Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1917-08-15
w. C. T. U. ITEMS
Bone Dry

vision of Ezekiel related in the thirty
seventh chapter. The prophet tells
US that he was carried in a trance
like dream to valley strewn with
dry bones. But he notes that the
bones were not only dry; they were
very" dry. For a long time locali-
ties that had refused license, wheth-
er by plebiscite or by municipal au-
thorities, had been spoken of as "dry"
communities. But as these were Of
ten surrounded by places which were
wet" they were seldom Every dry"
West Virginia, which as a state put
up a stout fight against the traffic,
consists in large part of triangle
wedged in between two states which
were, and still are, decidedly SWEET"
Thereupon West Virginia passed a
law so drastic against the shipment
of liquor into its "dry" territory
from any "wet" territory that the law
finally went to the supreme court,
which body was called upon to decide
whether it did or did not infringe up
on the constitutional commerce. The
court declared West Virginia had a
constitutional right to protect its
boundaries of stuffs that could not be
legally sold there. The jubilant citi-
zens who had won their battle now
declared that their state was not only
"dry" but Every dry" in fact, "as
dry as a bone"-which was soon
shortened into "bone dry" The man
in the street caught on to the phrase
and now any state that not only for
bids the sale of liquors but the ship
ment of liquors in its territory is
designated as a "bone dry" state.
CD NH LaI
the sale but not the shipment of Ii
doors are all fastening to add that
feature to previous legislation, and
without doubt all dry" states will
soon be "bone dry" commemorative
protected by legal provisions that
certainly give them a prohibition that
this time does prohibit.
A Dry Washington
In January of the present year a
bill prohibiting the manufacture or
sale of intoxicating liquors anywhere
within the District of Columbia was
introduced by Senator Sheppard. The
bill was passed with no marked OPP
position through the Senate, turned
over to the House-and promptly
"put to Sleep" The most determin-
ed foes it had to face were on the
committee to which it was consigned,
and they were determined to kill it by
not reporting it, knowing that the
session would close soon and the bill
would expire with the expiration of
the Congress which initiated it. All
the "wets," who controlled the COM
mittee, had to do was to "sit tight"
for a few weeks and the bill would
be dead as Scipio Africanus.
But the reform bureau, which the
churches maintain at Washington,
understands the rules of the game
even better than most members of
Congress themselves, and when it was
evident the House committee to
which the bill was referred had no
intention of permitting vote on it,
the friends of the bill, knowing that
they had a majority in the House,
secured favorable action on the part
of the House committee on rules and
by taking the bill from the hands of
the hostile committee of "wets" fore
ed vote on the main question. Thus
the bill was passed which makes
Washington "dry" city November 1,
1917, and having been engrossed, il
was hurried to the President for his
signature before the hours of the
Congress could expire. The oppose
ton tried to load il down with un-
constitutional amendments" but,
defeated in this, they tried to get a
referendum" submitting the bill to
the people Of Washington, in spite Of
the fact that Washington was not
"wetv by its own will and that Con-
gress is the sole legal authority in
the District.