WEBVTT

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- [Narrator] This video
was made possible by Honey.

00:00:02.200 --> 00:00:04.849
Click the link below to save
money on your online shopping.

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And also limited edition
Al Capone pins on sale now.

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Get them quick before they sell out.

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Link in the description down below.

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Good morning, Honey.

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What's for breakfast?

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The usual.

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Two caskets of rum, a mug of hard cider,

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and a full bottle of wine.

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Oh boy.

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Oh, I'm running late.

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I'll have to take it with me.

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Don't forget your lunch.

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It's a six-pack of beer,
a flask of whiskey,

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six shots of tequila, and as
a special treat, a banana.

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Ah gee whiz, I'm gonna be smashed today.

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Enjoy your day of operating
sharp, dangerous farm equipment.

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I can't believe this is
an acceptable way to live.

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God bless America.

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Okay, gotta go.

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(loud crash)

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I love my life!

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(animated music)

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America, the land of
beautiful strip malls,

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top class infrastructure,
and wonderful urban sprawl.

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Ah, yes, beautiful America.

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But what's the most American
thing you can think of?

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The Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore,

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a crazy lady in a mobility
scooter yelling at a pigeon?

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Well, what if I told you
the answer is alcohol?

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That's right.

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When the Puritans arrived
on America's shores,

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they brought a ship packed with beer.

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George Washington provided his men

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with a daily cup of whiskey.

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Andrew Jackson's inauguration party

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left the White House so trashed

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that everybody had to be ordered outside.

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Frederick Douglass said whiskey

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made him feel like a president.

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Me too, Frederick, me too.

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Americans drink at breakfast.

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Doctors prescribe their
patients hard liquor.

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In the 19th century,
Americans drink three times

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as much as their modern-day counterparts.

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That's a lot of whiskey.

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Hey Jerry, how's that report coming along?

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Already done, sir.

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I've also organized your
paperwork, watered your flowers,

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and been a father figure to your children.

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Wait a minute.

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(sniffs) What's that smell?

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Have you been drinking at work?

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No sir, I would never.

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Well, why not?!

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Everyone else is doing it.

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But I got all my work done!

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You're fired!

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(glass shattering)

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(people cheering)

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Americans drink at work.

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They drink at barn raisings,
baptisms, and public hangings.

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Heavy drinking was so normal

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that it was as American as apple pie.

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Hi everyone, my name is
Ron and I'm an alcoholic.

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Get over yourself, Ron.

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We're all alcoholics.

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But more and more
Americans began to wonder

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whether all of this truly
was a normal way to live.

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Were Americans drinking
perhaps a little too much?

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Well, one group in particular

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thought the answer to that was yes.

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You know 'em.

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You love 'em.

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Women.

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(men laughing)

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Oh, crap, women!

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Run!

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(crowd yelling)

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Hang on!

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We just want to talk.

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Women talking in public?

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That's outrageous.

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Come on, Fred, you've got
two kids and a wife at home,

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yet here you are spending
your entire paycheck on booze.

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And you, Dr. Spanky,

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you run the cusp of
discovering time travel,

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but what did you discover instead?

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The sweet, sweet joys of whiskey.

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That's right, alcohol.

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It's destroying our families,
our jobs, and our homes.

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She's right, she's right.

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Hang on, men.

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Don't let them get to you.

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This saloon is our safe space
where our wives and children

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can't annoy us with reality
where we're free to be real men.

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He's right, he's right, I am a man.

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And what is it real men do?

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Take care of their families.

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I don't know what she's talking about.

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Do you take care of your family?

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No.

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We drink beer, we shoot
guns, and we mud wrestle!

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(men cheering)

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As America's heavy drinking
ruined more and more lives,

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moral resistance began to arise

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and women were at the forefront

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taking matters into their own hands

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at a time when women doing just
about anything was shocking.

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They'd had enough of being victim

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to their husbands' heavy drinking

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and they were gonna do
something unprecedented.

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You're going to what?

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I'm going to protest.

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(laughs)

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(coughs)

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Oh sweetie, women can't protest.

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(crowd yelling)

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Starting in Ohio before
spreading nationwide,

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women began a crusade against alcohol.

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They marched through towns and cities,

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singing hymns, gathering outside saloons,

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and praying on their knees.

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Women praying was so terrifying

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that in some towns schools were
shut and business stagnated.

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On one occasion, firemen were called out

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to hose down the dangerous praying women.

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On another, the owner of a beer garden

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reportedly hold a cannon outside

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and threatened to reduce
the savage women to dust.

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Nevertheless, they persisted.

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They formed the WCTU in
1874 and they organized.

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They set up homes for inebriate women.

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They installed water
fountains in public parks.

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They wrote textbooks for schoolchildren

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that contained some interesting claims

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about drinking alcohol.

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Here's little Timmy.

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Uh-oh, looks like Timmy's
gonna have his first drink.

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He's taking a small sip of whiskey

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and Timmy has spontaneously combusted.

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The end.

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The women's efforts weren't in vain.

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In small towns across America,

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drugstores agreed to stop fulfilling

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prescriptions for alcohol.

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Men committed themselves
to giving up drink.

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Inspired by the women's moral fervor,

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some saloon owners closed their doors.

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The women's crusade and
other temperance movements

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were forcing people to reconsider
alcohol's role in society,

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and more people began to side

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with the growing temperance movement.

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Many states had even begun enacting

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their own dry laws that restricted

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the sale and use of alcohol.

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One of them was Kansas

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where alcohol had been
outlawed since 1881.

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Despite this, many illegal
saloons remained open

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and authorities had done just
about nothing to stop them.

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One woman, disgusted by what she saw,

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decided she would take the
law into her own hands,

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and not just any woman, a
terrifying hatchet-wielding,

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sweet old lady named Carrie Nation.

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Armed with her trustee hatchet

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and a bag of what she called smashers,

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she traveled from town
to town visiting saloons,

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but she wasn't there to get smashed,

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she was there to smash.

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The men could do nothing but cower

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as sweet little Carrie hulked out

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and tore the place to shreds.

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She went to Kiowa and smashy smashed,

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Wichita, smashy smashed,

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to Piqua, smashy smashed.

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On a couple of occasions,
she was arrested,

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but each time they were like,

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okay, Carrie, we're gonna let you go

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so long as you promise to be a good girl

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and not smash up any more saloons, okay?

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Screw you pig! (spits)

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Yeah, I think she's gonna be all right.

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Smash, smash, smash.

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Carrie's tactics shocked the other members

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of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union,

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but she assured them, and this is a quote,

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"Ladies, you do not know
how much joy you will have

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"until you smash, smash, smash."

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Carrie became a household name

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and she hoped her unusual tactics

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would spread across the country,

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but unfortunately,

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many of the women's movements
eventually slowed down.

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Why?

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Well, because of this kinda thing.

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Thelma!

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I ripped my pants again.

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Ugh, well, you'll have
to sew them yourself

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because I'm going out protesting.

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What?!

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I don't know how to sew.

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What if I burn the house down
and get eaten by alligators?

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What?

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Don't be stupid, Mitch!

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Look, I've gotta go.

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Call me stupid?

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She's the one who's stupid.

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(glass shattering)

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(loud explosion)

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Hey Thelma!

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Look who's stupid now?

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See, while the women were out protesting,

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there was nobody to do
the cooking and cleaning

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and being seen and not heard,

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and they gradually had to
return to their duties at home.

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But where the women had
got the ball rolling,

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a new movement was about to take that ball

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all the way to Washington, DC.

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I'm talking about the Anti-Saloon League.

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The Anti-Saloon League was
a political pressure group

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run by a very sweet-looking old man.

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But don't let that deceive you.

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This guy was an evil genius.

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While the women's movements

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were interested in a
whole range of issues,

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Wayne Wheeler and the Anti-Saloon League

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only cared about enemy
number one, Mr. Al Cohol,

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and as a result, they
were extremely effective.

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They were able to exploit the
fears of the American people.

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And I mean everyone's fears.

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Here's how they did it.

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Hello, sir, welcome to the
Liberal Progressive rally.

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Why don't you introduce yourself?

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Well, I'm Paddy and I'm
an immigrant from Ireland.

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And tell me, Paddy, do you drink?

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Oh yes, I drink a lot.

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See folks?

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People like Paddy come here
looking for a better life

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only to end up drunk in the gutter.

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Don't worry, sir, we're gonna help you.

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(people applauding)

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Hey man, you're doing great.

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I just need you for one more thing.

