Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont passed laws prohibiting the sale of liquor, which were subsequently repealed by the two former States. An agitation for a National constitutional amendment achieved notable strategic success in forcing a vote in Congress (1914). In the House it received a majority, but not the necessary two-thirds. In 1915 there were only three States that had neither Statewide prohibition nor some form of local optionPennsylvania, New Jersey, and Nevada. In the work of securing State-wide and local prohibition and in the movement for a National amendment, many agencies have been active, none more so than the Anti-Saloon League, whose year book should be consulted.

The war years were particularly fruitful for the advancement of the cause of prohibition both in the United States and in other countries. One of the chief reasons for this was the feeling throughout the world that grains might far better be used for food purposes than for beverages.

In the November, 1916, elections, five States adopted State-wide prohibition, bringing the total number up to twenty-four. The approximate population of the twenty-four States which had adopted State-wide prohibition was 32,500,000.

The entrance of the United States into the war added a great impetus to the prohibition movement. On November 1, 1917, Congress passed a law which prohibited the manufacture of all liquors with the exception of beer and wine. On December 10, 1917,

the United States Supreme Court upheld the Idaho prohibition law, giving an opinion in which it held that a citizen has no constitutional right to possess liquors for his personal use if a State wishes to forbid it. It held that the State "has power absolutely to prohibit the manufacture, gift, purchase, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within its borders without violating the constitution. Further, it clearly follows from our previous decisions upholding prohibition legislation, that the right to hold intoxicating liquors is not one of those fundamental privileges of a citizen of the United States which no State may abridge."

On December 11, 1917, President Wilson issued a proclamation reducing the alcoholic content of beer, effective after January 21, 1918, to two and threequarters per cent by weight. He also prohibited the use in the manufacture of malt liquors of more than seventy per cent of the average amount of foods, fruits, food material, and feeds, used in such manufacture, during the one-year period ending on that date.

The year 1917 witnessed the realization of one of the long-desired hopes of the prohibitionists of the United States, i.e. the adoption of a Nation-wide amendment to the Federal constitution abolishing the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcoholic beverages. On December 17, by a vote of 282 to 128, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to be submitted to the States within seven years, an amendment to the Federal constitution providing for

National prohibition. A similar resolution was adopted by the Senate in the preceding August, but on December 18 the Senate concurred by a rising vote with the House resolution.

Although very few State Legislatures were in regular session in 1918, nevertheless fifteen States ratified the amendment. Many of these State legislatures were in special session at the time the prohibition amendment was ratified.

On December 1, 1918, the breweries in the United States ceased making beer in accordance with an order from the President issued some months previous as a necessity in the interests of grain and fuel conservation. The war prohibition measure passed by Congress in November and signed by the President on November 21, prohibited the use of grain and fruits in the manufacture of liquor, effective May 1, 1919, and prohibited the sale of all intoxicants, effective June 30, 1919. The war prohibition measure was to remain effective until the termination of demobilization, which period was to be determined by the President.

On January 29, 1919, Acting Secretary of State Polk issued a proclamation that as thirty-six States had ratified the constitutional amendment prohibiting the sale and manufacture of intoxicating beverages, it would become a law on January 16, 1920. The dates of ratification of the prohibition amendment were as follows: 1918: Mississippi, Jan. 8; Virginia, Jan 10; Kentucky, Jan. 14; South Carolina, Jan. 23; North Dakota, Jan. 25; Maryland, Feb. 13; Mon

tana, Feb. 19; Texas, March 4; Delaware, March 18; South Dakota, March 20; Massachusetts, April 2; Arizona, May 22; Georgia, July 22; Louisiana, Aug. 3; Florida, Dec. 14; in 1919: Michigan, Jan. 2; Oklahoma, Ohio, Jan. 7; Tennessee, Idaho, Maine, Jan. 8; West Virginia, Jan. 9; Washington, California, Jan. 13; Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, North Carolina, Alabama, Jan. 14; Iowa, Colorado, Oregon, New Hampshire, Jan. 15; Nebraska, Missouri, Wyoming, Jan. 16; Minnesota, Wisconsin, Jan. 17; New Mexico, Jan. 20; Nevada, Jan. 21; Vermont, New York, Jan. 29; and Pennsylvania, February 25.

As mentioned above, the War Time Prohibition Act prohibited the manufacture of intoxicating liquors after May 1, 1919, and the sale after June 30, 1919. This was to continue in force until the demobilization of the army had been effected. In the spring of 1919 President Wilson suggested to Congress that it declare that fact accomplished and thus repeal the measure. Congress refused to do this. In October Congress passed the National Prohibition Act (socalled Volstead Act) which included provision for war-time prohibition, its enforcement, and rules and regulations pertaining to industrial alcohol. On October 27, 1919, President Wilson vetoed the measure on the grounds that war-time prohibition was no longer a necessity. Within four hours of receipt of the message, the House of Representatives passed the bill over the veto and the next day the Senate took the same action.

The nineteenth amendment has caused but little effect upon the country and very little interest has been taken in it. However, it had been agitated almost since the founding of our government. The beginning was even earlier.

In 1647 Margaret Brent, "heir of Lord Calvert, the brother of Lord Baltimore, and executor of the estates of both in the Colony," demanded "place and voice" in the legislature of Maryland, for representation was based upon property. "Her petition," says Mrs. Harper, "was hotly debated for several hours and finally denied."

In 1776 Abigail Adams wrote to her husband, John Adams, then in the Continental Congress: "I long to hear that you have declared an independence, and by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than were your ancestors." If "particular care and attention are not paid to the ladies we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound to obey any laws in which we have no voice or representation."

The Continental Congress, like the National Constitutional Convention of 1787, left the determination of the conditions of suffrage to the respective States. Only New Jersey conferred it on women, the constitution of 1776 giving the franchise to "all inhabitants" worth "fifty pounds proclamation money," etc. In 1790 a revision of the election law used the words, "he or she," thus emphasizing the inclusion