as passed, liquor dealers have the right to transport their goods to a license town or city through a no-license community. Among the important measures that failed to pass were a bill for district option in the city of Boston, a bill to provide that in a city or town that voted license, no license should be issued to any location within 1,500 feet of a city or town under no-license; and a bill to repeal the "Bar and Bottle" law of 1910. Michigan. The State voted in favor of prohibition at the November elections, the official returns being: The city of Detroit voted against prohibition by about 8,000. A Home Rule Amendment, giving incorporated villages and cities the right to decide by home rule whether liquors shall be sold within their boundaries, was defeated. The vote was: Against Majority against the amendment..... 378,871 ... 122,599 Minnesota.-In election in 35 towns in March, three towns changed from "wet" to "dry," and one from no license to license. Towns voting license: Blooming Prairie, Ceylon, Elgin, Goodhue, Hammond, Holland, Lakeville, New Market, Owatonna (was dry), Randolph, Sherburn, Triumph, Trosky, Welcome and Zumbro Falls. Towns voting no license: Alpha, Edgerton, Eyota (was wet), Farmington, Foley (was wet), Heron Lake, Jackson, Jeffers, Kimball, Lakefield, Litchfield, Marine Mills, Mountain Lake, New Richland, Pike Island, Plainview (was wet), Stewartville, Truman and Zumbrota. Mississippi.—Among the more important laws enacted by the 1916 Legislature were those limiting shipments to one quart of liquor and 24 pints of beer every two weeks to any one person in the State and prohibiting liquor advertisements within the State in newspapers, on billboards or in any other manner. A bill providing that all liquor packages coming into the State must be opened by the sheriff or his deputies, the mayor or constables, and that fees of 25 cents for such inspection must be paid on each package was defeated. The "one quart every two weeks law” passed at a recent session of the Legislature was held constitutional. Missouri.-At the November elections Missouri again voted Jackson County, in which Kansas City is located, returned a majority of 3,716 in favor of prohibition. Montana.-The state adopted prohibition in November by voting in favor of a statute which prohibits the sale, disposition, manufacture or introduction into the State of ardent spirits, or any compound thereof capable of use as a beverage, or ale, beer, wine or intoxicating liquor or liquors of any kind. This act takes effect on and after the 31st day of December, 1918. Both the Democratic and Republican parties at their State Con ventions had declared in favor of State-wide and national prohibition. Nebraska.-The State voted in favor of prohibition at the November elections, by a majority of 29,400. Douglas County, in which Omaha is located, voted 11,121 against prohibition. New Jersey.-The New Jersey Assembly on February 15th defeated the Municipal Local Option Bill of the State Anti-Saloon League by a vote of 40 to 19, after it had been passed by the Senate by a vote of 12 to 9. A bill to give borough councils power to regulate and license the liquor traffic was defeated. A bill was passed prohibiting the sale of liquor in any quantity over one quart without a special license for that purpose. The Supreme Court held that commission government did not. confer upon municipalities the power of regulating traffic in intoxicating liquors. The Supreme Court decided that the provisions of the Leonard Limitation Law of 1913, restricting the number of licensed places in a municipality to one for every 500 population, excluded from the computation hotels having not less than 50 spare rooms and beds. The Supreme Court found cider intoxicating. By a majority of 189, Montclair voted to retain licenses. New York. No material change was made in the excise law except one relating solely to revenue, which was enacted in response to the financial needs of the State. There were several bills, none of which was adopted, aimed in some way at the trade. One sought to prevent the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors absolutely. Another was designed to bring about the extension of local option by a so-called Referendum measure, while another resorted to a new form of attack for the purpose of extending local option by providing that a certain city, Elmira, be given the right by the Legislature to hold a local option election notwithstanding the fact that the general law of the State only provides for local option elections for towns and not for cities. Another bill extended present town local option provisions to third class cities, and another sought to give the City of Binghamton specially and any other city which would petition for it, the right to hold a local option election. The end of the session brought forth a Remonstrance Bill which permitted the electors of a District, City or State and women of certain qualifications to sign a so-called Remonstrance, and if it contained 51 per cent of such persons, the Court was called upon to prohibit the traffic. The closing year also witnessed the revival of a distinction between hard and soft alcoholic drinks by the introduction of two bills. One provided that no alcoholic liquors shall be manufactured or sold containing more than 10 per cent of alcohol and the other recognizing the large quantity of alcohol in patent medicines, prohibited the sale of such medicines containing more than 10 per cent of alcohol except upon prescription. The law which increased the fee for Liquor Tax Certificates 25 per cent for the excise year ending October 1, 1916, was re-enacted and made permanent. Out of some two hundred towns that voted, ten "DRY" towns returned to the license column while approximately ninety towns went from the license to the no-license column. In the majority of cases where license towns went "Dry" it was not due to an increase in "Dry" sentiment but to local conditions. A number of towns were also voted "Dry" through error on the part of the electors who had to handle several ballots. A noticeable feature of the local option elections was that many towns went "Dry" or "Wet" by a very narrow margin, sometimes the majority being two or three votes and, in one or two instances, a majority of one vote was recorded. There are 932 townships in the State of New York, and at the present time three hundred and twenty have full license, four hundred and ninety-nine have no license and one hundred and thirteen have partial license, that is, saloons, stores, drug stores or hotels only. Ohio. The vote on the McDermott Act, providing for a district plan to decentralize the liquor license system, was 242,671 in favor, and 355,207 against a majority of 112,536 against the Act. The act had been passed by a "Dry" legislature and approved by the Governor, an admitted prohibitionist. Constitutional State prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors was submitted in practically the same form as the Prohibition Amendment of 1914. A constitutional Amendment, known as the "Stability Amendment," was also voted on. It provided that constitutional amendments twice defeated should not again be voted on in referendum elections until six years had elapsed. The Amendment was defeated by 64,891 majority, receiving a vote: Yes 417,382, No 482,273. Under the Beals law elections were held with the following result: Towns voting "wet": Adelphia, Bellevue, Blakeeslee, Bradnea, Carroll, Covington, Dennison (dry for 8 years), East Liverpool, Fastoria, Gilboa, Grove City (was dry), Hanoverton (was dry), Marysville, Mingo Junction, Republic, Rocky River, Steubenville (was dry), Struthers (was dry), Stryker, Tuscarawas, and Utica. Towns voting "dry": Arberdeen (was wet), Agasta, Arcadia (was wet), Baltic, Beaver (was wet), Chagrin Falls, Cridersiville, Crooksville, Farnersville (was wet), Geneva (was wet), Latty, Lisbon, Mason (was wet), McComb (was wet), Mineral City, Muscon (was wet), New Comers Town, North Lewisburg (was wet), Piketon (was wet), Port Washington, Quincy, Toronto, Uniopolis, Waterville, Wellsville, West Salem, and Wharton. Townships voting dry: Amboy, Jackson, Licking, Paint, Solon, Swan Creek, Union, and Washington. All these townships were wet with the exception of Licking. Oregon. The so called "Bone Dry" prohibition amendment, which forbids any importation of liquors for beverage purposes, was carried at the November elections. The official result of the election was: For ... Majority for 114,923 109,671 5,252 Multnomah county, in which Portland is located, voted against the Amendment by 9,775 majority. |