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Hey Christian Conservatives,
this is Paddy.

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He's a dirty Catholic Irish immigrant

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who's come to destroy America

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with his alcohol-fueled debauchery.

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(people cheering)

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Workers were told alcohol
was a capitalist ploy

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to keep them subjugated.

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Factory owners were told

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alcohol was making their
irresponsible workers lazy.

00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:14.210
The Black community was warned

00:08:14.209 --> 00:08:16.029
alcohol was hindering its progress

00:08:16.029 --> 00:08:17.256
while racists were warned alcohol

00:08:17.257 --> 00:08:19.500
would turn Black men into brutes.

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In one of the most confusing
eras of American politics,

00:08:22.100 --> 00:08:24.370
totally opposing groups
found themselves agreeing

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on at least one thing, alcohol was bad.

00:08:27.350 --> 00:08:29.384
The Anti-Saloon League also
made great use of propaganda,

00:08:29.384 --> 00:08:31.901
something prohibitionists
had been doing for decades.

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Take this specimen, for example,

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that warns what will happen
to you if you start drinking.

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Let's see, first you take a drink,

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you get a little rowdy,

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okay, you make some new friends.

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Nice.

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Then you become homeless.

00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:45.533
You turn to crime.

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And but, uh-oh.

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But the most effective tactic

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Wheeler used to force
prohibition on America

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was pressure politics.

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In any election he could,

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Wheeler very successfully rounded support

00:08:57.809 --> 00:09:00.308
against any politician who
was in favor of alcohol.

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In Ohio alone, he had
70 state representatives

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and the popular Republican
governor ousted from office

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and replaced with prohibitionists.

00:09:07.559 --> 00:09:09.927
Suddenly every politician in America

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was afraid of Wayne Wheeler.

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Even those who enjoyed alcohol in private

00:09:13.702 --> 00:09:16.209
began pretending to be
against it in public.

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Alcohol is delicious.

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I mean malicious.

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Sorry Wayne.

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I'm really drunk right now.

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Then it really hit the fan in
1917 when America found itself

00:09:24.865 --> 00:09:27.629
fighting in the First
World War against Germany.

00:09:27.629 --> 00:09:29.730
Anti-German sentiment exploded.

00:09:29.730 --> 00:09:31.277
Sauerkraut became Liberty Cabbage.

00:09:31.277 --> 00:09:33.759
German measles became Liberty measles.

00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:36.629
And dachshunds became
the embodiment of evil.

00:09:36.629 --> 00:09:37.462
See America?

00:09:37.462 --> 00:09:38.597
You've always been this way.

00:09:38.597 --> 00:09:40.747
The biggest brewers in
America were German,

00:09:40.748 --> 00:09:42.641
and Wheeler saw to it
that drinking alcohol

00:09:42.640 --> 00:09:45.067
became akin to pro-German treason.

00:09:45.067 --> 00:09:47.700
The German brewers desperately
tried to fight back,

00:09:47.700 --> 00:09:48.710
creating their own propaganda,

00:09:48.710 --> 00:09:50.780
presenting beer as a healthy beverage,

00:09:50.779 --> 00:09:52.929
one that you could even give to your kids.

00:09:52.929 --> 00:09:54.912
As you can imagine, it
didn't go down well.

00:09:54.913 --> 00:09:57.110
President Wilson instituted some temporary

00:09:57.110 --> 00:09:59.538
wartime prohibition measures
to save grain for food.

00:09:59.538 --> 00:10:02.069
And with many in the country
now in support of prohibition,

00:10:02.070 --> 00:10:04.092
all that was left was to make it law.

00:10:04.091 --> 00:10:07.279
One problem was that taxes
on alcohol made up nearly 40%

00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:09.687
of the US government's annual revenue,

00:10:09.687 --> 00:10:11.483
and the government wasn't
just about to give that up.

00:10:11.482 --> 00:10:12.315
No problem.

00:10:12.316 --> 00:10:14.593
The Anti-Saloon League
helped lobby for the creation

00:10:14.592 --> 00:10:16.863
of a new income tax on
the American people.

00:10:16.864 --> 00:10:18.100
And just like that,

00:10:18.100 --> 00:10:20.460
the government was no
longer reliant on alcohol.

00:10:20.460 --> 00:10:24.160
Prohibition was finally
introduced to Congress in 1913,

00:10:24.159 --> 00:10:27.719
not just as a law but a
constitutional amendment.

00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:30.040
In 1917 as the House held their final vote

00:10:30.039 --> 00:10:31.259
on the prohibition amendment,

00:10:31.259 --> 00:10:33.000
Wheeler was watching from the gallery.

00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:35.529
You spineless cowards.

00:10:35.529 --> 00:10:37.000
I know half of you drink

00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:39.126
yet here you are bowing down
to Ned Flanders up there.

00:10:39.126 --> 00:10:41.347
Look at him like he's some kind of Caesar.

00:10:41.347 --> 00:10:43.140
Ugh, don't be so dramatic.

00:10:43.140 --> 00:10:46.251
I obviously don't think I'm Caesar.

00:10:46.251 --> 00:10:47.442
Now release the lions.

00:10:47.442 --> 00:10:48.453
(lion roaring)

00:10:48.453 --> 00:10:51.149
In the end, prohibition
passed the House easily,

00:10:51.149 --> 00:10:53.850
282 votes to 128.

00:10:53.850 --> 00:10:56.330
And the states ratified
the new amendment by 1919.

00:10:56.330 --> 00:10:59.966
America, a nation obsessed
with liberty and freedom,

00:10:59.966 --> 00:11:02.630
had just voluntarily
given up its private right

00:11:02.630 --> 00:11:05.324
to choose Whether or not to drink alcohol.

00:11:05.325 --> 00:11:06.509
We did it, folks!
(crowd cheering)

00:11:06.509 --> 00:11:07.703
We fixed everything.

00:11:07.703 --> 00:11:09.888
America will be perfect forever.

00:11:09.889 --> 00:11:12.195
But you just dissolved
America's fifth largest industry

00:11:12.195 --> 00:11:14.750
and lost tens of thousands
of jobs for us immigrants.

00:11:14.750 --> 00:11:16.009
No, you idiot.

00:11:16.009 --> 00:11:16.842
You don't get it.

00:11:16.842 --> 00:11:18.620
We helped you, idiot.

00:11:18.620 --> 00:11:20.942
Ugh, I could really go for a beer.

00:11:21.792 --> 00:11:23.060
Oh no!

00:11:23.059 --> 00:11:25.179
Immediately after
prohibition went into effect,

00:11:25.179 --> 00:11:26.222
alcohol consumption in America

00:11:26.222 --> 00:11:28.599
decreased as Americans followed the law

00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:29.800
and tried not drinking.

00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:31.959
Man, if we're gonna be
law-abiding good boys,

00:11:31.960 --> 00:11:34.090
we need something else to
fill the dark lonely void

00:11:34.090 --> 00:11:35.730
that delicious beer once did.

00:11:35.730 --> 00:11:39.517
Well, how about we crack open
a nice cold can of water?

00:11:39.517 --> 00:11:41.463
Hell, yeah, toss it over.

00:11:44.472 --> 00:11:46.639
Nah, this isn't doing it for me.

00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:47.793
Let's try knitting.

00:11:49.017 --> 00:11:51.288
This isn't filling the dark void at all.

00:11:51.288 --> 00:11:52.529
Wanna play some kites?

00:11:52.529 --> 00:11:54.235
Ah, screw it.

00:11:54.235 --> 00:11:55.860
Let's go get some illegal beer.

00:11:55.860 --> 00:11:58.029
While it seemed like many
Americans supported prohibition,

00:11:58.029 --> 00:11:59.909
after the law went into effect,

00:11:59.909 --> 00:12:01.519
it seemed like just as many Americans

00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:03.100
intended to keep on drinking

00:12:03.100 --> 00:12:04.960
and they would go on to
find a variety of ways

00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:06.432
to break the new law.

00:12:06.432 --> 00:12:07.920
Here's a question for you.

00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:10.656
Do you like breaking the law?

00:12:10.657 --> 00:12:12.348
Well, shame on you.

00:12:12.347 --> 00:12:15.180
Or do you like saving
money when you shop online?

00:12:15.181 --> 00:12:17.503
Then you should use Honey.

00:12:17.503 --> 00:12:19.244
Do you ever shop in-store?

00:12:19.244 --> 00:12:20.490
Of course not.

