The Progressive Era was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States, from the 1890s to 1920s .[1] The main objective of the Progressive movement was eliminating corruption in government. The movement primarily targeted political machines and their bosses. By taking down these corrupt representatives in office a further means of direct democracy would be established. They also sought regulation of monopolies (Trust Busting) and corporations through antitrust laws. These antitrust laws were seen as a way to promote equal competition for the advantage of legitimate competitors.
Many progressives supported Prohibition in the United States in order to destroy the political power of local bosses based in saloons.[2] At the same time, women's suffrage was promoted to bring a "purer" female vote into the arena.[3] A second theme was building an Efficiency Movement in every sector that could identify old ways that needed modernizing, and bring to bear scientific, medical and engineering solutions; a key part of the efficiency movement was scientific management, or "Taylorism".
Many activists joined efforts to reform local government, public education, medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, churches, and many other areas. Progressives transformed, professionalized and made "scientific" the social sciences, especially history,[4] economics,[5] and political science.[6] In academic fields the day of the amateur author gave way to the research professor who published in the new scholarly journals and presses. The national political leaders included Theodore Roosevelt, Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and Charles Evans Hughes on the Republican side, and William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson and Al Smith on the Democratic side.
Initially the movement operated chiefly at local levels; later, it expanded to state and national levels. Progressives drew support from the middle class, and supporters included many lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers and business people.[7] The Progressives strongly supported scientific methods as applied to economics, government, industry, finance, medicine, schooling, theology, education, and even the family. They closely followed advances underway at the time in Western Europe[8] and adopted numerous policies, such as a major transformation of the banking system by creating the Federal Reserve System in 1913.[9] Reformers felt that old-fashioned ways meant waste and inefficiency, and eagerly sought out the "one best system".[10][11]
Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. It was promoted by the "dry" crusaders, a movement led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Democratic and Republican parties, and was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Prohibition was mandated under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. For example, religious uses of wine were allowed. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol was not made illegal under federal law; however, in many areas local laws were more strict, with some states banning possession outright. Nationwide, Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, on December 5, 1933.
Prohibition marked one of the last stages of the Progressive Era. During the 19th century, alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling addiction, and a variety of other social ills and abuses led to the activism to try to cure the perceived problems in society. Among other things, this led many communities in the late 19th and early 20th century to introduce alcohol prohibition, with the subsequent enforcement in law becoming a hotly debated issue. Prohibition supporters, called dries, presented it as a victory for public morals and health. Anti-prohibitionists, known as wets, criticized the alcohol ban as an intrusion of mainly rural Protestant ideals on a central aspect of urban, immigrant, and Catholic life. Although popular opinion believes that Prohibition failed, it succeeded in cutting overall alcohol consumption in half during the 1920s, and consumption remained below pre-Prohibition levels until the 1940s, suggesting that Prohibition did socialize a significant proportion of the population in temperate habits, at least temporarily.[1] Some researchers contend that its political failure is attributable more to a changing historical context than to characteristics of the law itself.[2] Criticism remains that Prohibition led to unintended consequences such as the growth of urban crime organizations. As an experiment it lost supporters every year, and lost tax revenue that governments needed when the Great Depression began in 1929.[3]
Many progressives supported Prohibition in the United States in order to destroy the political power of local bosses based in saloons.[2] At the same time, women's suffrage was promoted to bring a "purer" female vote into the arena.[3] A second theme was building an Efficiency Movement in every sector that could identify old ways that needed modernizing, and bring to bear scientific, medical and engineering solutions; a key part of the efficiency movement was scientific management, or "Taylorism".
Many activists joined efforts to reform local government, public education, medicine, finance, insurance, industry, railroads, churches, and many other areas. Progressives transformed, professionalized and made "scientific" the social sciences, especially history,[4] economics,[5] and political science.[6] In academic fields the day of the amateur author gave way to the research professor who published in the new scholarly journals and presses. The national political leaders included Theodore Roosevelt, Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and Charles Evans Hughes on the Republican side, and William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson and Al Smith on the Democratic side.
Initially the movement operated chiefly at local levels; later, it expanded to state and national levels. Progressives drew support from the middle class, and supporters included many lawyers, teachers, physicians, ministers and business people.[7] The Progressives strongly supported scientific methods as applied to economics, government, industry, finance, medicine, schooling, theology, education, and even the family. They closely followed advances underway at the time in Western Europe[8] and adopted numerous policies, such as a major transformation of the banking system by creating the Federal Reserve System in 1913.[9] Reformers felt that old-fashioned ways meant waste and inefficiency, and eagerly sought out the "one best system".[10][11]
Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages that remained in place from 1920 to 1933. It was promoted by the "dry" crusaders, a movement led by rural Protestants and social Progressives in the Democratic and Republican parties, and was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League, and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Prohibition was mandated under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, set down the rules for enforcing the ban and defined the types of alcoholic beverages that were prohibited. For example, religious uses of wine were allowed. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol was not made illegal under federal law; however, in many areas local laws were more strict, with some states banning possession outright. Nationwide, Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, on December 5, 1933.
