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?

Yes, it did present genuine triumph for traditional values because often in rural America they were very religious and believed that drinking, and the teaching of evolution was a sin. While they did believe that alcohol was a sin, they also believed that its cause wife and child abuse, crime, and accidents while working. What was partially true, but could have just been another excuse to bring down urban drinking and pass this prohibition was that it endangered peoples health. What was a big factor of why they wanted the prohibition was that during world war I, a lot of brewers in America were German-Americans, leading native-born Americans to feel prejudice against buying their alcohol. This was a big truimph for traditional values because it hurt the urban (the new) ideas and practices.

In the Scopes trail, a man by the name of John T. Scopes was arrested for teaching evolution, but not in a religious stand point. he said that "creation" may be from cells, he looked at it from a science stand point. Fundamentalists were horrified of the thought of evolution and were out raged at Scopes for teaching their children this was, a sin. even though Scopes said that the bible may be interpreted in several ways, he was still found guilty and fined $100. The was a truimph for tradition because it stuck to the religion and gave no new ideas, such as evolution.