The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-12
THEY WILL ALL FIGHT IT.
LIQUOR MEN INTERESTED IN
TWO MEASURES Now
PENDING,
ONE BILL SLIPPED THROUGH WITH
OUT THEIR BEING AWARE
OF IT.

SACRAMENTO, March 11.-While the liquor
men have been trying to pass uniform
license bill, and failing in that have sought
to engraft on the county government and
other bills provisions which would recog-
nize the traffic in intoxicants and give
favorable status to the business, right un-
der their very noses two bills have
been passed which if signed will
seriously cripple the liquor inter
ests. One of these bills through
a defect OF construction has come back to
the Legislature, and the liquor men will
have an opportunity to test their strength
in an attempt to defeat it in the Senate
aud the Assembly.
The other bill is Senator Withington's
pure food BILL which applies to liquors as
well as to breadstuffs and which the
author confidently believes will receive the
Governors signature. Withington's bill
will if enforced absolutely prevent the
adulteration of liquors. But the bill which
will strike CONSERVATION in the liquor
lobby is Senate bill 1863, introduced by
Senator VOORHEES,, and passed by both
houses. The California Protective Asso-
citation conducted a vigorous prenomina-
ton and prediction campaign.
1t succeeded in having many of the
Senators and Assemblymen pledge them
selves not to enact legislation adverse to
| liquor interests, and while G. w. Baker and
the members of the California Protective
| Association have been most strenuous in
| their efforts to secure favorable legislation
/ for the liquor interests they allowed this
bill to quietly pass both houses, in blissiul
| ignorance of the fact that it is the strong
est Iocal-option measure ever passed in any
State, and one which attorneys regard as
sure to stand the test of the courts. But
for the fatal defect in engrossment this bill
might have received the Governors sane
ton and now be in force as law.
In 1891 the Legislature passed bill for
the creation of sanitary districts, 10 be
regulated by a sanitary board. The act
provides that when twenty-five citizen free
holders petition a Board of Supervisors for
an election to determine whether a sani-
tary district shall be created, the board
must order such election. The bill intro
duced by Senator VOORHEES, to amend this
act passed the Senate by vote of p to L
and the Assembly by 48 affirmative votes,
with no negative ones.
The amendment to the law as passed
provides that the sanitary board make and
enforce regulations regarding disorderly
houses, and to declare the qualifications of
persons who may sell liquor at retail, no
one being empowered to sell liquor unless
he has the approval of the board. The por-
ton of the amendment which has direct
! bearing on the liquor traffic reads as fol-
lows:
To make and enforce all necessary and
proper regulations for suppressing disorderly
| and disreputable resorts and houses of i'll fame
| within the district, and to determine the quail
fication of persons authorized to sell liquors al
retail, and from and after the passage of this
act no license to keep saloon or sell liquors al
retail shall take effect or be operative within any
| sanitary district unless the same be approved
by the sanitary board of the district; to impose
fines, penalties and forfeitures for any and all
violations of its regulations or orders, and to
| fix the penalty thereof by fine or imprison-
ment or both, but no fine shall exceed the sum
| of 500, and no such imprisonment shall ex-
coed one month.
! Under this amendment there is nothing
to forbid the organization of sanitary dis
tricts throughout San Francisco and other
large cities, as well as in the county, and
to absolutely forbid the traffic in LIQUOR in
such districts. The fatal defect in the bill
as printed is that in the title the word
"Collections'' appears where the word
elections" should appear and the date OF
the act sought to be amende is omitted
When the bill was read by the Governor
lately he noticed the fatal clerical errors
and notified Senator VOORHEES,, its author
The bill has been recalled for repairs and
| lively fight is now anticipated