Evening star., 1942-10-30
Recalls How Nation
Went Dry in 1918
Writer ExpIoins How Liquor
Wus Bored Even Before
Amendments Ratification
By Bertrdm Benedict.

Amen0ment N0tlIlCot10n
By Bertram Benedict.
Prohibition in and around Army and
Navy posts was debated in the Senate on
Thursday of last week. The debate was
short-hved, but caused considerable
furry while it lasted, and served to bring
up the whole question OF prohibition. 1t
| looked as though ghost were walking
again which had been thought dead and
buried for all time. And many persons
discovered that they had become hazy on
how prohibition had been put into force
| during the last war.
BY the time the United States entered
World War I, on April 6, 1917, 10 States
were already dry by their own action.
| That was almost one-haf Of all the
| States. The list included not only rural
States of the Middle West, like Kansas
and Iowa, and Southern States like
North Carolina and Tennessee, but also
Eastern States like Maine and West Vir-
| ginia and Western States like Washing
| ton and Oregon.
In those days there was much less
drinking by women than by men, at least
in public, and the prohibition movement
was strengthened by the growth of
woman suffrage. BY 1917, 13 States had
| given their woman citizens the right to
vote. Not one of these States was in
the South, where the question of Negro
women voting was bugaboo.
Four months after the United States
entered the war, Congress took long
step toward Nationwide prohibition by:
| Cd Forbidding the use of any foodstuffs
in the manufacture of distilled spirits,
such as whisky or gin; CO forbidding the
importation of such spirits; (3) empower
ing the President to stretch these prohi-
bitions to include malt liquors, such as
beer. And eight months after the
United States entered the war, in Decem-
ber, 1917, Congress submitted the prohi-
bition amendment the eighteenth, to
the States for ratification. The vote for
submission was 65 to 20 In the Senate,
282 to 128 In the House.
Afterward many vets were wont to
allege that prohibition had been put
! across because millions of young men
were in the Army and unable to vote.
However, the facts hardly bear out this
allegation.
For one thing, the Congress which took
the prohibition action described above
had been elected in November, 1916, be-
fore the United States entered the war.
| Secondly, even while States were voting
in tn
the number of persons eligible to vote
was almost 100000 lover 1850, 900 had
voted in 1916, while the maximum num-
ber OF men in the armed services was
| only slightly more than 100000 Only
| one-half of these 1000 900 served abroad,
and some of the remaining 100000 were
able to vote in 1918, either by absentee
| ballot or because they were stationed in
camps around their home towns.
At all events, while the State Legisla-
lures were passing upon the 18th amend
| ment, Nationwide prohibition was i'm
posed by law. In September, 1918, Con-
| greSs voted, as a war measure, to forbid
the sale of intoxicating liquor from July
| l, 1919 until the war was over and de-
mobilization had been completed. So the
| country was already dry, legally, when
the prohibition amendment went into
effect in January, 1920. CThe actual
fighting had ended, but Congress had
not yet passed q resolution declaring a
state of peace with Germany
Only two States, Rhode Island and
Connecticut, failed to ratify the 18th
amendment. Only one State, Maryland,
failed to enact State enforcement law.
The 18th amendment provided that one
year after its ratification the manufac-
ture, sale, transportation Importation
and expectation of Intoxicating liquors"
for beverage purposes was forbidden in
all United States territory.
The 18th amendment was ratified on
January is, 1919, and hence went into
effect one year later. In the State Legis-
latures, IS per cent OF the members of
the upper branches and 1872 per cent Of
the members of the lower branches voted
to ratify.
1t will be noted that the amendment
itself did not define Intoxicating
liquors" That came in the enforcement
act of October %, 1919, generally known
as the Volstead Act. This defined as
intoxicating any liquor containing as
much as one-half of per cent of alcohol
by volume. President Wilson vetoed the
Volstead bill, but it was passed over his
veto.
In 1923 the Democratic party nomi-
mated Alfred E. Smith for the presidency.
The party platform declared for enforce
ment of the 18th amendment, but in a
message to the convention after it had
nominated him and in his acceptance
speech Smith came out for re-defini-
tion of alcohol beverages" and for the
right of each State to determine for it
self the issue OF prohibition within its
own borders.
Mr.. Smith was the worst defeated presi-
Dental candidate since the Civil War,
carrying only two non-Southern States
Massachusetts and Rhode Island) and
| 1oci,,r = If tho Ctofac of %hn Co1ir1