The passage of Prohibition in 1919 was no slam dunk. To some it seemed like a rural, Protestant campaign against urban, Catholic immigrants. The cartoons here are included to represent the tortuous history of good intentions gone bad that in a little less than thirteen years disgraced municipal law enforcement, enriched shrewd gangsters like John Torrio and Al Capone, and established organized crime in this country.
Alcohol was perceived by many God fearing Americans to be the root of all evil: a scourge ruining American workers and their families and threatening the American way of life.