The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1917-02-24
PROHIBITION THAT WILL PRO-
HiBlT.

The passage OF the Reed amend
ment by towering majority in the
house, following its emphatic appro-
val BY the senate, means that at last
there will be pornibition which really
prohibits, says the Atlanta Journal.
Under the terms OF this far reaching
measure it will be a crime punishable
by heavy penalties for any person TO
order purchase or cause intoxicating
liquors TO be transported in interstate
commerce, except for scientific, sac
ramental, medicinal or mechanical
purposes" into any state or territory
whose laws forbid the manufacture
or sale therein OF intoxicating liquors
for beverage purposes There il no
installing the significance OF this iron
clad embargo. It puts federal power
behind state laws which have been
largely futile. 1t parts the dry states
and the wet states as enectually as
ever the sheep shall be divided from
the goats.
When the Reed amendment goes
into effect, the tide Of whiskey, wine
and beer which now flows into Geor-
gia as regular as, the fulling OF the
moon, will cease; so, too, with the
fourteen other prohibition states
where liquor now can be imported
legally. Easy going pratense will
give way to hard and fast reality
TransgressionB OF the statute there
doubtless win be, but for the most
part every state that has adopted, or
in the future adopts prohibition will
be free from any outside interference
or temptation in enforcing it's law TO
the letter A porblem which hereto
fore has been OF an interstate char
acter is narrowed to the individual
state. Through the Webb.Kenyon act,
sustained some months ago by the
supreme court. those states which ex
pressly prohibited the importation of
liquor were guaranteed federal sup
port in the enforcement of their en-
barge, and that was a long step to-
ward eifectual prohibition. But the
Reed amendment goes much further
and by one stroke raises an adaman-
tine wall against the shipping of liquor |
Into states which forbid its manufac- |
ture or sale within their borders, |
whether or not they expressly forbid |
its Importation Thus the power and |
the responsibility of making prohibit |
tion actual instead OF merely nomi |
nal, and complete instead of fragmen
tary is placed squarely upon the in
dividual state This amendment dis
poses, OF course, of every semblance
OF need for an extra session of the
Georgia legislature to pass u bone
dry" bill.
The economic effect of the new law
viii be OF much importance, for ii
will keep within the dry states mil
lions of dollars which have drifted to
wet territory, a total and permanent
loss to the communities whence it
was drawn Infinitely more impor
tant, however, viii be the moral ef
feet OF the new law. not only as an
aid to genuine prohibition in states
now dry. but also as powerful in
fmence for the extension OF prohibi
ton throughout the union, The liquor
traffic has received the hardest, heav
lest blow OF its history. Barred from
interstate commerce in more than a
score of states, ii will face q contin
ually widening prescription and con
tinuaIly dwarang profits, Unless all
omens fail. there will be nationwide
prohibition in the United States with
in comparatively a few years,
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TIE INAUGURAL IN WASHINGTON