When we started our journey into the 1920s I focused on a theme of baseball, gangsters, and a lack of booze. I beleive that the theme I chose does still stand true and can be one way that the 1920s are looked at. Granted it does not cover every aspect I think it is a good overall umbrella to look at. This is becuase of the American people’s craving for entertainment and pursuit to lavish in the freedom that is instilled in our constitution and an idea that was shared to Europe during the “War to end all Wars” that had just ended. My original post showed a balance of new entertainment and new laws. More specifically, how the new laws of prohibition had put a damper on the fun and free lifestyle that Americans were experiencing.

Overal I do no thing that my view has changed, or missed an essential concept of the 1920s. Becuase there are so many different happenings and historical events taking place in the decade no two people are bound to have the same outlook on the decade. The only thing that i would add to my view of the decade is the flapper and party craze, the ’20s werent nicknamed “The Roaring ’20s” for nothing. The inspiration for one of the best known books, The Great Gatsby, is lavish parties which were still had at every turn. To me, the 1920s still mean the rise of baseball and gnagsters, and figuring out what to do about the legal lack of booze. And, if someone were to ask me to describe the 1920s I would say that it was a decade of expression and a thurst to be entertained, all under the dark cloud of prohibition.

Jeffrey Horn

Jeffrey Horn is a senior history major at Ramapo College and will graduate in May 2023. He is also a captain of the Ramapo College Swim team and aspires to become a High School history teacher after gradutation.

The letter was written by the NHAAPA to the senator of Washington state citing events of spies and undercover agents being used to crack down on the sale and use of liquor. The document goes further and points out that these government agents have been getting drunk themselves, therefore leading to hypocrisy and distrust in the government.

Transcription

Hon. Wesley L. Jones,

Washington D.C.

Dir Sir:

We observed that the Secretary of the Treasury has sent to Congress a bill proposing an appropriation of $500,000 to employ informers and spies to enforce prohibition. The Internal Revenue Commissioner and the Assistant Treasurer in charge of prohibition enforcement both state, in a letter to the Senate, that prohibition cannot be enforced except with the aid of undercover men — spies and informers.

Kindly permit us to direct your attention to the manner in which funds for the employment of undercover men have been spent.

Last year the Prohibition Enforcement Department set up an elaborate undercover scheme at Norfolk, VA to operate in Norfolk and vicinity and in parts of North Carolina.

The records of this investigation are printed in Senate Document 198 entitled “Prohibition Enforcement”.

These records show:

That the investigation was instigated by J.W. Hough, described in the documents as a representative of the Anti-Saloon League.

The agents of the Federal Government, under assumed names, were sent to Norfolk to report to and recieve instructions from J.W. Hough, representative of the Anti-Saloon League.

That J.W. Hough, representative of the Anti-Saloon League, furnished money to the agents of the Federal Government to buy liquor, and that the liquor was stored in Hough’s vault.

That agents of the Federal Government had thier mail from Wasington addressed to them in Norfolk in care of J.W. Hough agent of the Anti-Saloon League.

That the federal agents, sent to Norfolk, at the request of the representative of the Anti-Saloon League, engaged in the following activities:

They established a negro poolroom and saloon in Norfolk, employed a negro bartender and negro informers to spy upon the police force of the city of Norfolk and entrap these policemen.

They entered into partnerships with bootleggers and other individuals described in the records as notorious and untrustworthy and engaged in the buying and selling of liquor, and aided by thier negro informers, invited policemen come in and drink with them and then filed charges against the policemen, having a number of them removed from office.

They employed a swarm of negro spies to entrap state and county officials in Virginia and North Carolina, and set up and operated moonshine stills.

Both the Comissioner of Internal Revenue and the United States District Attorney at Norfolk, in reporting upon the activities of these agents and their negro informers, stated that they were frequently in a high state of intoxication and in his condition they directed the activiteis of their army of negro spies to entrap the duly elected and chosen county, state and municiple officials.

Months of time, and thousands of dollars were employed in this investigation with the net result that a number of policemen were dismissed from office upon the evidence of the undercover men of the Federal Prohibition Enforcement Department and their negro spies, but not a singular prosecution (and very porley so) was instituted by the Unites States DIstrict Attorney upon the evidence they gathered.