00:12:20.490 --> 00:12:22.244
Then you'd have to talk
to real life people.

00:12:22.244 --> 00:12:23.130
Yuck.

00:12:23.130 --> 00:12:25.669
You'd rather shop online
in the comfort and darkness

00:12:25.669 --> 00:12:26.764
of your mom's basement.

00:12:26.764 --> 00:12:29.191
Ah, and better yet, you can save money

00:12:29.191 --> 00:12:31.258
when you shop online with Honey.

00:12:31.258 --> 00:12:33.129
Honey is a free browser extension

00:12:33.129 --> 00:12:34.639
that scours the internet for promo codes

00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:37.720
and automatically tests them
when you're checking out.

00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:39.840
Look at me, I'm buying
a Baby Yoda smartwatch

00:12:39.840 --> 00:12:41.569
to increase my chances
of getting a girlfriend.

00:12:41.568 --> 00:12:43.866
And look, this magic dancing coin man

00:12:43.866 --> 00:12:45.620
has a promo code for me.

00:12:45.620 --> 00:12:47.067
Holy hecking balls!

00:12:47.067 --> 00:12:49.798
I just saved $18 and 75 cents.

00:12:49.798 --> 00:12:51.163
Watch out ladies.

00:12:51.163 --> 00:12:52.069
And guess what?

00:12:52.070 --> 00:12:54.712
Those of you who've already
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00:12:54.711 --> 00:12:58.048
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00:12:58.048 --> 00:12:59.829
So what are the rest of you waiting for

00:12:59.830 --> 00:13:00.937
you big dumb stinky idiots?

00:13:00.937 --> 00:13:04.889
It's free and can be easily-peasily
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00:13:04.889 --> 00:13:05.984
So get Honey for free today

00:13:05.984 --> 00:13:09.049
by going to joinhoney.com/oversimplified.

00:13:09.048 --> 00:13:12.087
That's joinhoney.com/oversimplified.

00:13:12.087 --> 00:13:16.079
And as always, you'll be
supporting my channel so thank you.

00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:17.440
Now where were we?

00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:19.300
Oh yeah, punching Paddy,

00:13:19.299 --> 00:13:21.746
passing prohibition, and procuring pints.

00:13:21.746 --> 00:13:23.782
Pretty soon after the
new law went into effect,

00:13:23.783 --> 00:13:24.860
the failures of prohibition

00:13:24.860 --> 00:13:27.115
were already beginning
to rear their ugly heads.

00:13:27.115 --> 00:13:29.568
For starters, the details
of the new prohibition law

00:13:29.568 --> 00:13:32.189
written by none other
than Wayne Wheeler himself

00:13:32.190 --> 00:13:34.110
turned out to be more
draconian than expected.

00:13:34.110 --> 00:13:35.769
Many prohibition supporters

00:13:35.769 --> 00:13:37.439
only wanted to outlaw hard liquor

00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:38.950
and hoped beer would remain legal,

00:13:38.950 --> 00:13:42.045
but the Volstead Act
outlawed anything over .5%.

00:13:42.044 --> 00:13:44.209
That would make Liberty Cabbage illegal.

00:13:44.210 --> 00:13:46.180
Secondly, the new law
was full of loopholes

00:13:46.179 --> 00:13:48.245
that Americans very
quickly began to exploit.

00:13:48.245 --> 00:13:50.070
For example, while the sale

00:13:50.070 --> 00:13:52.110
and manufacturer of liquor was illegal,

00:13:52.110 --> 00:13:53.310
drinking it wasn't.

00:13:53.309 --> 00:13:55.000
And you could also keep
any alcohol you had

00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:56.321
before the law went into effect.

00:13:56.321 --> 00:13:59.250
So many private clubs hoarded
huge amounts of alcohol

00:13:59.250 --> 00:14:01.799
that saw them through the
entire prohibition period.

00:14:01.799 --> 00:14:04.279
Whiskey intended for medicinal
purposes was also allowed

00:14:04.279 --> 00:14:06.579
and doctors basically became bartenders.

00:14:06.580 --> 00:14:09.110
It looked as though a full-on
epidemic had broken out

00:14:09.110 --> 00:14:11.899
as there was a sudden surge
in prescriptions for whiskey.

00:14:11.899 --> 00:14:14.169
Sacramental wines used by
churches and synagogues

00:14:14.169 --> 00:14:15.002
were also permitted.

00:14:15.003 --> 00:14:17.307
Orders for communion wine
suspiciously skyrocketed

00:14:17.307 --> 00:14:18.739
by millions of gallons.

00:14:18.739 --> 00:14:21.019
And as rabbis had access
to religious wine,

00:14:21.019 --> 00:14:22.923
suddenly everyone was becoming a rabbi.

00:14:22.923 --> 00:14:27.100
You had Rabbi Pat O'Leary,
Rabbi LL Cool J, Rabbi Fluffy.

00:14:27.100 --> 00:14:27.932
But don't worry.

00:14:27.932 --> 00:14:30.389
I'm sure all these definitely
legitimate religious figures

00:14:30.389 --> 00:14:31.403
couldn't possibly be selling wine

00:14:31.403 --> 00:14:32.778
in the back alley after mass.

00:14:32.778 --> 00:14:35.293
Yep, definitely nothing
strange going on here.

00:14:35.293 --> 00:14:37.393
New products also hit
the shelves in stores,

00:14:37.393 --> 00:14:40.970
such as Vine-Glo, a brick
of dehydrated grape juice,

00:14:40.970 --> 00:14:43.730
itself not alcoholic and
therefore perfectly legal,

00:14:43.730 --> 00:14:46.490
but the packaging did contain
a strangely specific warning.

00:14:46.490 --> 00:14:48.409
After dissolving the brick
in a gallon of water,

00:14:48.409 --> 00:14:49.939
do not place the liquid in a jug

00:14:49.940 --> 00:14:51.270
in the cupboard for 20 days,

00:14:51.269 --> 00:14:53.720
because then it would turn into a wine.

00:14:53.720 --> 00:14:54.552
I'll take a thousand.

00:14:54.552 --> 00:14:55.669
Yes, sir.

00:14:55.669 --> 00:14:57.813
Now at this point, I want
you to think back for me,

00:14:57.813 --> 00:15:00.028
if you will, to the year 2005.

00:15:00.028 --> 00:15:01.970
You're the coolest kid around

00:15:01.970 --> 00:15:03.160
and you convince your parents to rent

00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:05.889
the greatest movie of all time
from your local Blockbuster.

00:15:05.889 --> 00:15:07.490
But the movie starts
with a strange message,

00:15:07.490 --> 00:15:09.572
something about not downloading a car.

00:15:09.572 --> 00:15:12.700
You immediately disregard
that and hop on Kazaa

00:15:12.700 --> 00:15:14.509
to download the greatest song of all time,

00:15:14.509 --> 00:15:16.470
and in the process drain
your dad's bank account

00:15:16.470 --> 00:15:18.120
with copious amounts of ransomware.

00:15:18.120 --> 00:15:21.250
You were breaking the
law, you bad boy or girl.

00:15:21.250 --> 00:15:22.938
But did anyone come to arrest you?

00:15:22.938 --> 00:15:24.168
No.

00:15:24.168 --> 00:15:25.720
That's my point.

00:15:25.720 --> 00:15:28.940
If no one is enforcing a law
while everyone's breaking it,

00:15:28.940 --> 00:15:29.783
is it really a law?

00:15:29.783 --> 00:15:32.053
And so it was with prohibition.

00:15:32.053 --> 00:15:34.616
See, the conservative-led
governments of the decade

00:15:34.616 --> 00:15:35.796
were also the kind of people

00:15:35.797 --> 00:15:38.120
who believed in small government spending.

00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:38.952
So they passed a law

00:15:38.952 --> 00:15:41.350
that would be extremely
difficult to enforce

00:15:41.350 --> 00:15:42.182
but also didn't wanna spend

00:15:42.182 --> 00:15:44.403
any of the money required to enforce it.

00:15:44.403 --> 00:15:46.689
The newly created Bureau of Prohibition

00:15:46.690 --> 00:15:49.660
only had 1500 agents to
cover the entire country.

00:15:49.659 --> 00:15:53.356
That's one agent for
every 70,666 Americans

00:15:53.356 --> 00:15:56.740
in a massive country with
12,000 miles of coastline

00:15:56.740 --> 00:15:58.798
and one gigantic land border with Canada.

00:15:58.798 --> 00:16:00.043
Good luck schmuckos.

