Prohibition Essay example -- essays research papers

Prohibition, A Complete Failure   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Prohibition had become an issue long before its eventual induction as the 18th amendment in 1920. Organizations came about for the sole purpose of an alcohol free America. In 1833, an estimated one million Americans belonged to some type of temperance association (Behr 12). Many believed the absence of alcohol would help the poor as well as big business. Lower class people would put more money into savings accounts and productivity would increase among workers (Hanson 27). More importantly the â€Å"noble experiment†Ã¢â‚¬â€was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, and improve the health and hygiene in America† (Thorton 1). Although gangsters of the 1920’s were notorious for their violent turf wars,â€Å"the fundamental problem with prohibition was that an increasing percentage of American citizens refused to uphold the law† (Hanson 40). Not only did crime increase, ironically, prohibition turned ordinary citizens into lawbreakers. â€Å"In San Francisco, a jury trying a prohibition case was found drinking up the liquor that had been used in court as evidence† (Edey 154). In Texas, shortly after the start of prohibition,† a still turning out 130 gallons of whiskey a day was found operating on the farm of Senator Morris Shepard, author of the 18th Amendment†(Edey 154). â€Å"Americans bought machines for distilling liquor, called stills, at the hardware store.† (Hanson 28). Even if they did not know how to use them they easily get the information from the public library (Hanson28). Everything you could imagine was put into use to make liquor, even bathtubs (Hanson 28). â€Å"In fact, bathtub gin became a common term to describe during the decade† (Hanson28). â€Å"Doctors and druggists were legally allowed to dispense alcohol as medicine† (Hanson 34). â€Å"An average of 10 million prescriptions were issued each year during the thirteen years prohibition was in effect† (Hanson 34). In summary, ordinary citizens were consuming alcohol, an illegal act. They were making alcoholic beverages. They were getting doctors to prescribe alcohol for them under questionable circumstances making the medical profession their accomplice. Somebody had to satisfy the need for alcohol to an eager nation. This is where the rise in organized crime came in. â€Å"For the first time the United States experienced a massive ... ...e or prohibition agents zeroed-in on breweries, Capone was forewarned and hastily converted the targeted facilities to production of near-beer (Heimel 38). As one example of the amount of money changing hands, consider George Remus. He was one of the most profitable, if not the most profitable, bootlegger of the 1920’s. Out of the estimated $40,000,000 a year that he made, half of it went for bribes and payoffs (Behr 104). Prohibition has been called the â€Å"noble experiment† that failed (Hanson 26, 27). One of the reasons behind its monumental failure is that it made criminals of ordinary citizens. Decent, hardworking people broke the law simply because they took a drink of alcohol. And what a drink they took, consumption went from .8 to 1.3 gallons per capita between 1919 and 1929 (Thornton 2). To support this heavy demand for booze criminal gangs became more organized and ruthless, protected by corrupt officials. Corruption dramatically increased in prohibition. And who were people that were corrupted? Ordinary citizens were corrupted, who before prohibition, were decent, law abiding individuals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Berlin Wall Essay

