Cleveland County herald., 1919-01-02
NATION DRY ONLY
 AFTER LONG FIGHT
Campaign Comes to End With
 Surprising Suddenness.
BEFORE CONGRESS 40 YEARS
Sheppard Prohibition Amendment, Eighteenth to Be Adopted, Rati- fled in Less Than Thir-
 teen Months.

With a SWlftneSS that laS surprised even the most optimistic of prohibl- tion advocates the United States has voted itself dry. It has done this by voting into the federal constitution an amendment that prohibits the manu- fracture, sale or transportation of in- toxicating liquors within the United States for beverage purposes, as well as its importation into or exportation from the United States and all terri tory subject to it's jurisdiction.
 For fifty years the campaign to ob- tain prohibition either by state or fed eral legislation has been waged with out Interruption, but now the desired end has been reached by writing the prohibitory regulations into the or ganic law. In this form, owing to the difficulties attendant upon changes in the Constitution, nationwide prohibi- tion becomes more of a permanent in stitution than an experiment that could be terminated by congressional legislation.
 The Sheppard prohibition amend ment, which has just been ratified by more than three-fourths of the states of the Union, the number required to make it effective, becomes the eigh- teenth amendment to the Constitution. The resolution providing for its sub- mission to the state legislatures, intro duced by Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas, was finally adopted by congress December IS, 1917. On January 16, 1919, less than thirteen months after the adoption of the resolution by con- gross, ratification of the amendment by the states was accomplished. No other proposed amendment to tho Con- Stitution has been adopted with such speed, with the exception of that which provided for the abolition of slavery. Action on the seventeen other amendments that have been adopted has required from nine to forty-three months. The average time required has been about two years.
 The war is given the credit for has tening the adoption of prohibition in this country. The economic aspect of the question was emphasized by the war emergency, and the handwriting on the wall was seen when congress passed law providing for nation wide prohibition as war measure, to become effective July l, 1919, and to continue until the armies of the Unit ed States have been demobilized. If this law goes into effect, as contem- plated, the country will go dry July l, although the constitutional amend ment will not become effective until one year after it's ratification by the required number of state legislatures.
 Text of Amendment.
 The text of the resolution embody- ing the amendment which has now been adopted is as follows:
 JOINT RESOLUTION PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTI- TUITION OF THE UNITED, STATES.
 Resolved 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 amend ment to the Constitution be, and here by is, proposed to the states to be- come valid as a part of the Constitu- ton when ratified by the legislatures of the several states as provided by the Constitution:
 Section 1-After one year from the ratification of this article the manu- fracture, sale or transportation of in- toxicating liquors within, the impor- tation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is here by prohibited.
 Section 2-The congress and the several states have concurrent pow CT to enforce this article by appropri- ate legislation.
 Section 3-This article shall be in- operative unless 1t shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Con-