While it is not the policy of this organization even to make suggestions to members of Congress in the matter of appropriations for the enforcement of the prohibiton law, we feel justified in protesting against this proposed legislation which would provide for the employment of spies, snoopers and informers. We feel that the employment of such measures by the Prohibition Enforcement Department can lead to nothing but contempt for our government.

It is the announced policy of the Government to depend, more and more, upon the states for the suppression of violations of the prohibition law, and it is only with the existance of good feeling between the state and federal authorities that this can be acomplished. Good feeling, most certantly, cannot exist when the Federal Enforcement Department, at the instgation of the Anti-Saloon League, employs negro spies and enters into partnerships with notorious characters for the purpose of spying upon and entrapping local officials. Such practices on the part of our Government are obnoxious not only to the communities involved, but to those of us who feel that these things are contrary to the letter as well as the spirit of the Constitution.

Legislation that provided for the employment of spies, snoopers, and informers in the enforcement of prohibition is bad in itself, but when the power of such legislation is placed in the hands of a department which has reeked with bribery, misconduct, and conspiracy, in spite of the efforts of the Treasury official charged with enforcement, it is many times worse.

We feel that this view will have the general support of drys as well as wets, and, therefore, are giving it the widest possible publicity.

Very truley yours,

National Chairman

Citation

National Headquarters Association Against Prohibition Amendment. National Headquarters Association Against Prohibition Amendment A Letter to Senator Wesley Jones regarding corruption in enforcement of prohibition March 3, 1927. Documents, 1927. https://jstor.org/stable/community.29380025.

Jeffrey Horn

Jeffrey Horn is a senior history major at Ramapo College and will graduate in May 2023. He is also a captain of the Ramapo College Swim team and aspires to become a High School history teacher after gradutation.

Charles Dean O’Banion was born on July 8, 1892, and was the youngest of three children in the O’Banion house. He was born in Maroa, Illinois, and lived there until he was about nine years old when Mrs. O’Banion passed away suddenly. O’Banion moved to a neighborhood in Northside Chicago named Kilgubbin, better known as “Little Hell”. It was a predominantly Irish neighborhood and was well known for its high crime levels. As he grew up O’Banion sang in the church choir at the families local church, but that is not where the youngster wanted to be. The street life had already caught O’Banion’s eye and he was hooked. He and some of his friends from the neighborhood became “sluggers” who were enforcers for newspaper companies and would beat news stand owners who did not sell the newspaper of the company they worked for. When O’Banion got a little older he started working at a resturant where he would sing for the crowds of people while his friends would pick pocket customers and spike thier drinks so that could rob them again when they were about to leave the resturant.

Prohibition and the Chicago Bootlegging Operation

As America became engulfed in the new law of prohibiton of 1920 which limited the production and sale of liquor people started to try and find a way to get around the system and make some money in the process. “Dion” O’Banion, as he became known in the news is credited with having commited the first liquor hijaking in Chicago where he knocked out the driver, stole the whiskey and other liquor in the truck, and resold it to the saloon owners. He then went on to construct the first bootlegging ring in Chicago using supliers and drivers from Canada as a way to import the liquor. O’Banion’s reputation grew along with the succsess of the bootlegging ring and he rose up to become the leader of the North Side Gang which controlled the north side of Chicago and the Gold Coast, a rich area on Lake Michigan.

O’Banion was in control of the entire Chicago bootlegging operation and was rolling success, and was operating without any competion. That was until the south side Italian mob of Chicago wanted in on the action and profits. O’Banion met with the leader of the Chicago Outfit, “Papa” Johnny Torrio, and his liutenent Al Capone. The two sides agreed to peace in the city and coperation, O’Banion would maintain control of the north side of Chicago and the Gold Coast and on top was given a percentage of a casino in the south side of Chicago named The Ship, and would essentially allow the south side to be in the bootlegging ring but not sell on each others turf. The two parties lived peacefully for several years until south siders were reportedly selling in northern territory. O’Banion went to Torrio to complain but he did nothing and tensions began to rise in Chicago. The final straw between O’Banion and Torrio was the Seiben Brewery Raid in May of 1924. O’Banion had learned that the police were going to raid the Seiben Brewery, where he and Torrio had massive stakes in. Upon hearing this news, O’Banion went to Torrio to sell his share and hav eno attachments to the brewery. Torrio agreed, and when the police raided the place and arrested everyone O’Banion got off easy, unlike Torrio who had to pay bail for himself and many other associates and face court. He also asked O’Banion for the money back that he lent him but he refused, producing further tension.

