PROHIBITION Essays - Prohibition In The United States, George Remus

PROHIBITION I. Introduction II. Early prohibition A. During 1800s B. During 1920 III. The 18th Amendment A. Who came up with it. B. How and when it was enforced. IV. Mob involvement in Prohibition A. Sherman Billingsley 1. Early years 2. Later years B. George Remus 1. Early years 2. Later years C. Mob in Chicago D. Mob in Detroit V. The art of Rum Running A. Who founded it. B. How it was enforced. VI. Steps toward repeal A. Who wanted it. B. Why they wanted it. VII. The End of Prohibition A. When and why it happened. B. Effects of Prohibition ending. Prohibition The purpose of this paper is to tell about Prohibition, tell about early prohibition, and about the 18th Amendment. I'll also tell about the mob involvement in Prohibition and the steps towards repeal. Prohibition started before it even started. Prior to the Civil War, most states enacted in prohibition laws, but most of them were repealed before 1865. Then in 1900, Maine, Kansas, and North Dakota adopted a firm prohibition law. Then in 1907, Georgia adopted one. In 1908, in Oklahoma, and in 1909 Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee did adopt one too. Andrew Volstead of Minnesota introduced the act in 1919 to Congress and forever after was called the Volstead Act. The law defined as it prohibited "intoxicating liquors" as those with an alcoholic content of more than 0.5 percent, although it made concessions for liquors sold for medical and industrial purpose, and for fruit and grape drinks prepared in homes for personal use. The hope of the Volstead Act was the reduce public drunkness and of alcohol-related crime, imprisonments, and hospitalizations. To enforce this law the government hired federal agents to enforce different areas of the Unites States. The agents had the power to take the police on a raid of a suspected "speakeasy" (an illegal bar) or a suspected warehouse. Officially at midnight on January 16, 1920, America went dry. "Prohibition is better than no liquor at all." as Will Rogers Then came along the people to fill in the large demand for liquor and the Mob looked at this as a big step for them. A lot of the big names began when they were very young. Sherman Billinsgley began when he was twelve years old. He sold bootleg liquor out of a drugstore. He was arrested first in Seattle for breaking liquor laws. By the age of 17, he ran bootleg liquor from Canada to three speakeasies that he was running. Then at age 19, he went back to selling medical liquor, but now on the Bronx. From there Sherman Billingsley made another step. He became the owner and founder of the Stock Club, located in New York. The Stock Club was the most famous speakeasy in America. People from all around tried to get into Billingsley's club. Another man who was very big at this time was George Remus. He never graduated from high school, but he became one of the richest men of the time. He went to night school and studied law, while running two drugstores, and acting as an unlicensed doctor and also rasing a family. At the age of 24, he admitted himself to the Illinois bar and started his own business. One of Remus's clients was Johnny Touris, one of Chicago's first bootleggers and speakeasy king. When Johnny and one of his men got into trouble Remus tried to get them off. After about a year Remus realized how big the market was. Because Remus saw how big the market was he moved to Cleveland and started buying all the distilleries that he could find throughout America. Of all the distilleries that Remus bought were the Fleischmann, Old Lexington Club, Rugby, Glendale, and the Squibb, which was the largest in the country. The Fleischmann cost him $197,000, but it came with thirty-one hundred barrels. "We never poisoned anybody. We sold good liquor and we didn't cut it." George Remus said to one of his workers in the large number of alcohol poisoning related deaths. By 1922 George Remus had a monopoly on whiskey. The only downfall of George Remus was his over-confidence and his excessive greed. And because of this he went to