Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-03-09

With a wen-defned idea OF their powers in the
matter Of hquor-hcense the District Com
miss;oners may now go ahead and administer
the law which resulted from more than q little
agitation and a great deal of incessant labor.
For some little time the issuing OF licenses has
been suspended. the Commissioners being averse
to proceeding under old Methods and un willing to
adopt the new ones until the best available
legal advice had been secured. Today Mr.. S.
T. Thomas. assistant attorney for the District,
rendered . series Of opinions in response to
questions put by the Commissioners and thus
settled, so far an opinion can settle anything.
several objections raised by those who
are opposed to legislation that promises
to make the selling of liquor less profit
able. From the replies. printed elsewhere in
The STAB it is evident that the excise board,
which ia composed of the board of commits
sioners, is invested with Discretionary powers
Ito be exercised in view of the facts and cir
cumstances of each particular case" Who
contended that the excise board had not such
powers Is not apparent If, says Attorney
Thomas. ''it had been intended that every
applicant for license when he had complied with
the statutory preliminaries. was entitled to a
license, as matter of right, irrespective OF moral
or other qualifications, then / think Congress
would not have used the expression if the
board should decide to grant the license prayed
for found in section of the act" 1t there
fore is clear-and it seems more than strange
that anyone should have thought other
wise-that the board is authorized by
Congress to consider applications and to decide
when it will grant them Applications not
acted upon prior to the Sd instant must be re-
newed. IL at all. under the new law, but when
applications were approved before that date it
only remains for the assessor to perform the
ministerial act Of issuing the licenses. 1t is
also made clear that licenses may be issued
for the remainder of the current license
year. Attorney Thomas is satisfied that
the proprietor Of any established hotel or tavern
having twenty chambers for lodging guests is
entitled to a license a matter of right, if be
complies with the provisions of the act but at
the same time attention is directed to the fact
that two convictions of violating any provisions
of the act can bring about revocation
of the license. The opinions are pointed and
unencumbered with superfluous language; they
may not be misunderstood. Some of the liquor
men say they will fight the law. but in view of
the fact that it was largely framed by them
selves such qualification is hardly probable 1t
will be interesting to note the point, if any,
which is assailed. Will the weak place be found
in the portions drafted by the dealers is a
charge to be made upon one of the amend
ments? Washington generally is content with
the measure Is a substitute for far worse con-
ditions existing when the law was enacted. and
this community will not view with complacency
or silent carelessness any effort to abbreviate
its usefulness or damage its vitality. The law
is to be vigorously enforced.