Death and Rememberance

The tensions in Chicago never cooled off and on November 10, 1924 O’Banion was shot by three assins that were sent by south side affiliate Anglo Genna. Genna set up the attack after a very heated phone call between the two men occured on November 3rd. O’Banion’s death led to a five year violent all out gang war in Chicago that’s high point was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre that occured in 1929. The precident and ground work that O’Banion set up the future of all gangster activity and bootlegging in Chicago. He was also the spark that lit the Chicago gangster scene of the 1920s.

Something that O’Banion is also credited for is the intorduction of the Tommy Gun into Chicago. During the summer of 1924, O’Banion and his wife were taking a trip to Colorado where they stayed on a dude ranch for an extended period of time. Upon thier trip back to Chicago, O’Banion purchsed a large amount of fire arms in Denver to bring back. Among the weapons purchsed was the Thompson Submachine Gun, known for being very small in size the guns were originally used by farmers to deal with preditors and rodents in their crop fields. O’Banion was killed before he ever got the chance to try of the guns out, but one of the northside gang members is credited with being the first to use the submachine gun in Chicago during an assination attempt in September 1925.

Bibliography

“Dean O’Banion.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia foundation, April, 21,2023. https://https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_O%27Banion

“Dean O’Banion.” The Mob Museum, November 10, 2018. https://themobmuseum.org/notable_names/dean-obanion/

Jeffrey Horn

Jeffrey Horn is a senior history major at Ramapo College and will graduate in May 2023. He is also a captain of the Ramapo College Swim team and aspires to become a High School history teacher after gradutation.

Sources

The website provides a plethora of primary sources, in the form of the previously mentioned picture collection that spans a wide range of events and cultural ways of life as the 1920s ended. All of the pictures are cited to where they were taken prior to the collection.

Creator

The creator of the website is a very well-known, respected, and reliable organization. PBS was founded in 1969 and made its first television appearance on October 5, 1970. PBS’ purpose is to educate and entrain the American public in multiple different facets of history and pop culture.

Using the Website

The website is extremely easy to use and very straight foreword. The website is also very simplistic and only has a brief explanation and the collection of photographs. Their are no opportunities to dig any deeper into the site which adds simplictiy.

“Freshness” of the Website

There is no specific date as to when the page of the website was published I can confidently say that the page of the website was not published this year. However, the website states that the information is kept up to date from its creation till today.

Trustworthyness

I do beleive the website is trustworthy because of the long standing reputation of the website and the creditable citations of the pictures. The only questionablity of the site is the fact that is so minimal and basic, it would be better if there was more perhaps.

Use for Research

The website can be used for research because of the pictures directly from the 1920s. Someome can look at the photographs and see exactly how a person lived or experienced an event at the end of the 1920s.

Jeffrey Horn

Jeffrey Horn is a senior history major at Ramapo College and will graduate in May 2023. He is also a captain of the Ramapo College Swim team and aspires to become a High School history teacher after gradutation.

Babe Ruth, whose real name was George Herman, was born on February 6, 1895, in Baltimore, Maryland. For as big of a star Ruth was during his life, there are not many details about his life growing up. However, what is known is that his family is of German descent and that he grew up speaking german with his family. It is also known that Ruth was not a well-behaved child and was sent to St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys where he would learn discipline, get an education, and learn a trade by the time he graduated. But Ruth would learn another skill that was not part of the curriculum at the school. St. Mary’s had recreational sports for the students and encouraged their students to play. It is recorded by one of the school officials that Ruth was laughing at the other students’ attempts at playing baseball. When pushed onto the field to see if he could do better, he shined and the school official who witnessed the event allowed Ruth to travel off school grounds with the team to play baseball.

