PROHIBITION TEST

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 117, 20 May 1932, Page 7

PROHIBITION TEST

THE AMERICAN SENATE “DRYS” STRONG POSITION. Received May 19, 5.5 p.m. WASHINGTON, May 18. The Senate to-day rejected an amendment to the Tax Bill, to legalise 2 75 per cent, beer as a basis of new taxes. The vote of 61 to 24 was tantamount to a test on prohibition. ANTI-PROHIBITIONISTS CAMPAIGN IN AMERICA MANY BILLS BEFORE CONGRESS WASHINGTON, April 26. The push against prohibition has as sumed gigantic proportions ai.d the 1 'wets” arc besieging Congress with proposals for the loosening of the terms of the “dry” Jaw. The prohibitionists are almost equally active and 29 liquor bills and resolutions are under consideration by the Judiciary Committee of the Senate alone, while scores of others are before other committees. It is difficult to imagine any mode of attack on the “dry” law that the “wets” have not employed. The bills range from a flat declara tion that tho Eighteenth Amendment is hereby repealed, to turning the complete control of manufacture and sale of liquor over to the individual States. The “drys” aro not idle. They are demanding that the Jones Act, passed two years ago, authorising five years’ imprisonment and a fine of £2 n OO for illegal selling, shall apply also the purchaser, and they want fruit juice and home-brew eliminated from the list of beverages permitted. Women campaigners are particularly active. One witness before the Senate Committee declared that “rich society women are determined to get their liquor, ’’