"WETS” VERSUS “DRYS.”

Taihape Daily Times, 15 April 1919, Page 3

"WETS” VERSUS “DRYS.”

A PROHIBITION [FAROE 1 .

AMERICAN BORDER LAW,

The “wets” are claiming the first victory in their fight against the “drys” in a decison given by the Michigan Supreme Court declaring invalid the articles in the new Michigan prohibition law permitting the search for and seizure of liquors in private possession, writes a New York correspondent. Under this decision it is legal to carry intoxicants into Michigan from the surrounding “wet” States and drink liquor at home or in any public place so long as no money changes hands. Since the law became effective last May the police have been seizing alcoholic beverages wherever they could be found.

A flood of liquor has inundated Michigan and especially Detroit, as a sequel to the Supreme Court’s decision Dctrioit is the largest “dry city in the world, but Avas given over to a “wot” celebration of an unprecedented character.

The “wets” carried their own bottles of liquor, and flaunted them before the “drys” in the restaurants, where they carefully placed their bottles in the mosj conspicuous parts of the tables. As the restaurants do not charge for these intoxicants Avhich are the personal property of the diners, the police are powerless to interfere.

The constant procession of vehicles which passed into Michigan from Ohio laden with liquor resembled the Kloydyke rush during the gold days. The Michiganders made Toledo their liquor headquarters, as it is just across the border in Ohio, and the sixtyfive mile of road between Toledo and Detroit was blocked by motor cars

laden with bottles. No fewer than

sixty cars met. with, accidents, and three persons were killed owing to the confusion due to the unprecedentedly heavy traffic.