Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1918 — NEW YORK REFUSES TO O. K. DRY AMENDMENT [ARTICLE]

NEW YORK REFUSES TO O. K. DRY AMENDMENT

Albany, N. Y., March 12.—A proposal to ratify the federal prohibition amendment this year received what is considered a death blow in the New York legislature late today when the assembly by a vote of 84 to 64 and after one of the most spirited debates in years adopted a substitute whcih would provide for a referendum this fall on the ratification question. This senate has not yet acted upon the proposal but a committee of that body earlier in the day favorably, reported, a referendum bill. The referendum proposition now is' apparently up to Governor Whitman, as there is little doubt but that it will pass the legislature. When informed of today’s action the governor made this statement: “I favor the ratification of the federal amendment. It is clearly impossible for me to say what disposition I should make of a measure before the legislature has actdfl.” The governor let it be known, however, that he considered the substitution by the legislature a mistake.

William H. Anderson, superintendent of the anti-saloon league, said: “The fight is not over even for this season.. Direct ratification is no more dead than city local option was dead when it received a setback last winter. We shall advise every man who voted against the adoption of the referendum to refrain from voting for this absurd and extra-legal measure with the referendum on it.