The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1880-10-20
The New Code.

EDITORS CLARION In The CLARION O.
week before last, ExChancellor Brame
after noticing approvingly an article publish
ed in the South under the caption Of Local
Option. asks the author this question:
''Is it lawful now to sell liquor in guam
titles greater than one pint by complying
with the Revenue Laws"
To this question | give an affirmative
answer, though at first | was of a different
opinion. and Still believe it was intended by
Judge Campbell and the Legislature, that
this pint law should only take effect with
the New Code which does not 60 into
operation before the first of next month
/ The local option feature applicable to this
/ law, certainly does not take effect before
that time, and the intention was, dare say,
that one should be cceval with the other
! But the question now Is not what was
/ intended, but what was done, and | repeat
I that my opinion Is, that the pint law took
effect a. part of the general Revenue law,
which by I IL Of an Act approved March
I 9Th, 1880, and which i the first law IN the
/ Code was made TO take effect and be in
force from and after that date; whilst the
Code itself Except Is expressly provided
is to take effect the first of November,
1880, and ''from and after that date" is ''to
be received in use and shall supercede all
prior statutes and clauses therein revised"
The Revenue law, as We have seen, took
effect on the fifth Of March last, and by
Z IL Of this law, which is 5S5 OF the Code,
Ia section by express enactment, operative
since the fifth of March last) certain priv
ileges are taxed and conferred, and among
them is that of selling liquor Gin less guam
titles than five gallons and not less than one
pint" This clause of the Revenue law is
in these words:
"On each person selling vinous or spirit
uous liquors, or mixtures of which vinous
or spirituous liquors is the principal ingre-
dent, in less quantities than five gallons
and not less than one pint, $780,"
In 5S5 of the Code, and which took
effect March 9Th, 1880, there are included
more than one hundred privileges, and as
quoted, the law has been held operative
without question since the 9th of March, /
and | think what Is true of the rest of the /
privileges enumerated, Is also true of the |
privilege of selling liquor by the pint.
There is not only nothing in the Revenue
law which suspends the taking effect OF any
of its provisions. but more than one Of its
sections gives to it, as whole, immediate
effect.
Section 100 provides
"Anv nerson desiring
to enjoy any of the privileges enumerated
in this chapter, shall first pay the price as
prescribed, to the collector of taxes in the
county and obtain from him the license
herein required for such privilege" and
l25 provides further, "upon application and
payment to him, (the tax colector) of the
tax imposed upon any of said privileges,
the tax collector shall issue to such appii- {
can't for it license, as aforesaid, and shall
late each license the first day of the month
IF its issuance, and 1t shall be good for one
pear from that date"
Under these provisions it certainly became
the right of any one, after the fifth of March,
when the Revenue law took effect, to apply
or and obtain, on paying the tax, license
20 sell liquor "in less quantities than five 5
gallons and not less than one pint ;" and E
such license when obtained, the law in eX-
press terms declares should "be good for one
year from that date - that is, from "the first /
lay of the month of the issuance of such Ii +
,ense." The doubt as to the correct answer {
20 this question is suggested alone by what 7
5 said in regard to the subject in 1898 of 9
he Code, which is, so far as material to our
present purpose, as follows: 7
cit shall not be lawful for any person to ]
ell vinOus or spirtuous liquor in 80 small j
quantity as one pint, or in a greater guam I
ity, without having first paid the privilege t
ak required, and having obtained the Ii '
ense prescribed therefor by the Revenue law, I
which imposes taxes on certain privileges = $
and if any supervisors district or in =
orporated town shall, by majority of the {
egal voters therein, Petition the board I
# supervisors against the granting of license i
o retail spirituous liquors, such license shall {
lot be granted to any applicant, within the |
pounds ofsuch district or incorporated town, \
or twelve months after said petition is so t
presented" O
As a part of the Code, this section does y
lot take effect until the first day of next 4
month, and there is nothing in it which sus- t
lends or affects the Revenue law, before .
hat time; and on and after that date the !
My effect of it is to engraft upon the pint f
aw the ''local option" feature X :