00:16:00.043 --> 00:16:01.829
And all these clever little loopholes

00:16:01.830 --> 00:16:03.354
people were using to score legal booze

00:16:03.354 --> 00:16:05.350
were only just the beginning.

00:16:05.350 --> 00:16:07.070
America was about to devolve

00:16:07.070 --> 00:16:10.302
into alcohol-fueled criminal chaos.

00:16:10.302 --> 00:16:11.480
By outlawing it,

00:16:11.480 --> 00:16:14.040
prohibition had made alcohol
a precious commodity.

00:16:14.041 --> 00:16:16.480
And millions of Americans
would become outlaws

00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:18.673
as they found a variety of
ways to score illegal booze.

00:16:18.673 --> 00:16:21.985
For example, many Americans
began making their own liquor.

00:16:21.985 --> 00:16:23.840
Illegal stills for making moonshine

00:16:23.840 --> 00:16:25.129
were found by prohibition agents

00:16:25.129 --> 00:16:27.549
from the hills of Kentucky
and the caves of Arizona

00:16:27.549 --> 00:16:29.919
to parking lots in major
cities and even in the homes

00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:31.751
of prohibition-supporting politicians.

00:16:31.751 --> 00:16:34.360
Oh come on now, fellas,
I voted for prohibition.

00:16:34.360 --> 00:16:36.112
I'm not gonna have an illegal still.

00:16:36.113 --> 00:16:37.140
What's this?

00:16:37.139 --> 00:16:38.629
That's my son Freddie.

00:16:38.629 --> 00:16:39.779
Say hi, Freddy.

00:16:39.779 --> 00:16:41.430
Sir, this is obviously an illegal still.

00:16:41.431 --> 00:16:42.612
How dare you?

00:16:42.611 --> 00:16:44.370
Hey, what's this in the bathtub?

00:16:44.370 --> 00:16:45.566
That's bath water.

00:16:45.566 --> 00:16:47.287
Why does it taste like alcohol?

00:16:47.287 --> 00:16:48.740
Here's a better question.

00:16:48.740 --> 00:16:50.899
Why are you tasting my bath water, weirdo?

00:16:50.899 --> 00:16:51.732
Come on, Freddy.

00:16:51.732 --> 00:16:53.239
Let's get away from these perverts.

00:16:53.240 --> 00:16:54.336
To discourage moonshining,

00:16:54.336 --> 00:16:56.529
the government began adding extra toxins

00:16:56.529 --> 00:16:58.429
to many of the products
moonshiners were using

00:16:58.429 --> 00:17:01.418
which resulted in many cases
of severe illness and death.

00:17:01.418 --> 00:17:03.929
But alcohol wasn't just
being made at home.

00:17:03.929 --> 00:17:05.278
Along America's vast coastlines,

00:17:05.278 --> 00:17:08.329
rumrunners smuggled alcohol
into the country by sea.

00:17:08.329 --> 00:17:10.289
A floating supermarket known as Rum Row

00:17:10.289 --> 00:17:11.799
extended along the East Coast

00:17:11.799 --> 00:17:13.960
just beyond America's maritime limit.

00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:16.110
And bootleggers frequently
sailed out in small boats

00:17:16.109 --> 00:17:17.609
to pick up shipments of booze.

00:17:17.609 --> 00:17:18.879
These bootleggers could then be found

00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:20.820
selling their illegal products everywhere

00:17:20.819 --> 00:17:23.179
even in the halls of Congress.

00:17:23.180 --> 00:17:25.823
Wow, pop, one day, I wanna work here.

00:17:25.823 --> 00:17:28.810
Well, son, if you work
hard and never give up,

00:17:28.809 --> 00:17:31.230
one day even you could
be a massive hypocrite.

00:17:31.230 --> 00:17:33.859
Even President Harding was
known to serve his cabinet

00:17:33.859 --> 00:17:34.889
bootlegged whiskey.

00:17:34.890 --> 00:17:36.406
And some bootleggers were so successful,

00:17:36.405 --> 00:17:39.322
they became bazillionaires
such as Roy Olmsted,

00:17:39.323 --> 00:17:41.870
an ex-cop who became one
of the biggest employers

00:17:41.869 --> 00:17:43.834
in the Seattle area from smuggling booze.

00:17:43.835 --> 00:17:46.227
Unfortunately, all of his
whiskey came from Canada.

00:17:46.227 --> 00:17:47.430
Yuck.

00:17:47.430 --> 00:17:49.278
All of this criminality
was being made possible

00:17:49.278 --> 00:17:51.381
by copious amounts of corruption.

00:17:51.381 --> 00:17:53.509
Across the country, armies
of government officials

00:17:53.509 --> 00:17:55.720
were persuaded to turn a blind eye.

00:17:55.720 --> 00:17:57.049
Bootleggers became so rich

00:17:57.049 --> 00:17:58.542
it was no problem to stuff
a couple thousand dollars

00:17:58.542 --> 00:18:00.459
into the front pocket of the police chief

00:18:00.460 --> 00:18:02.200
or the mayor or their disapproving mother.

00:18:02.200 --> 00:18:03.135
And some cops were getting

00:18:03.135 --> 00:18:04.985
almost as rich as the bootleggers.

00:18:04.986 --> 00:18:06.628
All right, men, everyone gather in.

00:18:06.627 --> 00:18:08.439
I've received word that one of you

00:18:08.440 --> 00:18:10.029
has been taking bribes from bootleggers.

00:18:10.029 --> 00:18:11.345
Any ideas who?

00:18:11.345 --> 00:18:13.767
Kevin perhaps, got any thoughts?

00:18:13.767 --> 00:18:14.720
No, sir.

00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:15.670
Many police officers

00:18:15.670 --> 00:18:17.890
came from the same
communities that drank a lot

00:18:17.890 --> 00:18:19.256
and they weren't about to
arrest their own granddads

00:18:19.256 --> 00:18:21.400
for knocking back some homemade gin.

00:18:21.400 --> 00:18:22.233
But all this isn't to say

00:18:22.232 --> 00:18:23.512
there was no enforcement.

00:18:23.512 --> 00:18:24.784
Plenty of government officials

00:18:24.785 --> 00:18:27.022
were doing their best
to enforce the new laws.

00:18:27.021 --> 00:18:28.403
And some unlucky individuals

00:18:28.403 --> 00:18:30.061
received very harsh penalties

00:18:30.061 --> 00:18:32.925
such as a Michigan mother who
is sentenced to life in prison

00:18:32.925 --> 00:18:34.692
for small-scale moonshining.

00:18:34.692 --> 00:18:37.460
Cases like these were
widely reported in the media

00:18:37.460 --> 00:18:39.913
and only served to make
prohibition even more unpopular.

00:18:39.913 --> 00:18:40.746
But not just that,

00:18:40.746 --> 00:18:42.535
the media also loved to cover the exploits

00:18:42.535 --> 00:18:44.147
of the most famous bootleggers,

00:18:44.146 --> 00:18:46.258
turning them into national icons.

00:18:46.258 --> 00:18:48.130
One of the biggest bootleggers

00:18:48.130 --> 00:18:50.123
was a man named George Remus.

00:18:50.123 --> 00:18:51.559
Originally a lawyer,

00:18:51.559 --> 00:18:53.319
he watched as his bootlegger clients

00:18:53.319 --> 00:18:55.335
paid off enormous fines
like it was nothing

00:18:55.335 --> 00:18:57.940
and proclaimed bootlegging
is the business for me!

00:18:57.940 --> 00:19:00.890
But unlike most bootleggers,
Remus had big brain

00:19:00.890 --> 00:19:02.345
and he came up with a
pretty clever system.

00:19:02.345 --> 00:19:04.789
See, there were millions
of gallons of liquor

00:19:04.789 --> 00:19:05.754
produced before prohibition

00:19:05.755 --> 00:19:08.060
that were sitting in
distillery warehouses.

00:19:08.059 --> 00:19:08.893
And it could only be sold

00:19:08.893 --> 00:19:10.935
with government permission
to drug companies.

00:19:10.935 --> 00:19:12.679
So Remus set up his own drug company

00:19:12.680 --> 00:19:13.876
and bought all the liquor,

00:19:13.876 --> 00:19:15.687
then he set up his own transport company

00:19:15.688 --> 00:19:16.772
to transport the liquor,

00:19:16.771 --> 00:19:18.730
and then he would send
his own men out with guns

00:19:18.730 --> 00:19:20.162
to intercept his own transport vehicles,

00:19:20.162 --> 00:19:21.600
and this would happen.

