Alexandria Gazette

DRY BILL GOES OVER
Senate Committee Agrees Not To
Act On Legislation to Enforce
War Prohibition.
Washington, March 4.—Agreement
was reached yesterday by the Senate
Judiciary Committee to take no action
on legislation to enforce wartime pro-
hibition, which becomes effective July
1. The committee decided there was
no chance for passage of the pending
bill at this session.
Penalties for violation of the law
are carried by the prohibition act it-
self, which was passed as an amend-
ment to the Food Production bill.
Prohibition leaders contend that ad-
ditional and more specific legislation
is needed to insure proper enforcement
although the absence of it will not
prevent nation wide prohibition from
becoming effective. They plan to bring
in the bill now abandoned again as
soon as Congress is called into ses-
sion.
Senator Sheppard, of Texas, Demo-
crat, author of the Prohibition act,
stated that failure of Congress to
enact the proposed administrative
legislation was not a serious matter.
He pointed out that the act itself pre-
vided penalties of a fine of $1,000 and
imprisonment for one year or both.
The new administrative legislation,
he said, was proposed principally for
enforcement of the prohibition con-
stitutional amendment.
Senator Sheppard ridiculed the sug-
gestion being made that the wartime
dry act could be nullified because it
did not define what should be re-
garded as "intoxicating" liquor. He
said no court would wink at evasion
of the law because of this omission.