PROHIBITION 



4834 



PROHIBITION 



constitutional (1916) the Webb-Kenyon law. 

 which stopped the transportation of liquor into 

 prohibition states through interstate commerce. 

 This law put a stop to the practice of shipping 

 liquor from a "wet" to a "dry" state, by which 

 many prohibition laws had been practically nul- 

 lified. Another Federal legislative act of far- 

 reaching effect was passed in 1917. This act 

 made it unlawful for anyone to send through 

 the United States mails liquor advertisements 

 or solicitation circulars addressed to people in 

 "dry" territory. 



A constitutional amendment prohibiting 

 erages throughout the United States has been 



1917, when the food control bill was being 

 framed. In its final form this bill carried a 

 section prohibiting the manufacture of distilled 

 liquors; the manufacture of beer and wine the 

 President was given authority to suppress when- 

 ever he should deem it necessary. Accordingly, 

 no whisky was manufactured after September 1, 

 1917; no beer after May 1, 1919. On July 1, 

 1919, under the war-time act, all intoxicating 

 liquors ceased to be sold, and no saloon in 

 America operated legally after that date, -even 

 though the national amendment was not j'et in 

 effect. In the autumn of 1917 Congress pro- 

 ' vided for an Amendment to the Constitution 



STATUS OF PROHIBITION BEFORE THE AMENDMENT 



The states shown in white had banished intoxicating liquor before July 1, 1919. The black areas 

 mark the only sections of the United States where liquor was legally sold before all saloons were 

 closed at midnight on June 30, 1919. 



erages throughout the United States has been 

 the goal of the antiliquor forces for years. 

 The first definite step towards this goal was 

 taken at the close of 1914, when the House of 

 Representatives passed such an amendment by 

 a majority vote, though not by the necessary 

 two-thirds. 



With the entrance of the United States into 

 the great war in Europe, a new phase of the 

 question presented itself. Aside from the fact 

 that a nation at war is more efficient when un- 

 der a prohibition regime, there was the equally 

 important fact that grains which should be 

 used for food are employed in brewing and dis- 

 tilling. These points were urged by the pro- 

 hibition leaders in Congress in the summer of 



of the United States which would make the 

 entire country prohibition territory. Its form is 

 as follows: 



"SECTION 1. The manufacture, sale, or trans- 

 portation of intoxicating liquors within, the im- 

 portation thereof into, or the exportation thereof 

 from the United States and all territories subject 

 to the jurisdiction thereof, for beverage purposes, 

 is hereby prohibited. 



"SECTION 2. This article shall be inoperative un- 

 less it shall have been ratified as an amendment 

 to the Constitution t>y the legislatures of the sev- 

 eral states, as provided in the Constitution, within 

 six years of the date of the submission thereof to 

 the states by the Congress. 



"SECTION 3. The Congress shall have the power 

 to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." 



The necessary thirty-six states ratified the 

 amendment and gave it validity by January 



