Dewey County advocate. [volume] (Timber Lake, S.D.) 1910-1913, 1913-03-07
WEBB LIQUOR BILL
HITS NORTHWEST
SHIPMENTS TO INDIVIDUAL DEALER
IN DRY STATES PROHIBITED !
BY MEASURE.

sofa and the dry" states on her
west and south will be greatly in-
terested in the Webb-Kenyon liq-'
uor bill which has passed both
houses over the Taft veto, and thus
goes at once into effect. MinneaS
polls, St. Paul, Milwaukee and
Chicago, it has been estimateds
have been doing business worth
several millions of dollars a year
with individual dealers in liquor in
Iowa. the Dakotas and Kansas.
This new law will put a stop to this
kind of traffic, for every consign-
ment of liquor sent into a dry,
state, to be offered for sale in that
state map now be seized at the des-
tination point and conhscated by
the state authorities. The result,
will be that wholesale liquor deal
ers will no longer do business with
the "bootleggers" and other kinds
of illicit dealers in the dry states
for the risk will be too great and
losses must necessarily be very
heavy on such business.
This is precisely what the tenn
perance people have had in mind
and they put themselves behind the
Webb Kenyon bill with a degree
OF unanimity which was responsible
for the big majority over the veto:
in the two branches of congress-
Shipment of liquor into a dry
state for personal usesswills y
prohibited under the new law TN
less the state>in question has a law
which bars the personal use of liq-
uor.
If the state says that liquor may
not be sold as a drug, for sacra-
mental purposes or. for any other
purpose, then the Webb Kenyon
bill steps in and makes the state
law effective in case of interstate
shipments.
The Interpretation ofthe new law
was given today by Senator Ken
yon of Iowa, who was the joint
author of it. He was asked to
clear up the point which has been
in doubt as to the right of an in
dividual living in dry state to
buy liquor from wet" state and
apply it to his own use. The SEN
ator said: The Webb act does
not prohibit a Minneapolis liquor
dealer from sending whiskey into
the Dakotas for personal use. The
reason is that neither these states
nor any other has ever prohibited
the personal use of liquor, and they
never will. To prohibit such use
would be unconstitutional.
If, however, such a prohibition
should be enacted into law, and
should say that no man might
have liquor in his house for the use
of his family, and that the law
could be found constitutional, then
the Webb law would bar the ship
ment of liquor in interstate COM
merce from entering that mans
house..
The exact truth about this leg
islation is this: The Webb act
makes the interstate shipment of
liquor amenable absolutely to the
laws of the separate states, what
ever these laws may be. At pres
ent there are different laws in diff
ferent states regulating the sale and
manufacture of liquor within their
borders. Therefore the Webb act |
is general in its application.
The act is clearly constitutional
too, for the reason that congress
has an absolute and defined right
to regulate interstate commerce. |
If congress chose to declare liquor
as contraband of commerce, then
it would he SO declared and the ST.
preme court would sustain it,,
1t is very certain that the liquor