HIST 10613 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Thompson Submachine Gun, Calvin Coolidge, Speakeasy
2/12 "The Roaring Twenties"
Monday, February 12, 2018
11:02 AM
"A decade of Contrast"
The Temperance Movement
• To combat the social ills caused by alcohol overuse
• Started as a moral choice to drink less and became a try for illegality
• Led by the anti saloon league
18th Amendment
• Prohibition of alcohol
o Congress then the state
• Ratified by 46 out of 48 states
• Ended up being a failure
• Could drink as much as you want but the "manufacture, sale and transportation into the US of
Alcohol was illegal"
• Biggest problem was the enforcement of it
Rumrunners, Bootleggers, and Speakeasies
o Slang created from the prohibition
o Gave rise to the cocktail because the homemade alcohol tasted so bad they needed to cover
it up
o Speakeasies- somewhere you can go to buy illegal alcohol, need a password or secret word
to get in
• Urban phenomena
Gang Violence
• Organized crime
Tommy gun- famous gun in 20s, designed to "rain bullets" on trench fighters
o Became used for the drive by shooting
Al Capone
o Italian mobster
o Main gangster in Chicago
o They caught Capone for "income tax evasion" because they used whatever they could get
o Spent time in Alcatraz
St. Valentines Dat Massacre
o Capone wanted to wipe out his rival gang
o Told them there was a truckload of booze to buy
o The Irish gang went to pick it up and there were police there to arrest them
o They assume they will just get a fine but they get lined up against the wall and they pull out
Tommy guns and kill all of them
• Corruption in the police force, judges, and jury's because everyone was afraid of them
End of an Era? Harding's "Return to normalcy"
• Warren G. Harding (R ) - Won the election on his "step back from progressive mindset" agenda
o Died in office and Calvin Coolidge took over
o Found out he had lots of scandals
• James M. Cox (D)
o Running mate is Franklin D. Roosevelt
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