What Was the Berlin Wall? The Berlin Wall was both the physical division between West Berlin and East Germany from 1961 to 1989 and the symbolic boundary between democracy and Communism during the Cold War. Dates: August 13, 1961 — November 9, 1989 Overview of the Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall was erected in the dead of night and for 28 years kept East Germans from fleeing to the West. Its destruction, which was nearly as instantaneous as its creation, was celebrated around the world. A Divided Berlin At the end of World War II, the Allied powers divided conquered Germany into four zones, each occupied by either the United States, Great Britain, France, or the Soviet Union (as agreed at the Potsdam Conference). The same was done with Germany’s capital city, Berlin. As the relationship between the Soviet Union and the other three Allied powers quickly disintegrated, the cooperative atmosphere of the occupation of Germany turned competitive and aggressive. Although an eventual reunification of Germany had been intended, the new relationship between the Allied powers turned Germany into West versus East, democracy versus Communism. In 1949, this new organization of Germany became official when the three zones occupied by the United States, Great Britain, and France combined to form West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany). The zone occupied by the Soviet Union quickly followed by forming East Germany (the German Democratic Republic). This same division into West and East occurred in Berlin. Since the city of Berlin had been situated entirely within the Soviet zone of occupation, West Berlin became an island of democracy within Communist East Germany. Mass Emigration Within a short period of time after the war, living conditions in West Germany and East Germany became distinctly different. With the help and support of its occupying powers, West Germany set up a capitalist society and experienced such a rapid growth of their economy that it became known as the â€Å"economic miracle.† With hard work, individuals living in West Germany were able to live well, buy gadgets and appliances, and to travel as they  wished. Nearly the opposite was true in East Germany. Since the Soviet Union had viewed their zone as a spoil of war, the Soviets pilfered factory equipment and other valuable assets from their zone and shipped them back to the Soviet Union. When East Germany became its own country, it was under the direct influence of the Soviet Union and thus a Communist society was established. In East Germany, the economy dragged and individual freedoms were severely restricted. By the late 1950s, many people living in East Germany wanted out. No longer able to stand the repressive living conditions of East Germany, they would pack up their bags and head to West Berlin. Although some of them would be stopped on their way, hundreds of thousands of others made it across the border. Once across, these refugees were housed in warehouses and then flown to West Germany. Many of those who escaped were young, trained professionals. By the early 1960s, East Germany was rapidly losing both its labor force and its population. Having already lost 2.5 million people by 1961, East Germany desperately needed to stop this mass exodus. The obvious leak was the easy access East Germans had to West Berlin. With the support of the Soviet Union, there had been several attempts to simply take over West Berlin in order to eliminate this exit point. Although the Soviet Union even threatened the United States with the use of nuclear weapons over this issue, the United States and other Western countries were committed to defending West Berlin. Desp erate to keep its citizens, East Germany decided to build a wall to prevent them from crossing the border. The Berlin Wall Goes Up There had been rumors that something might happen to tighten the border of East and West Berlin, but no one was expecting the speed nor the absoluteness of the Wall. Just past midnight on the night of August 12-13, 1961, trucks with soldiers and construction workers rumbled through East Berlin. While most Berliners were sleeping, these crews began tearing up streets that entered into West Berlin, dug holes to put up concrete posts, and strung barbed wire all across the border between East and West Berlin. Telephone wires between East and West Berlin were also cut. Berliners were shocked when they woke up that morning. What had once been a very fluid border was now rigid. No longer could East Berliners cross the border for  operas, plays, soccer games, etc. No longer could the approximately 60,000 commuters head to West Berlin for well-paying jobs. No longer could families, friends, and lovers cross the border to meet their loved ones. Whichever side of the border one went to sleep on during the night of August 12, they were stuck on that side for decades. The Size and Scope of the Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall stretched over a hundred miles. It ran not only through the center of Berlin, but also wrapped around West Berlin, entirely cutting West Berlin off from the rest of East Germany. The wall itself went through four major transformations during its 28-year history. The Berlin Wall started out as a barbed-wire fence with concrete posts, but just a few days after the first fence was placed, it was quickly replaced with a sturdier, more permanent structure made out of concrete blocks, topped with barbed wire. The first two versions of the wall (barbed wire and concrete blocks) were replaced by the hird version of the Berlin Wall in 1965. This version consisted of a concrete wall, supported by steel girders. The fourth version of the Berlin Wall, constructed from 1975 to 1980, was the most complicated and thorough. It consisted of concrete slabs reaching nearly 12-feet high (3.6 m) and 4-feet wide (1.2 m), plus it had a smooth pipe running across the top to hinder people from scaling the Wall. And tentatively approached the border and indeed found that the border guards were letting people cross. Very quickly, the Berlin Wall was inundated with people from both sides. Some began chipping at the Berlin Wall with hammers and chisels. There was an impromptu huge celebration along the Berlin Wall, with people hugging, kissing, singing, cheering, and crying. The Berlin Wall was eventually chipped away, into smaller pieces (some the size of a coin and others in big slabs). The pieces have become collectibles and are stored in both homes and museums. After the Berlin Wall came down, East and West Germany reunified into a single German state on October 3, 1990.

The Digestive System The Food Processor Of The Body

Stephen Rocha, Blake Kaminski, Terrence Williams Mr. Cuneo Biology 29 April 2016 The Digestive System The Digestive system is the food processor of the body. When food is consumed the digestive system is the system to break our food down and spread all the nutrients needed through the body and get rid of the unneeded nutrients. The primary functions of the digestive system are ingestion, secretion, mixing, movement, digestion, absorption, and execration. Ingestion is the consumption of food through the mouth. Secretion is when the salivary glands start the digestion process by moistening the food. Mixing and movement go together as the food moves down the esophagus and mixes up as it goes down. After mixing and movement, comes digestion, which breaks down all the food puts it in the simplest forms it can be, into its building blocks, this mainly happens in the stomach. Then comes absorption, this mostly happens in the intestines and this is when the body absorbs all the needed nutrients and actually most happens in the small intestines. Lastly is ex ecration which is when all the unneeded nutrients is let go. Most of the digestive system is in the lower abdominal part of your body. It starts at the mouth down the esophagus and the ending with the anus. The digestive system is essential to the survival of the human person because without it you could not break down food and get the nutrients needed for survival and couldn’t get rid of unneeded nutrients and waste inShow MoreRelatedGood Digestion Is The Foundation Of Good Health906 Words   |  4 Pagestheoretically eat a perfect diet and take a multivitamin, but if these nutrients aren’t optimally absorbed all that’s left is wasted time. 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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF RESPIRATION Hippocrates counted air as an instrument of the bod y just as food was eaten. Galen (129-200) felt that respiration served aRead MoreFood Tech Notes Hsc3223 Words   |  13 PagesContent: Food Technology Stage 6 HSC Course Core 1: The Australian Food Industry Sectors of the food industry * Sectors of the agri-food chain in the Aus food industry, including agriculture + fisheries, food processing/manufacturing, food service + catering, food retail Australian food industry (AFI) includes organized production, processing, storage + marketing of food products. Aus is a continent