13.1 – Changing Ways of Life
18th Amendment
• Billy Sunday (Evangelist)
– “The reign of tears is over! The slums will soon be
only a memory. We will turn our prisons into
factories & our jails into storehouses & corncribs.
Men will walk upright now, women will smile &
the children will laugh. Hell will be forever for
rent!”
Urban v. Rural
• Population was shifting to
cities
– 1922-9: 2 million/year
• Urban Areas
– “…the place to be, not to
get away from…”
• Rural Areas
– Unchanged from 19th
Century
– Conservative, moral values
– Close society
New Urban Life
• 1920s: 65 cities @ 100k+
• Industrial centers &
powerhouses
• Melting pot of cultures
• Daytime: Workers,
traffic, industry
• Nightlife: theatres,
shows, restaurants, etc
• Places of competition &
change
• Fast-paced, impersonal,
& demanding
• Launched by the 18th
Amendment
• Illegal: manufacture, sale,
& transportation of
alcoholic beverages
• Beliefs:
– Liquor caused corruption,
crime, wife & child abuse,
accidents on the job, etc
• Supported in the South &
West = large groups of
Protestants
• The Woman’s Christian
Temperance Union big
reason for passage
Prohibition
Prohibition (cont.) •
Beginnings = success
– Saloons close & arrests
decline
• Problems:
– Most wanted to live, not
sacrifice
– Many immigrants don’t see
drinking as a sin
– Failure to budget enough
money for enforcement
• Volstead Act = Prohibition
Bureau
– Track down, monitor, &
enforce coasts, highways,
& businesses
– Only ~1,500 agents
Speakeasies & Bootleggers
• Industry goes
“underground”
• Speakeasies spring up
everywhere
– Secure: Passwords & IDs
• Social places for the
middle & upper class
• Distill own alcohol or find
loopholes
– Ex: Medicinal & religious
alcohol sales skyrocket
• Bootleggers smuggle
alcohol stateside
Organized Crime
• Crime organizations gain
huge profits from illegal
trade of alcohol
– Al Capone earns $60m/yr
• Organizations kill off
competition
• 1920s: ~500+ gang killings
alone
– St. Valentine’s Day
Massacre
• Crime leads many to
believe Prohibition was
doing more harm than
good
• 1933: Repealed by 21st
Amendment
• Movement: Literal, nonsymbolic interpretation of
the Bible
• All important knowledge
came from the Bible –
God’s truth
• Reject Charles Darwin’s
theory of Evolution
– Belief: Humans not
descended from apes
• Creationism: God created
everything in 6 days
• Spread by preachers
• Called for laws prohibiting
the teaching of evolution
Fundamentalism
Scopes Trial
• 3/1925: Tennessee bans
teaching of evolution
– ACLU offers defense of
any challengers
• John T. Scopes
challenges ban – p. 439
– Arrested & July trial
• Defense lawyer:
Clarence Darrow
• Prosecutor: William
Jennings Bryan
• Fight over evolution &
the role of science &
religion in public
schools
Scopes Trial (c.)
• Trial = national sensation
• Darrow called Bryan to
the stand as a Bible
expert = showdown
– P. 439
• Bryan, hounded by
Darrow, admits Bible can
be interpreted differently
– “Not 6 days of 24 hours.”
• Scopes found guilty,
fined $100, & law
remained in place