Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1919-01-23
PROHIBITION WINS.

=
AS was foreshadowed in the last is
sue of the Register, countrywide pro-
hibition for the United States is a
certainty. Forty States have ratified
the national prohibition amendment :
four more than were legally neces-
sary-and several more will doubtless
act favorably within the next few
weeks. As was stated in last weeks
paper, thirty-five Of the States had ratl.
fed up to Wednesday evening, onlv
one more being needed to clinch the
victory. Before noon on Thursday
Nebraska joined the ranks, and the
goal so long sought by temperance
workers and so earnestly worked for
and prayed for, had been reached. II
seemed especially fitting that the home
State Of William Jennings Bryan should
drive the last nail necessary, for few
men have done more for the prohibit
ton cause than Mr.. Bryan. Thursday
afternoon two more States, Missouri
and Wyoming, ratified, and on FRIDAY
Minnesota and Wisconsin climbed
aboard the water wagon, bringing the
number of ratifying States up to an
even forty.
This is the greatest moral victory
that has ever been won in the world
BY human beings. So tremendous is
the accomplishment. that few persons
have as yet grasped its full significance
1t means that on January l6, 1920
date that must forever be sacred
every saloon in the United States and
its possessions will close its doors
that il will no longer be possible legally
to manufacture, sell, transport, import
or export any intoxicating liquor any
where under the jurisdiction OF our
government. II means a bone-dry ma
ton, save for the few sporadic evasions
that will naturally be attempted, just
as every law on our statute books IL
violated or evaded by some one.
The United States is the first great
nation to definitely and conclusively
outlaw the liquor trafie-but it will NOT
be the last Right now plans are be-
ing formed for a dry world, and de-
voted men and women will carry or
the work until the temperance mil
lennium comes.
The prohibition amendment just rati-
fed goes into effect one year from the
date it was ratified by the thirty-siHt.
State. 1t will never be repealed. No
constitutional amendment once adopt
ed has ever been repealed. The liquor
people are making a considerable BLU
about having the whole thing abrogated
by the Supreme Court, but their blus,
ter will not save them. The people
this country have decreed by an ov,
whelming majority that the saloor
must go-and it is going! Forty of the
forty-eight States Of the Union have
ordered it, and the Legislatures have
simply voiced the sentiments Of the
people who elected the members there
Of.
A report has been sent out from
liquor headquarters that the distillers
and brewers will raise billion dollars
to prevent the new amendment from GO
ing into effect. Somebody has truly
remarked that whiskey Is a fool.
The following is the text of the Ma.
tional Prohibition Amendment:
Resolved by the Senate and House
Of Representatives, of the United
States of America in Congress. as
sembled 1.-TWO thirds of each House
concurring therein), that the following
amendment to the Constitution be, and
hereby is, proposed to the States, tc
become valid as part Of the Constitu-
ton when ratified by the legislatures
of the several States as provided by the
Constitution:
section /. After one year from the
ratification of this article the manu-
facture, sale or transportation of in
toxicating liquors within, the import
tation thereof into, or the expectation
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 shall have concurrent
power to enforce this article b. ap-
propriate legislation.
Section 3. This article shall be in
operative unless it shall have been rati-
fed as an amendment to the Constitu.
ton by the legislatures Of the several
States, as provided in the Constitution,
within seven years from the date Of the
submission thereof to the States by
Congress-"
The resolution was passed by the
Senate, 65 to 20, on August /, 1917,
and by the House, 2S2 to l2S, on De-
cember II, 1917. Mississippi was the
first State to ratify the amendment
its legislature acting On January s.
1918.