Volume 16 , Issue 45

December 30 1914, Wednesday

According to The River Press, from Fort Benton, Montana, Wednesday, December 30, 1914, we find a resolution for prohibition amendment (Hobson resolution amendment) failed to get necessary votes in the State house.

Hobson Suffers Defeat

Resolution for prohibition amendment failed to get necessary vote. Washington, December 22, 1914 -- The Hobson resolution amendment was submitted as a constitutional amendment for national prohibition to the state legislatures was defeated in the house the evening of December 22, 1914. 197 members voted for and 189 against it. An affirmative vote of two-thirds was required to adopt the resolution.

Prohibition leaders declared that the majority for the resolution had fulfilled their expectations, as they had not hoped for a two-thirds vote at this time. Whether a similar resolution pending in the senate, submitted by Senator Sheppard of Texas, would reach a vote in the senate at this session was not certain tonight. Administration leaders were inclined to believe that it would not, in view of the action of the house.

Repeated public assertions that many members of the house would try to dodge a record vote on the issue with the roll-call disclosing a heavy attendance, larger than the average throughout the session.

On the final vote, 386 votes were recorded. To have carried the resolution would have required 258 affirmative votes. It failed by 61 votes. The Montana congressmen voted for the resolution. The Hobson amendment proposed a constitutional amendment, as follows:

"Section 1. The sale, manufacture for sale, transportation for sale, exportation for sale and importation for sale of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes in the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are forever prohibited.

"Section 2. Congress shall have power to provide in favor of the manufacture, sale, transportation and importation of intoxicating liquors for sacramental, medicinal, mechanical, pharmaceutical or scientific purposes, or for use in the arts, and shall have power to enforce this article by all needful legislation."
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