Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/162

 which had been filed by Judge C. C. Nourse and J. A. Harvey in February. Able and exhaustive arguments were made for the validity of the amendment by James F. Wilson, John F. Duncombe and C. C. Nourse and against it by John C. Bills. The majority of the Court, however, adhered to its former opinion and the amendment was finally set aside as invalid. In relation to a new point raised by the counsel for the prohibitionists, that it was not competent for the Court to determine whether an amendment to the Constitution was legally adopted where a majority of the legal voters had approved the amendment, the Court uses the following language:

The friends of prohibition were sorely disappointed by this affirmation of the former decision as it would require nearly five years to secure a new amendment to the Constitution. The more practical among them, however, saw that the Legislature had ample power and undisputed authority to enact as rigid prohibition without a change in the Constitution, as it would had the amendment been held valid. The contest must now be made direct in the choice of members of the next Legislature and the