Suggested lesson/activity:
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Begin by asking students if they or their parents or grandparents and others they knew participated in any of the following: bingo, lotteries, "numbers," parimutuel betting, casino gambling, and other forms of controlled gambling. Briefly discuss the pros and cons of these forms of legalized gambling. Discuss with the students other forms of gambling that are not legalized, and why these forms are not legalized.
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Have students read the "Saloons and the Burden Iron Works" resource and discuss the questions set forth on that worksheet.
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Display a color layer relief map of the United States that also displays the major U.S. cities. Using the map as a reference, ask students to give reasons why it was so difficult for law-enforcement officials to prevent the heavy incidence of bootlegging, moonshine distilling, and rum-running in the United States in the 1920s. Students should recall that transportation and communication had changed dramatically with the invention and widespread use of the automobile and telephone, thus changing the ways that legal and illegal business was conducted.
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Using the results of the discussion, have the class suggest how alcoholic beverages reached large American population centers in such large quantities and how so many "speakeasies" were able to operate. Because transportation, importing, distribution, sale, and consumption of these beverages were all illegal, students should see the logic of the conclusion that at least some law-enforcement authorities and government officials must have "turned their eyes away" from obvious illegal activity, or even accepted bribes to "turn a blind eye."
A Crossroads Resource:
"Saloons and the Burden Iron Works"