00:19:21.599 --> 00:19:23.155
Hey man, this is a stick-up.

00:19:23.155 --> 00:19:24.973
Oh no, please don't hurt me.

00:19:24.973 --> 00:19:27.005
I won't hesitate to shoot.

00:19:27.006 --> 00:19:28.992
Please, I have a wife and kids.

00:19:28.991 --> 00:19:31.078
Handover all the whiskey, fatty.

00:19:31.078 --> 00:19:36.078
Hey, fatty isn't in the
script, you jerk! (sobs)

00:19:36.536 --> 00:19:38.532
After stealing all the
whiskey from himself,

00:19:38.531 --> 00:19:40.401
he could then sell it for big bucks.

00:19:40.402 --> 00:19:41.675
The perfect crime.

00:19:41.675 --> 00:19:44.059
Unfortunately, Remus was eventually caught

00:19:44.059 --> 00:19:46.690
by a goody two-shoes
prohibition director in Indiana

00:19:46.690 --> 00:19:48.279
who wouldn't take Remus's bribes.

00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:49.609
And the government found Remus guilty

00:19:49.609 --> 00:19:52.440
of violating the Volstead Act 3,000 times.

00:19:52.441 --> 00:19:54.678
For two years as Remus sat in prison,

00:19:54.678 --> 00:19:56.846
his wife promised to take
care of all of his money,

00:19:56.846 --> 00:19:58.349
and by take care of his money,

00:19:58.349 --> 00:20:00.049
she meant having an affair
with a prohibition agent,

00:20:00.049 --> 00:20:02.807
sell off everything Remus
owned, and file for divorce.

00:20:02.807 --> 00:20:04.284
When Remus finally got out

00:20:04.284 --> 00:20:06.931
and found his big fancy mansion
empty with his wife gone,

00:20:06.931 --> 00:20:09.026
he reportedly broke out in tears.

00:20:09.026 --> 00:20:11.400
A few months later,
during the divorce trial,

00:20:11.400 --> 00:20:13.157
he spotted his wife in
a car in Cincinnati.

00:20:13.156 --> 00:20:15.240
Remus hopped in a cab and asked the driver

00:20:15.240 --> 00:20:16.410
to run her off the road.

00:20:16.410 --> 00:20:18.106
The driver was like, okay.

00:20:18.106 --> 00:20:21.557
Then Remus got out of the
cab and shot his wife dead.

00:20:21.557 --> 00:20:23.761
He immediately handed
himself into the police.

00:20:23.761 --> 00:20:26.011
And his next trial, this time for murder,

00:20:26.011 --> 00:20:28.096
became a national sensation.

00:20:28.096 --> 00:20:31.039
Remus defended himself, claiming insanity,

00:20:31.039 --> 00:20:33.159
occasionally carrying
out skillful questioning,

00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:34.890
occasionally crying in the corner.

00:20:34.890 --> 00:20:36.129
But the nation felt bad for him.

00:20:36.128 --> 00:20:37.735
His wife had screwed him over.

00:20:37.736 --> 00:20:40.338
And so when after just 19
minutes of deliberation,

00:20:40.337 --> 00:20:43.049
the jury returned and
declared him not guilty.

00:20:43.049 --> 00:20:45.323
The court erupted into celebration.

00:20:45.324 --> 00:20:46.657
And just to remind you,

00:20:46.656 --> 00:20:49.569
this guy bluntly admitted
to murdering his wife.

00:20:49.569 --> 00:20:51.202
The American justice system.

00:20:52.279 --> 00:20:54.072
As alcohol poured into the nation,

00:20:54.073 --> 00:20:55.009
a lot of it was going

00:20:55.009 --> 00:20:56.809
to a new type of drinking establishment

00:20:56.809 --> 00:20:58.599
that had been booming in popularity,

00:20:58.599 --> 00:20:59.997
a secret drinking establishment.

00:20:59.998 --> 00:21:02.120
So secret that from the outside,

00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:04.199
they often looked like
ordinary shops or homes,

00:21:04.200 --> 00:21:07.340
so secret that you usually
needed a password to get in,

00:21:07.339 --> 00:21:10.828
so secret that everybody
knew about them, speakeasies.

00:21:10.828 --> 00:21:13.589
And once you were in, the
party went all night long.

00:21:13.589 --> 00:21:16.424
Scantily clad flappers,
snake ladies, jazz.

00:21:16.424 --> 00:21:18.472
It was a roaring time to be alive.

00:21:18.472 --> 00:21:21.769
Some publications even posted
reviews of these illegal clubs

00:21:21.769 --> 00:21:23.723
and bribes galore kept the party going.

00:21:23.723 --> 00:21:25.789
It seemed like half the police officers

00:21:25.789 --> 00:21:27.670
and federal agents in cities like New York

00:21:27.670 --> 00:21:29.951
were receiving kickbacks
from speakeasy owners.

00:21:29.951 --> 00:21:33.807
Hey, what the Kevin
Costner is going on here?

00:21:33.807 --> 00:21:38.243
Officer O'Hannity, taking
bribes, why am I not surprised?

00:21:38.243 --> 00:21:40.222
Prohibition director Simmons?

00:21:40.222 --> 00:21:41.548
For shame.

00:21:41.548 --> 00:21:42.660
Mom?

00:21:42.660 --> 00:21:43.910
What would dad say?

00:21:43.910 --> 00:21:44.743
Ask him yourself.

00:21:44.742 --> 00:21:46.602
Dad would say quit
being such a wet blanket

00:21:46.603 --> 00:21:48.580
and let daddy earn his tips.

00:21:48.579 --> 00:21:50.561
Anytime a speakeasy was
shut down by authorities,

00:21:50.561 --> 00:21:52.835
it seemed like three more
would just pop up elsewhere.

00:21:52.836 --> 00:21:54.819
And some neighborhoods
were so full of them

00:21:54.819 --> 00:21:56.130
that one resident began hanging a sign

00:21:56.131 --> 00:21:57.236
to try to keep party-goers

00:21:57.236 --> 00:21:58.996
from constantly knocking on her door.

00:21:58.996 --> 00:22:01.137
It really seemed like the
new laws regarding alcohol

00:22:01.136 --> 00:22:03.388
in some places were simply being ignored.

00:22:03.388 --> 00:22:05.459
And one prohibition agent
who traveled the country

00:22:05.460 --> 00:22:07.819
liked to see which city
was the most defiant

00:22:07.819 --> 00:22:09.079
by timing how long it took for him

00:22:09.079 --> 00:22:11.089
to be offered a beer after he arrived.

00:22:11.089 --> 00:22:11.923
His winner?

00:22:11.923 --> 00:22:14.180
New Orleans where a cab
driver offered him a drink

00:22:14.180 --> 00:22:15.860
after just 35 seconds.

00:22:15.859 --> 00:22:17.069
Bravo!

00:22:17.069 --> 00:22:18.947
Many voices in Congress
were already speaking out

00:22:18.948 --> 00:22:21.450
against prohibition and its failures.

00:22:21.450 --> 00:22:23.188
To display how ridiculous
the whole thing was,

00:22:23.188 --> 00:22:25.680
one Republican congressmen
gathered the media

00:22:25.680 --> 00:22:27.623
to all come and watch him
drink a homemade beer.

00:22:27.623 --> 00:22:29.109
When he asked a passing police officer

00:22:29.108 --> 00:22:30.215
if he'd like to arrest him,

00:22:30.215 --> 00:22:31.869
the officer said no.

00:22:31.869 --> 00:22:33.935
Hey Wayne, is all this
what you had in mind?

00:22:33.935 --> 00:22:35.831
I thought we were gonna
make the country better

00:22:35.832 --> 00:22:37.778
but it almost seems like it's worse.

00:22:37.778 --> 00:22:38.870
What do you mean?

00:22:38.869 --> 00:22:40.011
Alcohol consumption is down.

00:22:40.011 --> 00:22:42.609
Well, that may be true
in your small town world,

00:22:42.609 --> 00:22:44.669
but it says here drinking
in some areas is up

00:22:44.670 --> 00:22:46.420
as are arrests for public intoxication,

00:22:46.420 --> 00:22:48.690
drunk driving, and incidents
of liver cirrhosis.

00:22:48.690 --> 00:22:49.753
The general chaos has turned America

00:22:49.752 --> 00:22:52.389
into a nation of criminals
with no respect for the law.

