AMERICA GONE DRY.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 286, 19 April 1919, Page 4

AMERICA GONE DRY.

(Frank L. Folk, Acting Secretary of State of the United States of Xnieu ca.)

The following is the text of the l*ro< I matmn making America dry.

To all to whom these Presen's shall come. Greeling; Know Ye, That the Congress of the l tilted States at the second session, Sixty-fifth Congress, began at Wash ington on the third day of December, in the year one thousand nine hundred and Seventeen, passed a Resolution m the words and figures following: JOINT RESOLUTION Proposing an amendment to the t on stuuUoii of ;he United States. RMCivtd oy th« Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congreet as sembied (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the follow mg amendment to the constitution be, .end hereby is promised t»> the States, to become valid as a part of the constitution when ratified by the leg islalures of the several States as pro vided b\ the constitution: ARTICLE— Se<non i After one- year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxi eating liquors within, the* importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all tci riiory subject to the* jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. Section 2. The* Congress and the several States -'hall have cone urrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. Section 3. This article shall lie* inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the con stitution by the legislatures of the* several States, as provided in the constitution, within seven years from the* date of tl»s* submission thereof to the* States by Congress. And. further, that it appears from official documents on hie in this de part meet that the amendment to the constitution of the* United States pioI>osed as aforesaid has lieen ratified by the legislatures of the States of Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,

Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota. Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, S«>uth C arolina, South Dakota, Texas, l tah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, 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. Folk, Acting Secretary of State of the United States, In virtue and in pursuance of Section JOS of the Revise d Statutes of the I nited States, do herein certify that tlu* Amendment aforesaid has become valid to all intents and purposes as a part of the constitution of the* United States.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set m> hand and < the seal of the* Department of State .0 be affixed. Done at the City of Washington this jqlli day of January, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine* hundred and nineteen. FRANK L. FOLK. Ac ting Sec retail of State

The Ratification Tidal Wave swept over the United States. In thirteen months lacking one da\ the requisite number of States ratified tlu* Federal Amendment, and thus completed the legislative process of voting the n.i tion dry. The promptness and speed with which the States ratified astern ishrd even the most hopeful of the friends of the movement. The liquor interests were overwhelmed, and had little to say. When I. »vy Mayer, legal tepresentative of practically all the distillers of the nation was asked to comment on the cituation, he replied: “Nothing to say. The* prairies are on tire, that’s all. It is sweeping just like a prairie fire and there’s no stopping it.”

“The ratification of the Federal amendment with such celerity and unanimity leaves 11 a plumbless mystery. There was nothing in contemporary politics or life to explain any suc h action. It is as if a sailing ship on a windless ocean were sweeping ahead, propelled bv some invisible force,” exclaims the “South Bend NewsTimes.”

“Economic considerations seem to have had little effect. Great industrial communities, hitherto regarded as naturally and jiermanc ntly in favour of the liquor traffic, have tinned against

it. States with big cities have yielded about as completelv as States with small urban populations. Self-interest failed to interfere. Whisky States like* Kentucky, beer-manufacturing St ates like* Ohio and Wisconsin and Missouri, wine growing States bk< California have voted dry along with the rest,

“Racial tradition and pre fere act seem to have exerted just as little restraining |*>wer. German cities like

Milwaukee and Cincinnati and St Louis, and < iti«*s like* Boston and Chi < ago, with large mixed foreign populu lions accustomed to moderate drink ing, have gone the* way of more typi tally American communities.”

Idaho, South Dakota, Kansas, Washington, and Wyoming both Houses ratified the* amendment by a unani-

mous vote*

Nebraska gave a unanimous vote in ihe Lower House, and one vot<U against it in the Senate. Maine, West V irginia. North Carolina, Xrkansas, Oregon, l tah, and Michi gan gave unanimous vote in the Senate. In (olorado one* vote was cast against it in the Senate, and two in the* Lower House*.

Forty-four States have ratified the* amendment; Connecticut and Rhode Island 1 avc* failed to ratify, and two States have yet to vote, in one of which the* Lower House* has ratified.

According to the Press of the* States the Prohibition Amendment well wi|x* out with a stroke 23b distiiicrics ejqj bre*we*ric*s, and more than 300,000 saloons and liquor stores. The United States Treasury will lose a source of taxation worth mary million dollars, and State I reasunes will also lose their miFions. On the othe r hand, the liquor question will be* removed from politics, and the expe*nsc of government v ill be* < ut down by the decrease in violations of law. “1 nion Signal.”