The Rise of Babe Ruth on the Diamond

A year after he graduated from St. Mary’s Ruth signed with a minor-league baseball team that was based in Baltimore and an affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Ruth continued to shine and surprise his coaches and teammates. He dominated in all of the Spring Training games he participated in, and when the regular season rolled around he was the number one pitching option and number one hitting option for the Baltimore Orioles. The team did well, but not well enough to sustain any profits, leading the owner of the Orioles to sell Ruth to the Boston Red Sox where his career would inevitably takeoff. Ruth rose in popularity and his early success fueld Boston to three World Series titles, the most consecutive titles the Red Sox had one in a five year span. However Ruth’s time in a Red Sox uniform was cut short due to the organization selling Ruth to the New York Yankees, an event that sparked the longest running sports curse in any sport. The Curse of the Bambino, as it became known, was the excuse for the lack of playoff appearances and World Series titles for the Boston Red Sox after the sale of Babe Ruth to the yankees. In fact the Red Sox did not make the playoffs after winning the World Series in 1918 until 1946 and did not win another World Series title until 2004.

Babe takes on the Big Apple and the Roaring ’20s

Putting Boston behind him, Ruth transitioned full time to an outfielder and because he was no longer pitching his hitting numbers sky rocketed. He single handedly changed the culture of baseball from a long dragged out grind, to a high scoring exciting affair. In his first season with the Yankees he surpased his previous single-season homerun record that he set in 1919 with a new record of 54 homeruns, on top of that, no other player in baseball hit more than 19 homeruns. “The Great Bambino” set himself miles away from everyone else, but he was not finished. In just his second year in New York he set the 1921 season on fire by putting up statistics that had never been heard or thought about until he produced them, for example, Ruth drove in 171 RBIs (Runs Batted In), scored 177 runs himself, had a batting percentage of .376 which is very good even today, a slugging percentage of .846, and he broke the single-season homerun record for the third year in a row with a new total of 59. The 1921 season was also the first season since Ruth’s arrival that the Yankees would reach the playoffs and while they did not win, they did reace the World Series.

Ruth’s domination continued throughout the 1920s and he became such a huge part of the Yankees and New York sports culture that when a new stadium was built in 1923 it was deemed “The House that Ruth Built”. Outside of New York Babe made the Yankees the most recognizable and cheered for team across the United States and which ever foreign countries wanted to hear about professional sports in the U.S. Ruth continued his homerun success leaving fans and players in aw as the ball flew high and far out of the stadium or into the crowd. After previously breaking the single-season homerun record three consecutive years in a row, he did not tough it, until 1927 when he broke it and set it for the last time in his lifetime with a new number of 60. A record that would not be broken until 1974. Along with immense personal success, “The Sultin of Swat” and his homeruns propelled the Yankees to the start of thier winning culture and dynasty. The New York Yankees had not won a playoff game or even reached the playoffs for that matter until the 1921 season, Babe Ruth’s best season statistacly. During Ruth’s fourteen seasons with the Yankees the “Bronx Bombers” would go on to win four World Series titles.

Overview

Babe Ruth was an American and baseball icon during his time in the major leagues. He singly handedly boosted the popularity of baseball in the 1920s with his homerun hitting ability and overal superhuman ability at the plate. Ruth would finish his career in 1935 with the Boston Braves. In an overall view of Ruth’s career he would retire with seven World Series titles, one AL MVP (American League Most Valuable Player), fifty six major league records, was inaugurated into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, had his number 3 retired by the Yankees, and inducted into the Bosoton Red Sox team Hall of Fame. Ruth would lose a battle to cancer on August 18, 1948 and to this day is still an important figure in American Baseball.

Jeffrey Horn

Jeffrey Horn is a senior history major at Ramapo College and will graduate in May 2023. He is also a captain of the Ramapo College Swim team and aspires to become a High School history teacher after gradutation.