00:22:52.390 --> 00:22:53.810
And all these attempts at enforcement

00:22:53.809 --> 00:22:55.384
are just costing the
economy valuable money

00:22:55.384 --> 00:22:56.962
and eating up judicial time and resources.

00:22:56.962 --> 00:22:57.796
Release the lions.

00:22:57.796 --> 00:22:59.080
(lion roaring)

00:22:59.079 --> 00:23:00.166
The social change and corruption

00:23:00.166 --> 00:23:01.919
that Wheeler and the Anti-Saloon League

00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:03.166
had been so eager to prevent,

00:23:03.165 --> 00:23:05.475
in the cities at least, was surging.

00:23:05.476 --> 00:23:06.928
See, when something is legal,

00:23:06.928 --> 00:23:09.310
you can usually regulate and control it,

00:23:09.309 --> 00:23:10.571
but make that thing illegal

00:23:10.571 --> 00:23:12.790
and often anything becomes fair game.

00:23:12.790 --> 00:23:14.809
Legal drinking age, gone.

00:23:14.809 --> 00:23:17.460
Mandatory closing hours
for clubs and bars, gone.

00:23:17.460 --> 00:23:20.341
Other unspoken sociocultural
rules surrounding alcohol,

00:23:20.340 --> 00:23:22.489
gone, gone, gone.

00:23:22.490 --> 00:23:24.516
In speakeasies, different
genders and ethnicities

00:23:24.516 --> 00:23:26.897
were beginning to mingle in a
way they hadn't done before.

00:23:26.896 --> 00:23:29.035
The roaring 20s saw a monumental shift

00:23:29.036 --> 00:23:30.950
in culture, not least of all,

00:23:30.950 --> 00:23:32.588
because now men and women
could flirt in public

00:23:32.588 --> 00:23:34.397
without being damned for eternity.

00:23:34.397 --> 00:23:36.730
An outraged Wayne Wheeler
did his best to make sure

00:23:36.730 --> 00:23:38.675
that anyone breaking the law was punished.

00:23:38.675 --> 00:23:41.519
He had even stricter legislation
put in place in New York.

00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:43.889
But all this did was clogged
up the justice system

00:23:43.890 --> 00:23:45.470
with petty drinking violations,

00:23:45.470 --> 00:23:47.660
and judges began letting
everyone off with like fines

00:23:47.660 --> 00:23:49.367
so the judges could get
back to dealing with things

00:23:49.366 --> 00:23:50.719
that actually mattered,

00:23:50.719 --> 00:23:51.797
things like murder,

00:23:51.797 --> 00:23:53.637
and there was plenty of murder,

00:23:53.637 --> 00:23:56.539
because bootleggers and
moonshiners were one thing,

00:23:56.539 --> 00:23:58.899
but prohibition had given
another kind of criminal

00:23:58.900 --> 00:24:00.692
an opportunity to make a fortune,

00:24:00.692 --> 00:24:02.675
mobsters and gangsters.

00:24:02.675 --> 00:24:04.579
Hey Fat Tony, big news.

00:24:04.579 --> 00:24:06.321
Hey Fat Joey, what's up?

00:24:06.321 --> 00:24:08.250
I just got word from Fat Louis here

00:24:08.250 --> 00:24:09.523
that the government is outlawing alcohol.

00:24:09.523 --> 00:24:10.805
You know what that means?

00:24:10.806 --> 00:24:13.125
That means we're gonna be rich.

00:24:13.125 --> 00:24:14.769
Quick, call Fat Paulie

00:24:14.769 --> 00:24:16.098
and let's go hijack a liquor truck now.

00:24:16.098 --> 00:24:17.067
All right.

00:24:17.067 --> 00:24:19.000
Hang on, let me tell my wife first.

00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:22.890
Hey Fat Susan, no pizza for
Fat Joey tonight, capeesh?

00:24:22.890 --> 00:24:25.150
Stopped calling me Fat Susan.

00:24:25.150 --> 00:24:27.569
Oh yeah, forget about it.

00:24:27.568 --> 00:24:29.884
Rival gangs began to
battle in American cities,

00:24:29.884 --> 00:24:32.364
raiding each other's transports,
assassinating rivals,

00:24:32.364 --> 00:24:33.248
and trying to take control

00:24:33.248 --> 00:24:35.289
of their city's illicit booze trade.

00:24:35.289 --> 00:24:36.817
Every city had its top dog.

00:24:36.817 --> 00:24:38.740
Detroit had The Purple Gang,

00:24:38.740 --> 00:24:40.640
New England had Charles King Solomon,

00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:41.756
but no city was as infamous

00:24:41.756 --> 00:24:44.461
for gang violence and murder as Chicago.

00:24:44.461 --> 00:24:46.203
The city had multiple gang factions,

00:24:46.203 --> 00:24:47.549
and at first, they agreed to stay

00:24:47.549 --> 00:24:48.980
in their own neighborhoods,

00:24:48.980 --> 00:24:51.015
but the thing about criminals
is that they're criminals,

00:24:51.015 --> 00:24:52.975
and the agreements inevitably broke down.

00:24:52.974 --> 00:24:55.529
One day the leader of the
Italian South Side Gang

00:24:55.529 --> 00:24:57.597
was walking along the
street when this happened.

00:24:57.597 --> 00:24:58.952
(machine guns firing)

00:24:58.952 --> 00:25:01.276
And he was like, "You know,
I think I'm done with this,"

00:25:01.276 --> 00:25:02.880
and left for New York,

00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:04.868
leaving his crime empire
to his chief enforcer,

00:25:04.867 --> 00:25:07.388
none other than Al Capone.

00:25:07.388 --> 00:25:09.679
Having been knifed in the
face in his younger years,

00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:11.462
Capone earned himself the name Scarface.

00:25:11.462 --> 00:25:13.510
Although interestingly,
he hated that nickname

00:25:13.510 --> 00:25:15.619
and preferred to be called Snorky.

00:25:15.619 --> 00:25:16.985
Snorky was ruthless

00:25:16.986 --> 00:25:19.200
just like any other
gang leader in America,

00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:20.700
but what set him apart from others,

00:25:20.700 --> 00:25:21.729
the reason he's become synonymous

00:25:21.729 --> 00:25:24.353
with 1920's gang warfare is this.

00:25:24.353 --> 00:25:26.474
Most other gang leaders would
try to keep a low profile

00:25:26.473 --> 00:25:28.846
because they're killing
and murdering and stuff,

00:25:28.846 --> 00:25:30.395
but Capone lived for the fame

00:25:30.395 --> 00:25:32.990
and kept an extremely high public profile,

00:25:32.990 --> 00:25:34.844
frequently speaking with
the media about his exploits

00:25:34.844 --> 00:25:36.961
and presenting himself as a gracious host,

00:25:36.961 --> 00:25:39.059
providing Chicago with good times.

00:25:39.059 --> 00:25:40.500
No need to thank me fellows.

00:25:40.500 --> 00:25:42.751
I just provide the city
with a valuable commodity

00:25:42.751 --> 00:25:45.000
while doing away with the competition.

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:45.948
You mean you murder people?

00:25:45.948 --> 00:25:48.102
Whoa, who said anything about murder?

00:25:48.102 --> 00:25:51.074
I just forced my rivals underground.

00:25:51.074 --> 00:25:52.147
When you do the thing with the hands,

00:25:52.146 --> 00:25:53.743
it seems like you're talking about murder.

00:25:53.743 --> 00:25:55.752
Whoa, look at you with the brains.

00:25:55.752 --> 00:25:59.563
No, no, I just help
people retire from life.

00:25:59.564 --> 00:26:00.397
So murder?

00:26:00.396 --> 00:26:01.625
Whoa!

00:26:01.625 --> 00:26:03.673
Al Snorky Capone was
somewhat of an enigma,

00:26:03.673 --> 00:26:05.395
brutal in how he dealt with enemies,

00:26:05.395 --> 00:26:07.431
but in front of the
camera he was all smiles.

00:26:07.431 --> 00:26:09.427
One day he'd be ordering hit after hit,

00:26:09.426 --> 00:26:11.998
the next, he'd be signing
autographs in Wrigley Field.

00:26:11.999 --> 00:26:13.977
One day he'd be bludgeoning
members of his own gang

00:26:13.977 --> 00:26:15.890
with a baseball bat for
conspiring against him,

00:26:15.890 --> 00:26:17.390
the next, he'd be playing Santa

00:26:17.390 --> 00:26:18.746
at a nearby parochial school.

