Roaring Twenties: Organized Crimes

1871 Words8 Pages
Although the Roaring Twenties was a time of music, creativity, and innovation, there still were problems that needed to be addressed by the Government. Alcohol, The Great Depression, and organized crime were all major problems during this decade. The Government did its best to fix these problems but unfortunately, its efforts did not always pay off. For Example, when the Government prohibited alcohol it made organized crime increase instead of diminishing the amount of alcohol being used. On the other hand, in some cases its attempts solved the matter. For instance when the Government hired “ The Untouchables” to help control organized crime, its efforts paid off. The Presidents and the U.S. Government dealt with problems such as alcohol, organized…show more content…
An example of one is during one a Capone’s shootouts when bullets hit a five-year-old boy in the knee and a girl in the arm. In addition to this a shard of glass ricocheted into the girl’s eye. Another public incident caused by gangs was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. The problem started when Capone set up his enemy Bugg Moran and told him to pick up alcohol at a warehouse. As soon as Moran’s men came inside to pick up the alcohol, Al’s men, dressed as police arrested them. Then the police imposters shot down all seven of Moran’s men. Moran ran away unharmed. Dr. Fredrick L. Hoffman, a researcher of U.S. crime stated how corrupt the U.S. was by saying “ Our murder record of approximately 12,000 persons each year is a most serious indictment of American civilization, and evidence of lawlessness which has no counterpart in any other country in the world” (Scott). Capone and many other gangs terrorized cities with the fear of getting caught in the middle of a shootout (Yancey…show more content…
One reason is because of margin trading. When one does this one borrow money from a broker who borrows money from a bank. If the stock goes up everyone makes money, but if it goes down then everyone loses and eventually the owner has to sell his stock. Thus depressing the market even more. In addition to that, the stock market crashed because of a weak-banking system and because of the fact that the Government allowed businesses to make decisions even if it hurt everyone else. If people did not take advantage of loans, then the Great Depression would have never happened
Open Document