“18TH. AMENDMENT LEGAL”

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1931, Page 5

“18TH. AMENDMENT LEGAL”

DECISION OF SUPREME COURT.

STATE JUDGE’S RULING UPSET. I ' ' r -“ -*■ ‘ By Telegraph-Press Assn.—Copyright. Rec. 7-5 p.m. Washington, Feb. 24. The Supreme Court, with the exception of Judge Hughea, who took no part in the case owing to his association with a similar case while practising as an attorney, unanimously upheld the constitutionality •of the Eighteenth Amendment, reversing Judge Clark’s ruling. The Supreme Court decision was not unexpected, but great interest centred in it, especially since the Government asked, tho Court to decide speedily owing to there being .so much questioning in the public mind. The Court offered a simple decision, asserting that Congress has entire power to prescribe ratification either by the Legislatures or popular conventions. “This Court has repeatedly and constantly declared that the choice of mode rests solely in the discretion of Congress.” The decision has transferred the battle over the liquor laws to the field of revision or repeal and placed the entire question upon the shoulders of Congress. It has lent added significance to the report of Mr. Wickersham, chairman of the President’s law enforcement commission, which is still widely disputed and is the subject of senatorial investigations.. Mr. Wickersham urged “education of the public in the value of prohibition” and claimed that “observance of the law can be brought about by education and persuasion rather than by force and harsh penalties.”