Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-05-24
HIGH LICENSE LAW.
An Action to Test the Constitutionality
of the Seventeenth Section.

An Action to Test the Constitutionality
of the Seventeenth Section.
A case that is being watched with in
terest by attorneys and politicians in
every part of the state was taken to the
supreme court from Bucks county yes
terday, when the attorneys for Calvin
F. Heckler obtained a special allocatur
from that court, directed to the court of
quarter sessions of Bucks county, to re-
move the record of the case of the COM
monwealth against Heckler into the
supreme court for review, upon a point
of law which involves the constitution
ality of the act of 1887, known as the
high license law.
The facts of the case as revealed upon
the trial show that on Sunday, Novem-
ber 5, last, two days prior to the election,
lIeckler, who was an attorney and a
politician of prominence, and also pub
Usher of the Quakertown Times, started
for a drive upon matter of business in
the neighborhood, and having been for
some days previous indisposed, he placed
in his pocket for medicinal purposes, a
small flask of whiskey. In the course
of his drive he stopped to see Isaac Kile,
an eighty-year-old hermit. The conyer-
sation turned upon the methods by
which the Kile brothers would be able
to get down to the polls the next day
Kile complained of feeling unwell and
Heckler, touched with sympathy for his
condition, gave him drink of whiskey
from his flask. On his way home Heck
Ter met another of the Kile brothers and
also gave him a drink, as matter of
cordiality.
The election in Bucks county was
closely contested and apparently left
bitter feelings among the contestants, as
result of which information was lodged
of Heckler's acts in dispensing whiskey
10 the Kile brothers; an indictment was
framed charging him with violation of
the seventeenth section of the act of
1857 and in January last he was convict
ed before Judge Yerkes. The seven
teenth section of the act provides that it
shall not be lawful for any person with
or without license to furnish by sale,
gift or otherwise to any person any
spirituous, vineous, malt or brewed
liquors on any day upon which elections
are held nor on Sunday.
A motion for a new trial and in arrest
of judgement was made by Heckler's
attorneys, and in lengthy opinion filed
by Judge Gerkes, both were refused,
and on Tuesday the defendant was sem
fenced to pay a fine of 500 and the cost
of prosecution, and to undergo an i'm
prisonment of twenty days, to date from
May |. Before sentence was imposed a
petition signed by l64 of the citizens of
Quakertown was presented asking that
sentence be suspended. The court stat
ed that if sentence was suspended the
case could not be reviewed by the su-
preme court, where the defendant had
intended to take the case.
The point of law raised by Heckler's
counsel in their appeal is that the seven
teenth section of the act of 1887, under
which the indictment was laid, does not
apply to persons not engaged in the sale
of liquors, and if it is contended that the
section does apply to persons not en-
gagged in the sale of liquors, then that
section is unconstitutional because under
such construction the act would contain
more than one subject, while its title
limits it to those engaged in the sale Of
liquors.
A number of lawyers have considered
that section unconstitutional since the
act went into effect, and the case, when
it comes up before the supreme court,
will be fought with vigor on both sides