The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1919-02-07
Formal Action BY Acting Secre-
tary of State Polk
WIN. ]. BRYAN AT CEREMONY
Memorable Document Signed In The
Presence OF Senator Sheppard,
William Jennings Bryan
And Others.

Washington The eighteenth amend
ment to the Constitution, having been
formally ratified by the legislatures
of three-fourths Of the forty-eight
states of the Union, was officially pro-
claimed. Frank L. Polk, acting
secretary of State, issued the procla-
nation setting forth, first the text of
the Joint resolution as it passed the
Congress, then announcing the names
of thirty-six states whose legislatures
had ratified it, and finally announcing
that the amendment has become
valid to all intents and purposes as
a part of the Constitution. The text
of the proclamation follows:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRES
ENTS SHALL COME
GREETING:
Know We that the Congress of the
United States, at the second session,
Sixty-fifth Congress, begun at Wash
ington on the third day of December
in the year one thousand nine hum
dred and seventeen passed a resolu-
ton in the words and figures follow
ing to wit:
Joint resolution proposing an
amendment to the Constitution of the
United States:
Resolved by the Senate and House
of Representative of the United
States of America, in Congress as
sembled (two-thirds of each house
concurring therein), that the follow
ing amendment to the Constitution
be and hereby is proposed to the
States, to become valid as part OF
the Constitution 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 importa-
ton thereof from the United States,
and all territory subject to the juris-
diction thereof, for beverage purposes
is hereby prohibited.
Section 2.-The Congress and the
several States shall have concurrent
power to enforce this article by ap-
propriate legislation.
Section 3.-This article shall be in
operative unless it shall have been
ratified as an amendment to the Con-
stitution by the Legislatures of the
several States, as provided in the Con-
stitution, within seven years from the
date of the submission hereof to the
States by the Congress.
And, further, that it appears from
official documents on file in this De-
partment that the amendment to the
Constitution Of the United States
proposed as aforesaid has been rati-
fed by the Legislatures of the States
of Alabama, Arizona, California, Colo
RADIO, Delaware. Florida, Georgia.
Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Ken
lucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts,. Michigan, Minnesota,
Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New
Hampshire, North Carolina, North
Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon,
South Dakota, South Carolina, Texas,
Utah, Virginia, Washington, West vir-
ginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
And, further, that the States whose
Legislatures have so ratified the said
proposed amendment constitute three
fourths of the whole number of States
in the United States.
Now, therefore, be it known that I,
Frank L. Polk, Acting Secretary of
State of the United States, by virtue
and in pursuance of Section 206 of the
Revised Statutes of the United States,
do hereby certify that the amendment
aforesaid has become valid to all in
tents and purposes as part of the
Constitution of the United States.
In testimony whereof have here
unto set my hand and caused the seal