Prohibition and the Scopes Trial

Do you think the passage of the Volstead Act and the ruling in the Scopes trial represented genuine triumphs for traditional values? Think About:

• changes in urban life in the 1920s
• the effects of Prohibition
• the legacy of the Scopes trial

Yes, I do think that the passage of the Volstead Act and the ruling in the Scopes trial represented genuine triumphs for traditional values. I think that in both cases the debates needed to be compromised for the country was moving into a more modern and varied country. People were now perfering cities over small towns and many immigrants were coming from all over with different backrounds. Though, with the Volstead Act I think it was a triumph in the fact that they learned it was a bad idea. With the Volstead Act it just created more crime, and cost more money so the fact that it proved to prohibitionists that it isn't a good idea. There were speakeasies all over selling illegal alcohol and people like Al Capone who would kill to make money off of smuggling alcohol. I think if they didn't try out the Volstead Act then prohibitionists would try to fight with the Act and there wouldn't have been valid arguements against wife and child abuse. By trying out the Volstead Act they learned that prohibition would not solve the problem.
The ruling of the Scopes trial was also a triumph because with all the new migrants and immigrants in America a lot of people had different views as to how the earth, people and animals came to be. The ruling was a good compromise for religion versus science in evolution. It made it fair to all in how teachers discussed evolution in school, that doesn't offend anyone. It was a tradition to not discuss scientific evolution in school but since the U.S. now had people with all different views and was becoming more modern it was time for a fair compromise. I feel both the Act and the ruling helped overcome traditional values.