00:26:18.746 --> 00:26:20.969
And no murder could ever
be traced back to him.

00:26:20.969 --> 00:26:22.277
Just like every other criminal,

00:26:22.277 --> 00:26:24.330
he stuffed the pockets of city officials

00:26:24.329 --> 00:26:25.512
with cold hard cash,

00:26:25.512 --> 00:26:27.763
and any who did try to oppose
him sometimes found themselves

00:26:27.763 --> 00:26:30.692
being thrown down the steps of
city hall in broad daylight.

00:26:30.692 --> 00:26:32.049
Problem solved.

00:26:32.049 --> 00:26:33.390
The public couldn't get enough of Capone.

00:26:33.391 --> 00:26:34.909
He quickly became a household name

00:26:34.909 --> 00:26:37.373
as people romanticized
the gang life he lived,

00:26:37.373 --> 00:26:38.740
and this became a source of concern

00:26:38.740 --> 00:26:40.855
for the people at the very top.

00:26:40.855 --> 00:26:41.981
President Hoover.

00:26:41.981 --> 00:26:43.128
What is it now, Miles?

00:26:43.128 --> 00:26:44.139
I'm busy.

00:26:44.140 --> 00:26:46.086
Well, it's just that
there's a lot of crime, sir.

00:26:46.086 --> 00:26:47.259
Crime.

00:26:47.259 --> 00:26:48.269
How long has that been happening?

00:26:48.269 --> 00:26:50.319
Well, since the dawn of man, sir.

00:26:50.319 --> 00:26:51.153
What?

00:26:51.153 --> 00:26:52.868
Would you like me to blame
it on the Democrats again?

00:26:52.868 --> 00:26:55.141
No, Miles, I want you to
blame it on squirrels.

00:26:55.142 --> 00:26:56.303
Yes, the Democrats!

00:26:56.303 --> 00:26:57.562
Now stop wasting my time.

00:26:57.561 --> 00:27:00.219
Since having a crime lord
controlling public officials

00:27:00.220 --> 00:27:01.410
and winning the hearts of the people

00:27:01.410 --> 00:27:02.830
probably wasn't a good thing,

00:27:02.829 --> 00:27:04.609
Hoover personally ordered
that something be done

00:27:04.609 --> 00:27:05.660
about this Capone fellow.

00:27:05.661 --> 00:27:06.887
But before he knew it,

00:27:06.886 --> 00:27:08.455
President Hoover was also dealing

00:27:08.455 --> 00:27:09.961
with another major problem.

00:27:09.961 --> 00:27:11.904
You know 'em, you love 'em.

00:27:11.904 --> 00:27:13.000
Women.

00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:15.279
The prohibition era had been
going on for nearly a decade,

00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:16.789
and anyone with a brain could see

00:27:16.789 --> 00:27:18.090
that it really wasn't going very well.

00:27:18.090 --> 00:27:20.593
One person with a brain was Pauline Sabin,

00:27:20.594 --> 00:27:23.320
an extremely influential and rich woman

00:27:23.319 --> 00:27:25.230
who served on the Republican
National Committee,

00:27:25.230 --> 00:27:26.880
fund-raised for Republican presidents,

00:27:26.880 --> 00:27:29.050
and had a secret wine
room in her giant mansion.

00:27:29.049 --> 00:27:30.492
She initially supported prohibition

00:27:30.492 --> 00:27:33.549
but was now disgusted at
the chaos it had created.

00:27:33.549 --> 00:27:35.169
And she began a new women's movement,

00:27:35.170 --> 00:27:37.909
this time not for
prohibition, but against it.

00:27:37.909 --> 00:27:40.357
Being the extremely
influential woman she was,

00:27:40.356 --> 00:27:41.478
her new organization gained

00:27:41.478 --> 00:27:44.471
nearly 1.5 million
members within two years,

00:27:44.471 --> 00:27:47.042
five times that of the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union.

00:27:47.042 --> 00:27:50.403
She hated that the WCTU
claimed to speak for all women

00:27:50.403 --> 00:27:53.421
and she began calling for the
repeal of the 18th Amendment.

00:27:53.421 --> 00:27:55.626
President Hoover, I
helped fund your campaign

00:27:55.626 --> 00:27:57.283
and now I want you to end prohibition.

00:27:57.284 --> 00:27:59.675
Miles, what is it I say when
I'm not gonna do anything?

00:27:59.674 --> 00:28:01.397
You'll look into it, sir.

00:28:01.397 --> 00:28:02.795
Oh yeah, that's right.

00:28:02.796 --> 00:28:05.210
Pauline, I'll look into it.

00:28:05.210 --> 00:28:07.350
Sabin gave speeches on
the steps of Congress

00:28:07.349 --> 00:28:08.429
and helped started growing push

00:28:08.430 --> 00:28:10.820
among the American people
against prohibition.

00:28:10.819 --> 00:28:13.450
But Hoover, a prohibitionist
himself, wasn't budging.

00:28:13.450 --> 00:28:16.600
Then on the 14th of February 1929,

00:28:16.599 --> 00:28:18.644
something happened that
shocked the nation.

00:28:18.644 --> 00:28:20.895
Men thought to be working for Al Capone

00:28:20.895 --> 00:28:22.619
tricked some Irish
mobsters into meeting them

00:28:22.619 --> 00:28:24.068
at a garage in Chicago,

00:28:24.068 --> 00:28:26.444
thinking they were there to
purchase hijacked whiskey,

00:28:26.444 --> 00:28:29.230
instead the mobsters were
lined up against the wall

00:28:29.230 --> 00:28:32.370
by men dressed as police
and they were shot.

00:28:32.369 --> 00:28:35.519
The Valentine's Day Massacre
had people outraged.

00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:37.785
It was cruel and almost
felt like American mobsters

00:28:37.785 --> 00:28:39.508
had finally crossed the line.

00:28:39.508 --> 00:28:41.480
People were sick of the violence,

00:28:41.480 --> 00:28:43.329
and in part they blamed prohibition

00:28:43.329 --> 00:28:44.235
for helping to create it.

00:28:44.236 --> 00:28:46.316
The pressure on Hoover to do something

00:28:46.316 --> 00:28:47.835
was steadily increasing.

00:28:47.835 --> 00:28:48.890
Fine.

00:28:48.890 --> 00:28:50.700
Miles, I want you to put a report together

00:28:50.700 --> 00:28:51.870
to see if this whole thing is working.

00:28:51.869 --> 00:28:53.409
You mean the thing where mobsters

00:28:53.410 --> 00:28:54.341
are becoming increasingly powerful

00:28:54.340 --> 00:28:56.049
and massacring each other in the streets

00:28:56.049 --> 00:28:56.883
and everyone is disregarding the law

00:28:56.883 --> 00:28:58.160
and half our public officials

00:28:58.160 --> 00:28:59.067
are corrupt and taking bribes?

00:28:59.067 --> 00:29:00.109
That thing?

00:29:00.109 --> 00:29:02.529
Yeah, I wanna know if it's
working or not, Miles.

00:29:02.529 --> 00:29:04.119
Stop wasting my time.

00:29:04.119 --> 00:29:06.599
Hoover continued to drag
his feet on prohibition,

00:29:06.599 --> 00:29:07.961
but after the Valentine's Day Massacre,

00:29:07.961 --> 00:29:09.869
he was still determined to do one thing.

00:29:09.869 --> 00:29:12.085
He wanted Al Capone in prison.

00:29:12.086 --> 00:29:13.567
Since Capone had been so careful,

00:29:13.567 --> 00:29:16.569
the FBI were having a hard time
charging him with anything,

00:29:16.569 --> 00:29:17.769
but eventually they got him.

00:29:17.769 --> 00:29:20.128
Capone, we know you're
supplying Chicago with alcohol

00:29:20.128 --> 00:29:21.772
and you've been involved
in countless murders.

00:29:21.772 --> 00:29:24.079
Whoa, look at you with the crazy talk.

00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:25.960
I ain't done none of that stuff.

00:29:25.960 --> 00:29:27.380
But you're rich, right?

00:29:27.380 --> 00:29:28.337
You're damn right I am.

00:29:28.336 --> 00:29:30.224
And so where'd all the
money come from, Capone?

00:29:30.224 --> 00:29:32.549
All right, I'll let you
in on a little secret,

00:29:32.549 --> 00:29:35.238
but you gotta promise
not to tell anyone, okay?

