The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-26
MAKING CAPITAL DRY CAUSING WORRY ID SENATOR SHEPPARD
Loop-Hole in Law is Such That Washington Knows
 No Prohibition
By HUGH W. ROBERTS

Washington, November 25.-(Specia1.) Although strong in their. belief. that the prohibition amendment will be ratified by legislatures of states next year the pro- hibitionists in Congress are still battling. Under the guise that prohibition was a necessity on account. of war. they intro
 duced an amendment to the agricultural bill preventing manufacture of all spirits
 after July, 19l9.. When the war came. to an end they were still of the opinion that the amendment would be necessary, and
 so retained it in the. bill and thus it has
 gone to the President
 Senator Sheppard is determined that
 the District of Columbia shall be made amenable to the Reed "bone dry amend
 ment The district escaped that legis- Tlation because it is neither state nor 8 territory. The Texas senator is anxious that the loop hole be closed. Some days ago he offered an amendment to dis trict bridge bill which would have pre- vented the shipment of liquor into the district. The Senate was indulging in it's usual afternoon siesta. and the coup might have been successful but for the dry comment of the vice president that prohibition amendment occupied strange territory at the bottom of bridge bill. The Senate then aroused itself, and the amendment was hastily withdrawn. Sem ator Sheppard declared that but for the activity of the vice president he would have carried his point.
 The restlessness of Senator Sheppard is again made patent in a formal re- quest he has addressed to Senator Bank head. He desires the Alabamian to call the committee on postoffices and post roads into session for the consideration of an amendment to make the district really dry. Just what action Senator Bankhead will take is not made known. He may hesitate, however. for fear that even were his committee to agree to an amendment, there might not be a ger mane bill onto which to attach it.
 Because of the proximity of Baltimore and the inoperation of the bone dry amendment to the district, Washington Is as wet as formerly. The electric rail- way connecting the two points has been compelled to put on five new trains la beled booze trains.'' The company re- fuses to bear passengers with suspicious bundles on any other train. but inasmuch as the five are run at opportune inter vals, little inconvenience is produced. Furthermore, the Baltimore and Ohio and Pennsylvania railroads run trains every hour, and the automobile road to the oasis is very good.
 This situation. so pleasant to the ma jority of members of Congress--irrespec- tive of how they might be labeled as vot- ing members--is 8 matter of exceeding irritation to Senator Sheppard. It IS very probable that in the end he will De sue cessful in making Washington dry. Con- gress is anxious however, that vote on the proposition be postponed as long as possible. When it can no longer evade, 1t promises to take its medicine with that consuming grace with which 1t now takes it's liquor. This situation was per- fectly expressed by Senator John Sharpe Williams of Mississippi, when, on vot- ing for prohibition in the District of Co., lumbia, he ruefully remarked. No other member of Congress will be more incon- venienced by the passage of this meas ure than |.