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Show PROHIBITION LOOMS p ONSTITUTIONAL prohibition has V-' passed the House of Representatives Representa-tives by a vote of 282 to 128. The Senate has already voted to submit the amendment amend-ment to the states. The President's approval is not needed. When thirty-six thirty-six state legislatures have ratified the amendment, for which they are allowed a time of seven years, prohibition will become effective throughout the United States. This includes the manufacture, importation and sale of liquor as a beverage bev-erage anywhere within the boundaries of the nation. The method of amending the federal constitution is simple. It is for ' Congress,' Con-gress,' in proposing the amendment,' which requires a two-thirds vote' in both houses, to say how it shall be rati- -fied, whether by state legislatures or state conventions. In either case the amendment, to become valid, must be ratified in three-fourths or the states. This means at present that favorable action is required in thirty-six states. Let us note then what. the prospects of ratification are as the map stands at present. At the beginning of this year there were twenty-three dry states. At present twenty-seven states are either dry or have voted dry to become effective effect-ive soon. Much dry territory exists in local option states. One , reason why more states are not dry is because of the conviction on the part of an important import-ant number of voters that while prohibition prohi-bition is desirable, state prohibition J does not prohibit. These voters may reasonably be expected to swing to the support of a federal amendment. 1 |