The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-01-26
HOW BONEDRY
LAW SWEPT ALL
OVER AMERICA
Sudden Passage of Prohibi-
ton Amendment Interest
ing Light on Politics.
CRUSADERS TO KEEP ON
Possession of Any Liquor to Be
Fought and War May Be
Made on Cigarettes.

As matters stand to-day within few
weeks after January Is. 1920, the United
States OF America land all territory SUD-
ject TO the jurisdiction thereon Will be-
come bone dry under an amendment or
the Federal Constitution. The ratifi-
cation OF the amendment was insured on
January 16 last by the favorable vote
OF Nebraska, the thirty-siSth S'ate
Legislature thus to act This completed |
the needed three-fourths of the States.
1t was hastily assumed by many com
mentators that the amendment was 10
be law and in force 365 days after Mr..
Bryan's State clinched its passage. inc
time may possibly be a trifie longer. Tho
Secretaries Of state of the States must
certify TO the National Secretary of state
that ratification took place. The ma
tional Secretary Of State must proclaim
the Constitution ratified. After that
Congress- or the legislatures. or both.
must pass laws putting the ratified
amendment Into effect.
Some of this may run over the limit
of the fiscal year ending January 16,
1920, and court proceedings begun by
the liquor people with intent to gain
delays are more than likely to stave
the drought off still further. In the
end. and in the not too remotely distant
end. so far as can now be foreseen,
the amendment will be law and the law
will be in force. Then the only way 20
kill the law will be to pass a second
amendment multiplying the first. And
that the most hopeful anti-prohibition
man does not sincerely expect to live
TO see.
Texas senator Wrote 1t.
The Congressional resolution to SUBJ
nit the amendment was written by Sena-
tor Morris Sheppard OF Texas. a typical
prohibition advocate in Americ legis-
lation Congress adopted the resolution
In December. 1917 II embodied the
proposed amendment. which follows:
Section One-After one year from
the ratification of this article the
manufacture. sale or transpor' alton
OF Intoxicating liquors within, the im-
portation thereof into or the cxDorta.
ton thereof from the United States
and all territory subject to the jur!s-
diction thereof for beverage purposes
is prohibited.
Section Two-The CONGRESS and the
several States shall have concurrent
power to enforce this article by ap-
propriate legislation.
Section Three-This article shall be
imperative unless il shall have been
ratified an amendment TO the Con-
stitution by the Legislatures OF the
several States as provided by the Con-
stitution within seven years from the
date OF the submission thereof to tho
States by the Congress.
Just what concurrent power" in Sec
ton Two may mean is already the sub
sect OF controversy. and that phrase is
likely to become legal battlefield. Tn
lar no
hibition laws each for It's own territory.
-gAe dry people are already at work
drafting the laws. Such announcements
as have come from them indicate no
magnanmity toward the fallen Demon
Rum. II they specify the amount OF
alcohol a beverage may contain they
will put II so low that not even the
brewers. eager to save their business py
manufacturing some kind OF a drink
that will find 4 sale as beer. can make
an acceptable near beer within the law.
Would Hunt Out All Liquor.
The dry vctors also mean to have II
written definitely into the law books
whether or not man may age his cider
to the biting point, IL only for his pri-
vate consumption whether or not his
wife may brew dandelion wine. etc. II
they have their way. and they conf
IDENTIFY expect to, 1t won't be whether"
but mot" in all such questions. Also
they are talking OF legislation to en-
power the agents OF the law to search
anybody's premises at any time and
confiscate for destruction all ''into1i-
eating beverages" which may be found
under the woodpile or in the EaiTCloth
sofa cushions in the attic.
The president OF the w c. T. u. has
been quoted to the effect that the next
thing to prohibit is the manufacture
and sale of cigarettes. But the dry 60
cieties generally. led by the Anti-Saloon
League, which more than any other
agency engineered the prohibition tri-
umph. are laying their plans and mus
tering their strength TO have the new
Federal law str!uEently enforced and
to carry the war all around the world.
This article will not attempt 10 ex-
plain how national prohibition has so
abruptly Overcome us like summer
cloud" but merely to recapitulate the
history of temperance and prohibition
7 in America. The first attempt at national
prohibitive legislation was made In 1777,
when the Continental Congress at Phila-
delphia adopted the following resolution
Resolved. That il he recommended
to the several legislatures in the
United States Immediately to pass
laws the most effectual for putting an
immediate stop to the pernicious prac-
tice OF distillng grain by which the
most extensive evils are likely TO be
derived II not quickly prevented.
Not quite a hundred years later, on
December 81. 1876, Representative Blair
OF New Hampshire, later a United
States Senator, introduced into the
Forty-fourth Congress the first Congress
sional resolution for prohibition
amendment to the Federal Constitution.
He reintroduced It in the Forty fifth,
Forty-sixth, Forty-seventh and Forty
eighth Congresses, In each of which he
was a member OF the House. and then
in the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth and Fifty
first Congresses. in each of which he
was a member OF the Senate
In the last three Congresses men
toned the resolution was favorably re-
ported by the Senate Committee on Edu-
cation and Labor. but It never reached
vote
First Really "Dry" Ma lion.
The United States is the first great
nation enjoying popular representative
government to vote itself utterly dry. |
There has been a popular impression !
that this distinction belongs to Russia. /.
hag st