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172
PROHIBITION

May 18, and the extension of their application in the Act to promote the efficiency of the navy, approved Oct. 6 1917. These measures are discussed later in the section on wartime legislation.

Quite apart, however, from war legislation, on Aug. 1 1917 the Senate adopted the resolution proposing to the states the National Prohibition Amendment by a vote of 65 to 20 more than two-thirds of the members present, and this resolution was adopted by the House with some amendments Dec. 17 by a vote of 282 to 128. On Dec. 18 1917 the Senate concurred in the amendments made by the House, and the resolution was thereupon submitted to the Legislatures of the several states for ratification. Ratified by the last of the necessary 36 states (Jan. 16 1919), and proclaimed by the Secretary of State (Jan. 29 1919), it became the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, to go into effect one year from the date of its ratification, namely on Jan. 16 1920. The wording of the Amendment is as follows:—

1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

2. The Congress and the several states shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several states, as provided by the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the states by the Congress.

After Jan. 16 1919 the Amendment was ratified by all but three of the remaining states.

Whatever allowance may be made for the effect produced by the political activities of the Anti-Saloon League, an analysis of the vote in Congress for the submission of the Amendment showed a fair proportionate representation of the people residing in “dry” territory, and also the proportion of “dry” to “wet” territory in the United States. The subsequent votes in the State Legislatures on ratification of the Amendment corroborate this view. The accompanying table shows the order and dates of ratification by the several states, and the vote in each House of the State Legislatures by which ratification was enacted. The total number of votes in the state Senates or upper Houses, for ratification, was 1,297 in favour and 236 against, or 84% for national prohibition to 14% against; in the lower or more popular branch of the state Legislatures, the total vote for prohibition was 3,742, or 78%, to 1,001 or 22% against. It will be noted that in South Dakota, Idaho, Washington, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming no votes were cast against ratification.

The three states which had not ratified the Eighteenth Amendment to Sept. 1921 were Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey. That the ratification of the proposed amendment failed in all three states by a very narrow margin is seen from the following facts. Rhode Island's State Senate by a vote of 20 to 18 on March 2 1918 postponed indefinitely the consideration of the ratification resolution; the resolution was presented again at the 1919 session, when the Senate voted 25 to 12 to postpone indefinitely its consideration. In Connecticut the Senate voted 14 for ratification and 20 against, and the House 153 for and 96 against. In New Jersey the House passed the ratification resolution, Jan. 24 1921, by a vote of 52 to 4, but the vote in the Senate on April 7 1921 was 10 in favour to 8 against, and the resolution failed because the state Constitution required at least 11 affirmative votes in the Senate as then organized.

Votes in Legislatures on Ratification of Eighteenth Amendment.

Ratified by Upper House. Ratified by Lower House.
  (1) Mississippi Jan.  8  1918,  28  to   5 Jan.  8  1918,   93 to  3  
  (2) Virginia Jan. 10 1918, 30  to   8 Jan. 11 1918,  84 to  13
  (3) Kentucky Jan. 14 1918, 28  to   6 Jan. 14 1918,  66 to  10
  (4) South Carolina Jan. 18 1918, 28  to   6 Jan. 28 1918,  66 to  29
  (5) North Dakota Jan. 25 1918, 43  to   2 Jan. 25 1918,  96 to  10
  (6) Maryland Feb. 13 1918, 18  to   7 Feb.  8 1918,  58 to  38
  (7) Montana Feb. 19 1918, 35  to   2 Feb. 18 1918,  77 to  6
  (8) Texas Feb. 28 1918, 15  to   7 March  4 1918,  72 to  36
  (9) Delaware March  18 1918, 13  to   3 March  14 1918,  27 to  0
 (10) South Dakota March 19 1918, 43  to   0 March 20 1918,  86 to  0
 (11) Massachusetts April  2 1918, 27  to  12 March 26 1918, 145  to  91
 (12) Arizona May 23 1918, 17  to   0 May 24 1918,  29 to  3
 (13) Georgia June 26 1918, 34  to   2 June 25 1918, 129 to  24
 (14) Louisiana Aug.  6 1918, 21  to  20 Aug. 28 1918,  69 to  41
 (15) Florida Nov. 27 1918, 25  to   2 Nov. 27 1918,  61 to  3
 (16) Michigan Jan.  2 1919, 30  to   0 Jan.  2 1919,  88 to  3*
 (17) Ohio Jan.  7 1919, 20  to  12 Jan.  7 1919,  85 to  30
 (18) Oklahoma Jan.  7 1919, 43  to   0 Jan.  7 1919,  90 to  8
 (19) Maine Jan.  8 1919, 29  to   0 Jan.  8 1919, 122 to  20
 (20) Idaho Jan.  7 1919, 38  to   0 Jan.  7 1919,  62 to  0
 (21) West Virginia Jan.  9 1919, 27  to   0 Jan.  9 1919,  78 to  3
 (22) Washington Jan. 13 1919, 42  to   0 Jan. 13 1919,  93 to  0
 (23) Tennessee Jan.  9 1919, 28  to   2 Jan. 13 1919,  82 to  2
 (24) California Jan. 10 1919, 24  to  15 Jan. 13 1919,  48 to  28
 (25) Indiana Jan. 13 1919, 41  to   6 Jan. 14 1919,  87 to  11
 (26) Illinois Jan.  8 1919, 30  to  15 Jan. 14 1919,  84 to  66
 (27) Arkansas Jan. 14 1919, 34  to   0 Jan. 13 1919,  93 to  2
 (28) North Carolina Jan. 10 1919, 49  to   0 Jan. 14 1919,  93 to  10
 (29) Alabama Jan. 14 1919, 23  to  11 Jan. 14 1919,  64 to  34
 (30) Kansas Jan. 14 1919. 39  to   0 Jan. 14 1919, 121 to  0
 (31) Oregon Jan. 15 1919, 30  to   0 Jan. 14 1919,  53 to  3
 (32) Iowa Jan. 15 1919, 42  to   7 Jan. 15 1919,  86 to  13
 (33) Utah Jan. 15 1919, 16  to   0 Jan. 14 1919,  43 to  0
 (34) Colorado Jan. 15 1919, 34  to   1 Jan. 15 1919,  63 to  2
 (35) New Hampshire Jan. 15 1919, 19  to   4 Jan. 15 1919, 221 to  131
 (36) Nebraska Jan. 13 1919, 31  to   1 Jan. 16 1919,  98 to  0
 (37) Missouri Jan. 16 1919, 22  to  10 Jan. 16 1919, 104 to  36
 (38) Wyoming Jan. 16 1919, 26  to   0 Jan. 16 1919,  52 to  0
 (39) Wisconsin Jan. 16 1919, 19  to  11 Jan. 17 1919,  58 to  33
 (40) Minnesota Jan. 16 1919, 48  to  11 Jan. 17 1919,  92 to  36
 (41) New Mexico Jan. 20 1919, 12  to   4 Jan. 16 1919,  45 to  1
 (42) Nevada Jan. 21 1919, 14  to   1 Jan. 20 1919,  33 to  3
 (43) Vermont Jan. 16 1919, 26  to   3 Jan. 29 1919, 155 to  58
 (44) New York Jan. 29 1919, 27  to  24 Jan. 23 1919,  81 to  66
 (45) Pennsylvania Feb. 25 1919, 29  to  16 Feb.  4 1919, 110 to  93

*Repassed in Lower House to correct error Jan. 23.

Following the adoption of the Amendment came the Volstead Act, which was passed over President Wilson's veto on Oct. 28 1919. Before that, however, in addition to further war legisla-