The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1920-07-15
D. PIONEER
ON PROHIBITION
An Historical Resume by Isaac Pear.
son, Federal Prohibition DE-
rector

a red letter day for prohibition. On
that day the Supreme Court of the
United States handed down it's unani-
nous opinion that the 18th amend
ment to the constitution had been Is,
sally rauiled; and also, that the Vol
stead-Sterling Act, the National Pro-
hibition Enforcement Act, was con-
5%titutional.
The ratification of the 18th Amend
ment was preceded by more general
study and more extended discussion
than any law affecting the whole
people. This new constitutional pro-
vision is quite revolutionary In It's
nature, and, if effectively enforced,
will work a change now little apprc-
ciated The next generation will be
better judges of its good Or evil than
we of the present.
The genesis of this amendment may
be said to go back before the consti-
tuition itself was adopted and becams
the organic chart of our liberty ana
government. For on February "a,
1774, lac years ago, the Continental
Congress adopted this resolution
against the increasing evil of strong
drink:
Resolved, That it be recommended
To the several legislatures of the Un-
tied States Immediately to pass laws
Inc most ~effectual for putting an I'm
mediate stop to the pernicious prac~
lice of distilling grain by which the
most extensive evils are likely to be
derived if not quickly prevented"
But the passage of the resolution
did not put a stop to the "pernicious
practise for intemperance continued
10 grow till about 1925. From relia-
bic sources it appears that the con-
sumption of ardent spirits in 1892
amounted to 2h gallons for every per-
son including women, children and
slaves; in 1910, 4 7-10 gallons; in
1928, ~ gallons.
Now a revulsion came, and the war
for temperance and prohibition began.
In 1929, 222 temperance societies had
beer formed. There were secret oath
bound temperance orders Total aO-
~stinence pledges we're taken. Numer-
Gus societies we're organized to carry
on the campaigning. These included
the Good Templars, TempIars or Hon
or and Temperance, Roman Catholic
Total Abstinence Union OF America,
Sons of Temperance, The Woman's
Christian Temperance Union, and
many others. Lastly came the Anti
Saloon League Of today. In 1898 there
we're 16 temperance newspapers in
"arious parts of the country. The
churches, led by the aMethodists,
Friends, and Presbyterians, took up
he cause, amending their books of
discipline denouncing "intemperance."
In the SOS an era of licensing and
regulation set in. The regulation
were as various as can be imagined,
from punching the bell in Virginia
for every drink sold over the bar to
the state d~ispensary system in South
Carolina, and the mulct law of Iowa,
and local option The wet advocates
have generally favored local option
laws, but these proved abortive fol
liguors were conveyed from wet terri
tories into dry territories. Finally
the proniDitionists denounced all
these as makeshifts and advocated ma
tion-wide prohibition as the only sure
relief from strong drink.
In 1875 Henry w. Blair, a member
of Congress from New Hampshire, IN
t-oduced a bill for national prohibi-
ticn. AS a senator in 1887 he propos-
ed a similar measure.
BEFORE the 18th amendment to the
constitution was submitted to the
people. prohibition laws had been en-
acted by "a states. These states en-
braced about three-fifths Of our popu
lation and four-ffths of or territory
| South Dakota was admitted with a dry
constitution The Act approved Feb
ruary 81, 1917, provides statewide
prohibition most effectually. 1t is one
of the most stringent dry laws enacted
by any state.
Before the 18th amendment could b.
acted on by the people it had to b
| submitted by not less than two-third'
CT both houses of congress. 1t wal
| ratified by as of the AZ states, or near
" the ratio of 16 to 1, and by the vot'
of the members of several legislature
OF 5026 in favor of ratification to ia
against, or more than four to n II
favor Of prohibition.
Congress in xercising its power
under the amendment passed the Vol
lstead-Sterling Act October 2S. 1919. i
~.niorce the mandate OF the people tina