The Ordeal of Prohibition -

Clarence Darrow

Students:
Hngu Claudia-Florentina
Rotundu Irina-Gabriela
Dumitrache Ana-Maria
Postica Victoria

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Historical background: Hngu Claudia Florentina

For most people the 1920s were a time of prosperity. In 1912 only 16% of homes had electric
light. By 1927 it had risen to 63%. Electrical appliances became common, refrigerators, irons
and fans. Radios also became common. By 1930 40% of homes had one. Cars also became
common in the 1920s. Americans enjoyed the highest standard of living in the world.
The 1920s were also the era of prohibition. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in
1919, had banned the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, and on January 16, 1920,
the federal Volstead Act closed every tavern, bar and saloon in the United States. From then on,
it was illegal to sell any intoxication beverages with more than 0.5% alcohol.
Worse, prohibition boosted organized crime as gangsters tried to control the supply of alcohol.
People simply went to nominally illegal speakeasies instead of ordinary barswhere it was
controlled by bootleggers, racketeers and other organized-crime figures such as Chicago gangster
Al Capone.
To many middle-class white Americans, Prohibition was a way to assert some control over the
unruly immigrant masses who crowded the nations cities. Drinking was a symbol of all they
disliked about the modern city, and eliminating alcohol would, they believed, turn back the clock
to an earlier and more comfortable time. Prohibition ended in 1933.
Prohibition was not the only source of social tension during the 1920s.The Immigration Act of
1924 placed restrictions on immigrants from other countries, specifically war-torn Europe and
Asia. The act was designed to identify "unfit" individuals attempting to immigrate into America.
The act effectively reduced the already small number of allowable immigrants by 15 percent.
The passing of the Immigration Act directly affected immigrants from Southern and Eastern
Europe, who were considered by many in the United States to be uneducated and lazy.

Glossary:
"Al" Capone (Alphonse Gabriel ) was an American gangster who attained fame during the Prohibition era as
the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Mafia.
Bootleggers : something, as a recording, made, reproduced, or sold illegally or without authorization
(contrabandist)

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The 1924 Immigration Act set quotas that limited annual immigration from particular countries.
Racketeer: a person who engages in dishonest and fraudulent business dealings. (antajist)
Speakeasy: (during Prohibition) an illicit liquor store or nightclub. (bar clandestin)
Volstead Andrew J. , Republican representative from Minnesota, was the driving force behind the National
Prohibition Act (popularly the Volstead Act), written to provide for the enforcement of the recently ratified
18th Amendment.

Author: Rotundu Irina-Gabriela

Clarence Seward Darrow born in Kinsman, Ohio, on April 18, 1857 March 13, 1938) was an
American lawyer, leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union. Darrow's father was
an ardent abolitionist and a proud iconoclast and religious freethinker. He was known throughout
the town as the "village infidel". His mother, Emily Darrow was an early supporter of female
suffrage and a women's rights advocate. Darrow started his career in a small farming town, and
after two years of dealing with everyday complaints and problems of the community, decided to
take on new and different cases in the largest city of the county where he became involved in
politics (The Democratic Party) and served in the city counsel. Throughout his career, Darrow
devoted himself to opposing the death penalty, which he felt to be in conflict with humanitarian
progress, he stood for civil liberties, rational thinking, and modernity. In more than 100 cases,
Darrow only lost one murder case in Chicago. He became renowned for moving juries and even
judges to tears with his eloquence. Today, Clarence Darrow is remembered for his reputation as
a fierce litigator who, in many cases, championed the cause of the underdog; because of this, he
is generally regarded as one of the greatest criminal defense lawyers in American history.

Summary

First part: Dumitrache Ana-Maria

In this article, Clarence Darrow exposes his arguments against Prohibition. His supreme
argument is that any unjust law ends up by being repealed. The reason why this happens is

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because laws dont fit the age, they are too old. He gives some examples of such laws: The
Fugitive Slave Law, The Sunday Laws, and The Anti-Trust Act.
But he also includes in his examples the abolition of the slavery (after the Civil War) and the
desire of providing equality between black and whites. It was another law which could not be
respected, because the peoples mentality couldnt be changed: the white ones would always
consider themselves superior. An improvement of their condition cant come from a new law,
but rather from education. So, the law does exist, but it is ignored.
Another ignored law is the one which forbids gambling in United States. Again, the law exists,
but the ones who break it do not support any type of consequence. The same case for The Anti-
Trust Act or Tax Laws: nobody obeys them.
Giving those examples, Darrow concludes that a law which does not suit the mentality or the age
in which it is proposed should be eliminated. It shouldnt be enforced just because it is a written
law. This thing cant force people to obey it. The Prohibition was considered by him one of those
unjust laws.

Glossary:
Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation,
transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933.
The Fugitive Slave Law: The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States
Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slave-holding interests
and Northern Free-Soilers. It provided southern slaveholders with legal weapons to capture slaves who had
escaped to the free states.
The Sunday Laws: Rooted in the basic Christian tenet that Sunday is to be reserved as the Lord's day, blue
laws or The Sunday Laws were originally enacted across the United States to encourage church attendance and
restrict activity only to that worthy (at least according to some) of observation on the Sabbath.
The Anti-Trust Act: Approved July 2, 1890, The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was the first Federal act that
outlawed monopolistic business practices. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first measure passed by
the U.S. Congress to prohibit trusts.

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Second part: Postica Victoria
According to Clarence Darrow, Legislation, which represents special interests or is demanded
by organized associations can create serious oppression or violent disorder. Once it is written on
the books, the people can destroy it. This kind of laws prevent the real progress in the law. In
spite of it, this way has always been the ruling one in getting rid of bad rules, but cannot be taken
off it is complacently obeyed by the people, and the protest is a way to receive justice.

The author talks about sumptuary laws that regulate individual conduct which had never obeyed.
People are still influenced by aphorisms as Law and Order. It means that law is more important
than order. Actually, order generates laws and law aim at seriously change of human customs
and habits which cannot promote order. As a result there is implied enforcement of laws by
cruelty and penalties.

Even statutes and courts are powerless against the natural law. It means that the survival of the
fittest is stronger than the law. There is an idea that the majority should rule. Even if the
rest of the people consider that laws are cruel and unjust, they are enforced to conform
themselves. To make minority obey, by criminal statute, it results in disorder and suffering.

The advocates of Prohibition confirm that only the Prohibition laws must be enforced. There
are laws which never could be forbidden, for example ,Volstead Act, cannot prevent the use of
alcoholic beverages. The attempt must convince rather than enforce it. Darrow affirms that a
wise ruler studies the custom and habits of his people and tries to fit laws and institutions to their
folkways, knowing perfectly well that any method will cause violence. Therefore, laws should fit
to men.

Glossary:
Sumptuary laws are laws that attempt to regulate permitted consumption. Black's Law Dictionary defines
them as "Laws made for the purpose of restraining luxury or extravagance, particularly against inordinate
expenditures in the matter of apparel, food, furniture, etc."

Volstead Act law which enforced alcohol prohibition in the US 192033. The National Prohibition Act,
known informally as the Volstead Act, was enacted to carry out the intent of the Eighteenth Amendment,
which established prohibition in the United States.

While the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibited the production, sale, and
transport of "intoxicating liquors", it did not define "intoxicating liquors" or provide penalties. It granted both
the federal government and the states the power to enforce the ban by "appropriate legislation." A bill to do so
was introduced in Congress in 1919. Later this act was voided by the Twenty-first amendment.