Prohibition marked one of the last stages of the Progressive Era. During the 19th century, alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling addiction, and a variety of other social ills and abuses led to the activism to try to cure the perceived problems in society. Among other things, this led many communities in the late 19th and early 20th century to introduce alcohol prohibition, with the subsequent enforcement in law becoming a hotly debated issue. Prohibition supporters, called dries, presented it as a victory for public morals and health. Anti-prohibitionists, known as wets, criticized the alcohol ban as an intrusion of mainly rural Protestant ideals on a central aspect of urban, immigrant, and Catholic life. Although popular opinion believes that Prohibition failed, it succeeded in cutting overall alcohol consumption in half during the 1920s, and consumption remained below pre-Prohibition levels until the 1940s, suggesting that Prohibition did socialize a significant proportion of the population in temperate habits, at least temporarily.[1] Some researchers contend that its political failure is attributable more to a changing historical context than to characteristics of the law itself.[2] Criticism remains that Prohibition led to unintended consequences such as the growth of urban crime organizations. As an experiment it lost supporters every year, and lost tax revenue that governments needed when the Great Depression began in 1929.[3]
The American Mafia, an Italian-American organized-crime
network with operations in cities across the United States, particularly
New York and Chicago, rose to power through its success in the illicit
liquor trade during the 1920s Prohibition era. After Prohibition, the
Mafia moved into other criminal ventures, from drug trafficking to
illegal gambling, while also infiltrating labor unions and legitimate
businesses such as construction and New York’s garment industry. The
Mafia’s violent crimes, secret rituals and notorious characters such as
Al Capone and John Gotti have fascinated the public and become a part of
popular culture. During the latter part of the 20th century, the
government used anti-racketeering laws to convict high-ranking mobsters
and weaken the Mafia. However, it remains in business today.
Immigration and Prohibition law of unintended consequence
same as right to education (ravindrana)
During the late 19th century and early 20th century, waves of
Italians, mostly farmers, craftsmen and unskilled laborers, flocked to
America in search of better economic opportunities. In New York
City alone, the number of Italians soared from 20,000 to 250,000
between 1880 and 1890, and by 1910, that number had jumped to 500,000
immigrants and first-generation Italian Americans, or one-tenth of the
city’s population, according to historian Thomas Repetto. The majority
of these immigrants were law-abiding, but, as with most large groups of
people, some were criminals who formed neighborhood gangs, often preying
on those in their own communities.
During the 1920s Prohibition era, when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcoholic beverages, Italian-American gangs (along with other ethnic gangs) entered the booming bootleg liquor business and transformed themselves into sophisticated criminal enterprises, skilled at smuggling, money laundering and bribing police and other public officials. During this time, the Sicilian Mafia in Italy, which had flourished since at least the mid-19th century, was under attack from the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). Some Sicilian Mafiosi escaped to the United States, where they got involved in bootlegging and became part of the burgeoning American Mafia. The Mafia in the U.S. and Sicily were separate entities, although the Americans adopted some Italian traditions, including omerta, an all-important code of conduct and secrecy that forbid any cooperation with government authorities.
During the 1920s Prohibition era, when the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution banned the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcoholic beverages, Italian-American gangs (along with other ethnic gangs) entered the booming bootleg liquor business and transformed themselves into sophisticated criminal enterprises, skilled at smuggling, money laundering and bribing police and other public officials. During this time, the Sicilian Mafia in Italy, which had flourished since at least the mid-19th century, was under attack from the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini (1883-1945). Some Sicilian Mafiosi escaped to the United States, where they got involved in bootlegging and became part of the burgeoning American Mafia. The Mafia in the U.S. and Sicily were separate entities, although the Americans adopted some Italian traditions, including omerta, an all-important code of conduct and secrecy that forbid any cooperation with government authorities.