00:29:35.238 --> 00:29:37.803
I don't pay my taxes.

00:29:38.673 --> 00:29:40.330
Whoa!

00:29:40.330 --> 00:29:41.429
For all of his murdering,

00:29:41.430 --> 00:29:43.894
the IRS finally got Capone on tax evasion.

00:29:43.894 --> 00:29:46.166
At his trial, he didn't
seem too concern though

00:29:46.166 --> 00:29:49.090
and spent most of his time
having a laugh with his lawyers.

00:29:49.090 --> 00:29:50.513
Hey Capone, I gotta know,

00:29:50.513 --> 00:29:52.250
why are you so confident
you're gonna win here?

00:29:52.250 --> 00:29:55.390
Well, your honor, because I'm
an honest man with a big heart

00:29:55.390 --> 00:29:57.809
who's passionate about working
for the good of the people

00:29:57.808 --> 00:29:59.870
and also because I threatened
the entire jury's families.

00:29:59.871 --> 00:30:01.065
Luckily at the last minute,

00:30:01.065 --> 00:30:03.317
the judge replaced the entire
jury pool with a new one

00:30:03.317 --> 00:30:05.339
that Capone's men hadn't yet got to,

00:30:05.339 --> 00:30:06.771
and Capone was found guilty.

00:30:06.771 --> 00:30:09.730
He was sentenced to 11
years in federal prison,

00:30:09.730 --> 00:30:12.496
the harshest penalty ever
given to a tax evader.

00:30:12.496 --> 00:30:13.915
But even with Capone locked away,

00:30:13.914 --> 00:30:16.320
the violence in Chicago
and other cities continued,

00:30:16.320 --> 00:30:18.624
and in response, the
movement against prohibition

00:30:18.624 --> 00:30:19.800
continued to grow.

00:30:19.800 --> 00:30:23.663
And the final nail in
prohibition's coffin came in 1929.

00:30:23.663 --> 00:30:25.507
After a decade of booming economic growth

00:30:25.507 --> 00:30:27.160
under three Republican presidents,

00:30:27.160 --> 00:30:29.100
the stock market plummeted

00:30:29.099 --> 00:30:30.730
and America was thrown into the grips

00:30:30.730 --> 00:30:31.795
of the Great Depression.

00:30:31.795 --> 00:30:33.630
It was an awful time.

00:30:33.630 --> 00:30:34.947
One out of every five workers,

00:30:34.946 --> 00:30:37.644
15 million people, would lose their jobs.

00:30:37.644 --> 00:30:39.488
Half the nation's banks failed.

00:30:39.488 --> 00:30:41.057
Temporary shantytowns were built

00:30:41.057 --> 00:30:43.309
for the broke and
homeless in public parks.

00:30:43.309 --> 00:30:47.569
Suddenly very few people had
time to care about prohibition.

00:30:47.569 --> 00:30:49.871
Expensive enforcement
of an unenforceable law

00:30:49.872 --> 00:30:51.535
didn't seem like that big of a priority

00:30:51.535 --> 00:30:53.460
when people were having
their homes repossessed

00:30:53.460 --> 00:30:55.049
and losing their life savings.

00:30:55.049 --> 00:30:57.720
And many began to argue
that repealing prohibition

00:30:57.720 --> 00:31:00.490
would create vital jobs and
tax revenue for the government,

00:31:00.490 --> 00:31:02.798
yet President Hoover doubled down.

00:31:02.798 --> 00:31:04.710
Here's that report you asked for, sir.

00:31:04.710 --> 00:31:05.543
Gimme.

00:31:05.542 --> 00:31:07.875
Prohibition is great.

00:31:07.875 --> 00:31:09.730
Fantastic news.

00:31:09.730 --> 00:31:11.467
Sir, it says here prohibition is great

00:31:11.467 --> 00:31:13.173
at undermining the rule of law in America.

00:31:13.173 --> 00:31:15.799
Miles, it says the word great.

00:31:15.799 --> 00:31:17.134
That means good.

00:31:17.134 --> 00:31:20.269
Now stop wasting my time.

00:31:20.269 --> 00:31:21.740
The public increasingly shocked

00:31:21.740 --> 00:31:22.999
at the violence they saw on the streets,

00:31:22.999 --> 00:31:24.759
the corruption they saw in the government,

00:31:24.759 --> 00:31:26.086
the general disregard for the law,

00:31:26.086 --> 00:31:28.097
and now an economic calamity,

00:31:28.097 --> 00:31:29.547
had had enough.

00:31:29.547 --> 00:31:32.398
For his reelection, Hoover
faced the democratic candidate

00:31:32.397 --> 00:31:34.905
who promised to finally do
something about prohibition,

00:31:34.905 --> 00:31:36.786
Franklin D. Roosevelt.

00:31:36.786 --> 00:31:38.059
Crowds cheered

00:31:38.059 --> 00:31:39.869
as FDR made his campaign speeches

00:31:39.869 --> 00:31:41.839
promising to modify the Volstead Act.

00:31:41.839 --> 00:31:43.766
And Pauline Sabin, a lifelong Republican,

00:31:43.767 --> 00:31:47.330
along with her 1.5 million
supporters, endorsed Roosevelt.

00:31:47.329 --> 00:31:49.867
And on election day, it was a landslide.

00:31:49.867 --> 00:31:52.250
Before FDR had even taken office,

00:31:52.250 --> 00:31:54.279
Republicans in Congress began the process

00:31:54.279 --> 00:31:56.745
of passing the 21st Amendment
to repeal prohibition.

00:31:56.746 --> 00:31:58.729
One of FDR's first acts as president

00:31:58.729 --> 00:32:01.840
was to pass the Beer Permit
Act which made beer legal

00:32:01.839 --> 00:32:03.437
while the new amendment
was being ratified.

00:32:03.438 --> 00:32:06.903
In 1933 with the passage
of the 21st Amendment,

00:32:06.903 --> 00:32:09.717
prohibition was finally over,

00:32:09.717 --> 00:32:11.420
and the people celebrated

00:32:11.420 --> 00:32:13.221
like they had just won a World War.

00:32:13.221 --> 00:32:14.986
Bars and taverns were packed.

00:32:14.986 --> 00:32:17.690
The WCTU were inconsolable.

00:32:17.690 --> 00:32:19.410
Wayne Wheeler was dead.

00:32:19.410 --> 00:32:20.480
And the celebration,

00:32:20.480 --> 00:32:23.083
particularly in American
cities, was intense.

00:32:23.083 --> 00:32:24.586
Heading into the mid-1930s,

00:32:24.586 --> 00:32:27.093
the effects of prohibition
were clear to see.

00:32:27.093 --> 00:32:29.683
From now on, culture
around drinking had changed

00:32:29.683 --> 00:32:33.059
with men and women drinking
together not in saloons

00:32:33.059 --> 00:32:34.490
but in bars and taverns.

00:32:34.490 --> 00:32:36.431
The crime syndicates that
had been given so much power

00:32:36.431 --> 00:32:38.428
through prohibition remained powerful

00:32:38.428 --> 00:32:40.111
as they moved on to other things.

00:32:40.111 --> 00:32:42.038
Some states opted to remain dry

00:32:42.038 --> 00:32:46.031
with Oklahoma only repealing
its prohibition laws in 1959.

00:32:46.031 --> 00:32:48.493
To this day, there are
still counties in America

00:32:48.493 --> 00:32:50.615
with some form of prohibition.

00:32:50.615 --> 00:32:52.287
So what did we learn today, kids?

00:32:52.287 --> 00:32:54.079
What's the big lesson here?

00:32:54.079 --> 00:32:55.399
What's the moral of this story

00:32:55.400 --> 00:32:56.480
that we can all take away

00:32:56.480 --> 00:32:58.145
and apply to our day-to-day lives?

00:32:58.145 --> 00:33:00.389
Maybe that you shouldn't
force your own morals

00:33:00.390 --> 00:33:01.299
on others who don't share them?

00:33:01.298 --> 00:33:03.567
Maybe that if you tell
Americans not to do something,

00:33:03.567 --> 00:33:06.059
that's the one thing
they'll definitely do.

00:33:06.059 --> 00:33:07.019
Or maybe there is no lesson.

00:33:07.019 --> 00:33:09.309
Maybe we're all just a
bunch of dumb stinky idiots

00:33:09.309 --> 00:33:11.289
and we're all doomed.

00:33:11.289 --> 00:33:12.123
The end.

00:33:13.041 --> 00:33:15.625
(upbeat music)