The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-12-14
Department of Legislation and Peti-
lions.

Department OF Legislation and Pet1-
lions.
This years work in Congress against the
liquor traffic has mainly been for statutory
prohibition in the District of Columbia
and territories, the repeal OF internal reve-
nue. taxes on alcoholic beverages, and for
proposal of a Constitutional Amendment.
The Local Department had the bill pre-
pared, and assisted by other temperance
societies, did the work for prohibition in
the District of Columbia.
The proposed amendment, the 9th of
July, was favorably reported in the Senate
by the Committee on Education and
Labor, of which Senator Blair is chairman.
It will be considered in the Senate some
time during the next session. The com
mittee of the House of Representatives re-
ported it adversely. Bat a minority re-
port is on file in favor. The other meas
ures have not been reported.
The National Department dnring the
year has been making this amendment
and the repeal of internal revenue taxes
on alcoholic beverages special lines of
work. The desire is to continue in SO do
ing anti success is secured. We are
working in harmony with other temper
ance societies.
The joint resolution proposing the
amendment has been pending since the
first session of the forty-fourth Congress.
1t was first introduce by Senator Blair
when a member of the House of Repre-
sentatives and by him in every Congress
since. 1t was modified in the present
Congress so as to read as follows:
Rescued, By the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled two
thirds of each House concurring therein),
that the following amendment to the Con-
stitution of the United States be, and here
by is, proposed to the states. to become
valid when ratified by tine legislatures of
three-fourths of the several states as pro-
vided in the Constitution.
SECTION /. The manufacture, importa-
ton, expectation, transportation and sale
of all alcoholic liquors as a beverage shall
be, and hereby is, forever prohibited in the
lultGu DtdbtS anu III CftiN piatS ThpJctb
to their jurisdiction.
SECTION 2. Congress shall enforce this
article By all needful legislation.
In reporting the Senate Committee said:
The form OF the proposition as now sub
mitted has been modified so as 10 harmo-
nize the conflicting views Of its OWE
friends aud to secure, so far as the COM
.o-A4,o t. --n -. .I, ,,Ht.,raa1 ,-4n -
all who desire the national prohibition of
the traffic in alcoholic poisons made to be
used as beverages.
In regard to petitions, the report says:
Judging from the petitions that have
been presented to Congress during the last
few years, many of which are representa-
tive of great bodies, and of communities
whose individual signatures have not been
obtained, it can hardly be doubted that at
least ten millions of the American people
are DESTROYS Of national legislation for the
destruction of poisonous, that is to say, Of
alcoholic drinks.
The report then goes on to say:
These people represent a power of
thought and moral force far greater than
their mere numbers. Whoever expects to
Withstand the shock of their charge will
yet regret tina its irresistible power was
not %seasonably realized.
Elsewhere in the report 1t is said:
The agitation for national legislation for
the extirpation of the traffic in alcoholic
poison made and sold to be used as a bey-
erage, will never cease to disturb and fl
nally destroy great political parties until
they submit the question of tl,e enlarge
ment of national constitutional jurisdiction
so as to include control Of the subject.
When this proposed amendment is sub
mitted to the action of the states, the sub
.ject will pass in it's important features from
the national area to that of the several
states, until the fate of the proposed
amendment is decided. When decided, if
adversely to the ratification, the subject
will be eliminated from national politics,
at least for many years.
If, on the other hand, the proposed
amendment should be ratified and become
a part of the national law, the chief curse
Of the world would be summoned to the
block Of national justice and die by the
hand OF the only power that can WELD an
AK big and sharp enough to cut off its hydra
head. K II :
At the present time the police power in
the states is fettered and thwarted in its
efforts to suppress this evil within the
limits of the states, respectively, by the
national guarantees of protection to trans
portation and the right of manufacture and
sale existing in all the states and localities