The Prohibition Tug-of-War in Colfax
A Whitman County sheriff’s liquor seizure tests the limits of state law, pitting authorities against the express company in a legal standoff.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The seizure by the sheriff of Whitman county of a shipment of liquor consigned to a Colfax man at the express office, without evidence of a permit granting authority to ship the consignment into the state, is likely to be contested by the express company. The sheriff took charge of the consignment by authority of a search warrant issued out of the justice court. The constitutionality of this provision of the law is the question sought to be decided by the company.
“The constitutionality of this provision of the law is the question sought to be decided by the company.”
This dispute over state-level prohibition enforcement and interstate commerce anticipates the tensions of the coming national Prohibition era, illustrating how local police power struggled with corporate legal challenges.
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