Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-15
A CHANGE OF BASE.
Remonstrants Against Liquor
License Applicants
AGAIN GOING INTO COURT.
Less Than Three Dozen Written Re-
monstrances Filed.
A WAY TO STOP SOME KICKING

cense could be filed with the Clerk OF Courts,
and less than three dozen have been filed.
Notwithstanding the utterances of the w.
c. 7. Q. and other opponents of the busi-
ness to the effect that they would not do as
they did before, the fact that Miss McCon-
nell and others spent considerable time in
the office, scanning the list of applicants,
some suppose that remonstrances would
come in shower at the last day, as in other
years when they were brought in baskets on
the last day allowed.
Ex-Sherif' Hunter states that nearly all
the remonstrances so far fled have come
from the outlying districts, and but very few
from the cities.
Among the districts in which applicants
have been demonstrated against are: Pitts
burg, Fifth ward, Seventeenth ward,
Eighteenth ward, Twenty-sixth ward; A lie
gheny Eighth ward, and all in the Eleventh
ward; Verona borough, Oakmont borough,
Hampton township, Collier township, Moon
township, Forward township and O'Hara
township.
1t is suspected that the temperance people
have decided on change of tactics. They
and not be at the expense Of getting lawyers
to make out papers, and some think this
the most effective way to object.
There is but one applicant for license from
Moon township, but there are people there
who think even one liquor store too many.
A GREAT BURDEN.
There are not great many people en-
gagged directly in the liquor business, COM
paratively, but nevertheless the regulation
Of it is beginning to be regarded as a great
burden by all who are directly connected
with it, and more especially by lawyers and
judges whose functions are directly inter-
Iered with, and there are also some queer
phases suggested that may be developed
during the hearings in applications for
license, which begin next Monday.
The first thing that causes discomfort is
the fact that applicants for license are heard
in March, and that it devolves on the Court
OF Common Pleas No. 2 to run the Criminal
Court that term. The March term calendar
is always the heaviest ot the wear, and there
have been persons acquitted in the past few
days who have lain in Jail since last tall
awaiting trial now turned out and pro-
nounced insolvent. Suppose it had been their
fate to have been held over to the June
term for trial. What unrequited misery
would have been their tate! Then again
the Constitution is supposed to guarantee
persons charged with crime a speedy trial,
and how are they to get it if the March
term be shortened?
COST TO THE COUNTY.
The county, too, is interested. These
people might be valuable were they at large
that is, the innocent portion of them.
Now the county will be called upon to
board them month after month, and there is
no recompense anywhere. The Jail was
never so crowded as at present, and many
suggest that civil business can wait better
than criminal. Judge Gripp alone has sent
some 60 people to Jail to await trial, and
Judge Mckenna some so more.
Then, too, Justice is often cheated by de-
lay. A prosecutor may not be able after
six months waiting to secure his witnesses,
and the accused, no matter how guilty, go
free in consequence.
Then, in June Lawyers begin to sigh for
rest, and their thoughts stray to green fields,
umbrageous woods and sea breezes, and the
Judges themselves, being only human, are
supposed to be afflicted with passions much
as other men, and altogether the present ar
rangement is decidedly unsatisfactory. The
political pot also begins to boil in June.
In Philadelphia the courts run differently,
in some respects, from those in this county.
to hear license applicants, and it is sug-
gested that the courts here might assist each
other. Judge Stowe, however, is said to
hold that there is constitutional objection
to the Judges doing so here, and he is be-
lieved to be well intrenched in his position,
especially so far as the trial of murder cases
is concerned.
A REMEDY SUGGESTED.
The remedy suggested is that one Judge
hear the license applications, and reserve
delicate cases, where he does not wish to as
sumo sole responsibility, for consideration
by the full bench. In this manner both
civil and criminal trials and license appli-
cations might be heard at once. Some peo-
pie are uncharitable enough to suppose that
the Judges in Common Pleas No. / are not
over-anxious to hear applicants for license
Some lawyers are inclined to think that
applicants for wholesale license NAV not
have as plain sailing as they seem to think
They say in the Pollard case and others
passed on last summer, all possible phases
were not passed on by the Supreme Court
Saws one: Suppose man with suspi-
ciously red nose should be an appli-
can't The Judges have considerable
discretion, and suppose they should decide
that his nose threw MIN out of court. The
Supreme Court could not very well pass on
sucn case, iOr II cOulo not nave that nose
photographed for review"
Another may not be able to run the
gauntlet when asked if he has sold to unli-
censed dealers.
WOULD CUT OUT MANY.
Then again, 1t is said that Justice Shars-
wood has held that a man who sells flom
spigot is not a wholesale dealer, and it is
held that this construction would cut out
the majority Of applicants as most of them
sell quarts. On the other hand, Judge in
Philadelphia has not only ruled that there
is nothing to hinder such dealers from fur
nishing purchasers with glasses, allowing
them to divide and drink the stuff on the
premises.
Altogether, license hearings promise to
be fully as interesting this year as previ-
ously, but the burning question is: Shall
the Jail be crowded to suffocation, prosecu-
tors and the county put to immense ex-
pense, and innocent people be immured for
months merely that license applications
shall be heard?
"Better by far" say objectors, ''that the
civil business be postponed, if it be abso-
lutely necessary that two Judges shall sit
in the License Court"
RREAU AkD nOEFEE