Daily globe., 1879-01-27
THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC.
The Tempest IN la Teapot Witch Agttates
the RuraL City Of WahOna.

xne tempest IN Ia 1e0pOt WhtcN Agtt0Ce6
the RuraI City of Wanona.
To the Editor of tho Winona Republican:
The discussion of tA6quor law seems to be
attended with an amount of Ignorance, in mis-
representation and prejudice. which, consider
ing the standing of some of the parties promi-
nent in the movement is difficult to under
| stand. if, indeed, it does not subject them to
| the highest censure. Whatever differences Of
opinion there may be in regard to the repeal
| of the law Of last winter, there ought to be no
differences in regard to the necessity Of fair
and straightforward statement of the case,
especially by those whose cry is law and
order," and who claim to represent the moral
part of the community.
The statement was made by one of the speak
ers. at the meeting on Monday evening, that
when this law repealed he understood that
| We should be without any law regulating the
sale of Intoxicating liquors; and, notwith-
| standing that no less than six attorneys of this
city were present at the time, not one word was
| said in refutation of the statement. Then,
| too, the petitions that were circulated through
| the city were circulated by men and women ig
| norant of the subject, the representations
made to the writer Of this being that the repeal
of this law would allow the sale of liquors on
| Sunday.
| Now the fact is that the law of last winter
was simply amendatory in its character, and
did not repeal the existing laws nor the ordi-
| nances growing out of them, but, in so far as
they conflicted, the new law supplanted the
old. Consequently the repeal of this law sim
ply reinstates the former laws and ordinances
relating to the subject. The ordinances gov
erning and relating to the liquor traffic. and in
force previous to the passage of the law Of last
| winter, embrace the following provisions:
Liquor dealers must pay license of $4,000.
! Chap. l6, sec. 1.
Liquor dealers must give bonds of 10000
Chap. 16, sec. 2.
Liquor dealers must keep an orderly house.
Chap. JIG, see. 2.
Liquor dealers must keep their saloons closed
| on election days.-Chap. 16, sec 2.
Liquor dealers must not permit gambling
Chap. 16, sec. 2.
Liquor dealers must keep their places of
business closed from 12 o'clock at night to 4
o'clock in the mornlng.-Chap, 20, sec. /.
Liquor dealers must keep their places of
business closed on Sunday.-Chap. 20, sec. q.
The law of last winter, besides covering this
ground, increases the bond to $500; makes the
hour Of closing II o'clock, and Of opening five
o'clock; prohibits the sale to minors, students,
and habitual drunkards; closes the saloons on
Christmas day, and gives premium of ten per
cent. to the city attorney for tie prosecution
of these cases. The whole question, therefore,
centers upon these few points. Whilst the
prohibiting of the sale to minors and to habit
ual drunkards, and the closing of the saloons
at II o'clock, are beneficial, and for the most
part practicable, it may reasonably be ques-
toned if the increase of the bond from 300
to $500, the closing of saloons Christmas
day, the prohibiting Of the sale to students,
and the payment of premium to the city
attorney for prosecuting these particular cases,
ere not in their nature harassing to an ex-
treme degree-narrow in their conception, and
discriminating to an extent calculated to
arouse the hatred and ill-will of large and
powerful element in our population.
1,4:r los
few exceptions all students, and the impossi-
bility of distinguishing between an adult stu
dent, and adult not student, makes the
liquor dealer liable, no matter how innocent he
may be, to onerous fines or imprisonment.
The closing of the saloons on Christmas day
portion of our foreign population
whose national holiday it is, and is the more
unkind because it is not generally observed as
a holy-day by the very class who 80 strenuously
oppose it's repeal. It is, therefore, particularly
harrassing and without shadow of reason.
But the crowning act of injustice and fanat-
icism was reached when the city attorney was
offered a premium of 10 per cent IN addition
to his regular fees to prosecute these particular
cases. 1t needed but one step more to COM
plete this disgrace to our legal system, and that
was the Offering of a chrome to the Judge who
should convict. Any man, be he liquor dealer
or anything else who would tamely submit to
this injustice is unworthy to be called an
American citizen, and that citizen who can find
delight in imposing upon others conditions
alike repugnant to justice and to the funda-
mental principle Of our government, is more
dangerous to the commonwealth than the class
he takes pleasure in depressing.
he truth is a man Of straw has been set up
to be knocked down. There is not now nor
has there ever been such abuse of the liquor
traffic III this city as to warrant the stringent
laws passed against it. There are knaves in
every business, and there are men in the liquor
business who would disgrace any calling, Just
as there are in the other walks of life but it
must not be forgotten that this whole move
ment is the outcome of morbid excitement
which seizes upon extreme cases and holds
them up to view as samples of the whole.
Speaking plainly, the question: is simply this:
1t is we'll, considering the prepondering influ-
ence Of the foreign element in our population,
to drive them to extreme measures by the en-
sctment of unjust, harrassing and tyranical
laws, or to endeavor to conciliate them by such
reasonable enactments as will curb the deprav-
ed element among dealers, whilst at the same
time they will not prove irksome to those who
pride themselves on being staunch upholders
of law and order as those who drink nothing
but water and wear a blue ribbon in their but
ton-hole. In word, if the mischief is not al