The American Mafia Gets Organized
In the late 1920s, a bloody power struggle known as the
Castellammarese War broke out between New York City’s two biggest
Italian-American criminal gangs. In 1931, after the faction led by
Sicilian-born crime boss Salvatore Maranzano (1886-1931) came out on
top, he crowned himself the “capo di tutti capi,” or boss of all bosses,
in New York. Unhappy with Maranzano’s power grab, a rising mobster
named Lucky Luciano (1897-1962) had him murdered that same year. Luciano
then masterminded the formation of a central organization called the
Commission to serve as a sort of national board of directors for the
American Mafia, which by then consisted of at least 20 crime families
across the country. New York, which had become America’s organized-crime
capital, had been divided into five main Mafia families; everywhere
else the Mafia operated, there was just one crime family per city. The
Commission’s role was to set policies and mediate disagreements among
the families. Each of the five New York families received a vote on the
Commission when it was established, while the heads of the families in Chicago and Buffalo also got one vote each.
The U.S. Mafia: Hierarchy and Rituals
Typically, each American Mafia crime family was organized around a
hierarchy headed by a boss, who ruled with unquestioned authority and
received a cut of every money-making operation taken on by any member of
his family. Second-in-command was the underboss and below him were the
capos, or captains, who each controlled a crew of 10 or so soldiers (men
who had been “made,” or inducted into the family). Each family also had
a consigliere, who acted as an advisor and ombudsman. At the bottom of
the chain were associates, people who worked for or did business with
the family but weren’t full-fledged members.
Becoming an official member of a Mafia family traditionally involved an initiation ceremony in which a person performed such rituals as pricking his finger to draw blood and holding a burning picture of a patron saint while taking an oath of loyalty. Italian heritage was a prerequisite for every inductee (although some crime families required such lineage only from the father’s side) and men often, though not always, had to commit a murder before they could be made. Becoming a member of the Mafia was meant to be a lifetime commitment and each Mafiosi swore to obey omerta, the all-important code of loyalty and silence. Mafiosi were also expected to follow other rules, including never assaulting one another and never cheating with another member’s girlfriend or wife.
Becoming an official member of a Mafia family traditionally involved an initiation ceremony in which a person performed such rituals as pricking his finger to draw blood and holding a burning picture of a patron saint while taking an oath of loyalty. Italian heritage was a prerequisite for every inductee (although some crime families required such lineage only from the father’s side) and men often, though not always, had to commit a murder before they could be made. Becoming a member of the Mafia was meant to be a lifetime commitment and each Mafiosi swore to obey omerta, the all-important code of loyalty and silence. Mafiosi were also expected to follow other rules, including never assaulting one another and never cheating with another member’s girlfriend or wife.
The Mafia’s 20th-Century Dominance
With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the Mafia moved beyond
bootlegging and into a range of underworld activities, from illegal
gambling to loan-sharking to prostitution rings. The Mafia also sunk its
tentacles into labor unions and legitimate businesses, including
construction, garbage collection, trucking, restaurants and nightclubs
and the New York garment industry, and raked in enormous profits through
kickbacks and protection shakedowns. Instrumental to the Mafia’s
success was its ability to bribe corrupt public officials and business
leaders, along with witnesses and juries in court cases. By the mid-20th
century, there were 24 known crime families in America, comprised of an
estimated 5,000 full-fledged members and thousands of associates across
the country. Prior to the 1960s, some government leaders, including FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover,
voiced skepticism about the existence of a national Italian-American
organized crime network and suggested instead that crime gangs operated
strictly on a local level. As a result, law enforcement agencies made
few inroads in stopping the Mafia’s rise during this period.
Taking Down the Mafia
In 1970, Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations (RICO) Act, which proved to be a powerful tool in the
government’s war on the Mafia, as it allowed prosecutors to go after
crime families and their sources of revenue, both legal and illegal.
During the 1980s and 1990s, RICO laws were used to convict numerous
high-level mobsters. Some Mafiosi, faced with long prison sentences,
broke the once-sacred code of omerta and testified against their fellow
mobsters in exchange for a place in the federal witness-protection
program. At the same time, Mafia membership declined as insular
Italian-American neighborhoods, once a traditional recruiting ground for
mobsters, underwent demographic shifts and became more assimilated into
society at large.
By the start of the 21st century, the American Mafia was a shadow of its former self. However, the Mafia remained active in some of its traditional ventures, including loan-sharking and illegal gambling, and its involvement in labor unions and legitimate industries such as construction hadn’t been completely eliminated. Contributing to the Mafia’s continued survival may be the fact that following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, significant resources devoted to investigating organized crime (which had already seen cuts prior to 9/11) were shifted to counterterrorism work.
By the start of the 21st century, the American Mafia was a shadow of its former self. However, the Mafia remained active in some of its traditional ventures, including loan-sharking and illegal gambling, and its involvement in labor unions and legitimate industries such as construction hadn’t been completely eliminated. Contributing to the Mafia’s continued survival may be the fact that following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, significant resources devoted to investigating organized crime (which had already seen cuts prior to 9/11) were shifted to counterterrorism work.
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