Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1919-01-17

Washington, jan. lb.=R Ratihcatloh
 today of the Federal constitutional
 prohibition amendment made the
 United States the first great power to
 take legislative action to permanently
 stop the liquor traffic.
 Affirmative action of some of the ten state legislatures yet to act is predict ed by prohibition advocates. Discussion as to whether the new amendment becomes part of the con stitution now that 36 states have rati- fled it. or whether if becomes a part of the basic law only when each state
 has certified it's action to the secre tary of state, led today q search for
 precedent which showed that only two
 amendments ratified in the last half
 century, providing for income taxes
 and direct election if senators, were
 considered effective immediately the Seth state had taken affirmative ac-
 ton. Senator Sheppard, author of the prohibition amendment, held that Ma tional prohibition becomes perma- nent fact January 18th, 1920. New problems of government are
 raised by prospective stippage of the l man afacture and sale of. intoxicating 1 .igror, as hundreds of millions of dol 1 lars derived from s intArnal reyehue ts~fIi have ito besSbta&A Sfronf other
 sources. Laws for enfo' 4o q of the
 amendment also will h& @oe pass
 ed by congress. ~Se
 is o"ls expected "'"'ire to result, lfhe cnmula
 tive severity of successive restrictive oip ho hp- gan already has caused many distil- leries and brewers to seek other uses for their plants. Hundreds of millions
 of dollars are invested in distilleries
 and breweries.
 Half of Nation LOClI Option
 More than half the territory of the
 United States already is dry through
 state legislation or local option elec- tions. Until recently, the movement of limited quantities of liquor for
 personal use was permitted, but the
 supreme court ruled several days ago. that the Reed "bone dry'' amendment made such traffic illegal.
 Western and southern states took
 the lead in prohibition. In the West, only California, and Wyoming
 still license the sale of intoxicants and in the south only Louisiana. The re- maining wet states form belt through
 the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys to New England, the states including
 Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin. Ken
 lucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania. Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massa- chusetts, Vermont and New Hamp- shire.
 Chicago, Jan. 16-The United States today completed the legislative process of voting itself dry. When word was flashed over the wires that the thirty
 sixth state, Nebraska, had ratified the
 prohibition amendment, prohibition
 leaders declared that the accomplish
 ment was the greatest piece of moral
 legislation in the history of the world. The amendment to the federal con stitution prohibiting the manufacture
 and sale of intoxicating beverages be-
 comes effective one year after the date of it's final ratification. Meanwhile the nation goes dry July 1, next, by pres
 idential proclamation as war meas
 ure, unless the president rescinds it before that date.
 Congress passed the resolution sub-
 hitting the amendment to the various
 state legislatures in the midst of the seething preparations for war in 1917.
 The senate adopted the resolution Au- gust 1 by vote of 65 to 20 and the
 lower house on December IT, by 2S2 to 128.
 The legislature of Mississippi was
 the first to ratify, on January 8, 1918.
 Fourteen other states took similar ac-
 tion during that year, the last Louis-
 jana, ratifying on August 8. In the fall elections the wet or dry
 question was paramount in most Of the remaining states. but the vote left
 no doubt that the United States was destined to be the first great nation to veto liquor The ban on vodka in
 Russia was never completely effective,
 nor did it interfere materially with the consumption of more expensive 1 liquors. Russian advices now state that the Bolshevists have restored the vodka traffic.
 Michigan was the first state to rati- l fv in 1919, the legislature voting on January 9. From that date to today legislatures have acted rapidly. Five states ratified yesterday, bringing the number up to thirty-five. Other leg