Overview

The “War to end all Wars” had ended, not before devastating Europe and inflicting massive amounts of suffering on the people. The Paris Peace Conference met in January of 1919 and immediately got to work creating ways to resurrect the European countries devastated by the war. The conference, which ended with the Treaty of Versailles, did not include the enemy powers of World War I and dished out harsh punishment and an impossible amount of reparations they needed to be paid by Germany. As the conference went on and the world tried to resume life and rebuild a question that seemed minuscule rose throughout Europe and to the Americas, who would host the Olympics? The games had not taken place since 1912 in Stockholm since the 1916 games that were to be held in Berlin but were canceled due to the First World War raging through Europe, and Germany being one of the war’s aggressors. The decision was made by the Fourteenth International Olympic Committee to award Belgium with the 1920 games due to the excessive suffering the people of Belgium had faced during Germany’s occupation and oppression of the country. It was also seen as an opportunity to rebuild Belgium and celebrate the perseverance shown by the Belgian people during World War I.

Significance

The games were of great significance because it was the first time since World War I that countries around the world converged together for peace. The theme of unity and peace was made the focal point of the games and shown in many different aspects, for example, these were the first games to use the Olympic flag which has the five interlocking rings that represent the five continents and unity. The creator of the flag, and the modern Olympic Games, Pierre de Coubertin wanted it to also be a symbol of unity and cooperation through sports. So that if all else is failing in the world, sports and the Olympics could be a sign of unity. The Antwerp games were also the first Olympic Games where athletes said the Olympic oath which states that athletes will compete respectfully and without discrimination or hate toward others. Doves were released for the first time at the opening ceremony to symbolize peace further, and it was the first game to use a lifted platform gold, silver, and bronze medal ceremony. The 1920 games also included art competitions to show the importance of the culture and creativity of individual countries and to send a message of peace and moving towards a brighter future, along with athleticism to promote friendly competitions without the use of arms and violence. There were multiple locations for the athletic events that took place during the months of the games in Antwerp. The game organizers and Belgian officials were very particular about the venues that were chosen so that the spectators and the entire world could witness the beauty, resilience, and best of Belgium even after being harshly oppressed during World War I. Below is a map that outlines the specific locations of some of the events that took place during the 1920 Summer Olympic Games, and there is a picture associated with each location to give a visual of what the “stages” looked like for the athletes.

Overview

The 1920 games were a beacon of peace and unity for years to come and reminder that no matter no matter what is happening in the world, or if it descending into chaos, sport and the Olympics will always be an event for a staple of unity.

Bibliography

“Antwerp 1920 Summer Olympics-Athletes, Medals & Results.” Olympics.com. Accessed March 2023. https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/antwerp-1920.

Olympic games. Accessed April 2023. https://www.sport-olympic.gr/sp/index.php/olympic-games.

Jeffrey Horn

Jeffrey Horn is a senior history major at Ramapo College and will graduate in May 2023. He is also a captain of the Ramapo College Swim team and aspires to become a High School history teacher after gradutation.

After the devastation of the first World War, America experienced a decade of prosperity and joyousness while Europe was in pieces and doing its best to rebuild. During the 1920s Americans spent more money than air breathed on events that would raise a person’s morale. Two of the main events of interest were movie theaters and baseball games. Movie theaters rose in popularity due to a sale that was given to the people of two screen shoes and one live show for one price of 25 cents. The sport of Baseball was also taking flight due to Babe Ruth and his seemingly inhuman ability to hit home runs out of the park. Home runs and Ruth’s emergence packed the stands in stadiums across the country with every person that went hoping they would get a chance to see a home run or catch the ball.

Of course not everything was joyous and sunshine even with so much positivity in the air in the United States there were equal things taking place that had the complete opposite effects. One of the main things that dampened the positivity was the banning of the sale of alcohol, otherwise known as Prohibition. The United States government deemed alcohol an evil and that it was poisoning Americans so they banned the sale of it and its use at bars. While the ban did initially stop the sale and consumption of alcohol it did not last as people became more clever and began to smuggle or produce alcohol illegally. The men that were largely in charge of the illegal smuggling of alcohol were gangsters, and these gangsters would become so powerful that the government struggled to sniff out and stop the gangsters. As it turned out, the only ones capable of stopping gangsters were other gangsters that were greedy for more control, money, and power. All of these things and more describe the 1920s in its most basic form and are the foundation ideas of what the 1920s mean to me.

Jeffrey Horn

Jeffrey Horn is a senior history major at Ramapo College and will graduate in May 2023. He is also a captain of the Ramapo College Swim team and aspires to become a High School history teacher after gradutation.