth among friends. The decline in
Canada. He has authored and
edited six books on the history whole burden on the federal government, which itself was not enforcement might also have reduced one of the real problems
of alcohol use and temperance adequately funded to do the job of enforcement. As a result, in public perception of Prohibition, in that when enforcement
reform, most recently as enforcement against Prohibition was never carried out to the did take place it was often perceived as unfair when gun
co-editor of Alcohol and
Temperance in Modern History: level necessary to provide full compliance with the Volstead battles broke out in the streets between Prohibition agents
An International Encyclopedia Act. It’s extremely unlikely that things would have gotten any and bootleggers. If enforcement was cut back that could have
(2003). He also wrote an
article for the American better in the Thirties because both the states and the federal declined, which would have meant that one of the more
Journal of Public Health government were hard-pressed for revenues [due to the Great visible problems as far as the public saw them would have
entitled “Did Prohibition Depression of 1929]. So it’s quite likely that enforcement would been reduced. US citizens might have said: “Why not leave the
Really Work?”
have been cut back. law in the books because it’s not having much effect, we’re
able to obtain liquor and the gun battles in the streets aren’t
Would organised crime have increased? taking place.” So the law might have survived, in spite of or
DR DEBORAH TONER Deborah Toner: In that kind of scenario it’s very difficult perhaps because of deterioration of enforcement.
Dr Deborah to imagine how organised crime could have been reined in.
Toner is a
Lecturer in This is where most people dwell on one of the key problems Could Prohibition have been modified in some form?
Modern History of Prohibition, this explosion in organised crime growing Toner: My view is that the only way Prohibition could have
at the University out of networks that had existed for at least 40 to 50 years survived, so that it could have avoided being repealed, was
of Leicester, UK.
Her research and teaching before Prohibition came into effect. They really expanded if the Prohibition camp, or the ‘dry’ lobby as they’re often
interests focus on the social rapidly because of the huge new economic opportunities referred, accepted some modifications to the way Prohibition
and cultural history of alcohol that Prohibition created. And so one might have seen a was being enforced through the Volstead Act. If that had
in Mexico and the United
States. She also convenes escalation of organised crime and associated violent crime happened and Prohibition had remained in a more revised
the Warwick Drinking Studies with gang warfare that we now see between the drug-dealing format then actually a lot of the aims of Prohibition would
Network, a scholarly forum for have been achieved. For instance, with that change a lot more
the exploration of historical organisations in the US and elsewhere. It’s quite possible that
and contemporary debates if the hardline approach [by the authorities] to Prohibition resources would have been diverted towards cracking down
surrounding alcohol and its had remained, there could have been a massive escalation on the higher-level organised crime led by mobsters like Al
place in society.
in organised crime. The continuation would have supported Capone and so on.
the development of super-organised crime gangs, the kind Blocker: One of the proposals made consistently through
of cartels that we see in the drug business, across these two the Twenties was to modify Prohibition to allow consumption
illegal industries [drugs and alcohol]. of beer and light wines. If that change had been made
Prohibition may well have lasted quite a long time because, as
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