The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-12-02
TESTING THE RAINEs' LAW.
Teddy Roosevelt and Chief Conlan
Rather Approve the Law.

Teddy Roosevelt and Chief Conlan
Rather Approve the Law.
New York, Dee 1.-The chief of police
was questioned to-day by the Senate
special committee, now i'm session here,
pursuing an inquiry into the operation
of the Raines' excise law. He was not
ready to cOncede that the law had ac-
complshed all that its friends had ex-
pected that it would effect in regulating
the liquor traffic, but he said that in
many ways it's provisions had been found
to operate benefcially. This was parti-
cularly true as regards the removal Of
distinctions at doors and windows dur
ing the prohibited hours and the abolition
Of side rooms, while the license fee ex-
acted has served to drive many of the
lower class Of liquor sellers from the
business. The chief was asked if, in his
opinion, liquor can be obtained at more
places on Sundays under the present
law than under the old one
The chief at first declined to express
an opinion and then said:
Judging from the number Of arrests
for excise violations and selling with
out license, | can say that there were
fewer places where drinks could be had
on Sundays"
Father Doyle, pastor of the Church of
the Paulist Fathers, and prominent in
Roman Catholic temperance work, was
next examined. He said:
ut is my firm conviction that Sunday
drunkenness has increased very much
under the new law. This has caused
great distress and poverty. Our chart
tables societies have had larger drafts
nd bow
had larger number of drunken brawls
to settle and a larger number Of COM
plants from women and children"
Continuing Father Doyle said that he
did not know whether the places he
found open on Sundays were 'hOtels" or
not.
All he did know that about every place
he passed on Sunday seemed to be open,
as on other days.
TheO. Roosevelt, president of the
Board of Police Commissioners, took the
witness chair and went into a long re-
view Of the violations, arrests and alleged
discrimination against liquor dealers not
affiliated with Tammany Hall.
The apparent immunity now enjoyed
by excise violation, he attributed, con-
siderably to the defect in the law, but
more especially to the action of juries,
which seemed reluctant to convict al
legged offenders
Here the commissioner read off a num-
Der of arrests made by the police and
which arrests were afterwards nulliied
by the action Of the police magistrates
The tendency of the last nineteen
months" said Mr.. Roosevelt, "has given
me 81 perfect adherence of the sentiment
allied which surrounds the eviI-doer.
Some clergymen tend to think that
saloons should be open some hours on
Sunday" The commissioner said that
the bonds between the police and the
sal0on-keeper had been broken and had
reduced political corruption to a minimum.
The benefit Of these things he declared,
could not be over-estimated.
Having spoken freely in criticism of
the new law, I feel that I ought to say
this: | would rather have the new law,
with its many defects, than the old law"
II would further say that there ought
to be a law discriminating between the
man who goes to a bar and takes his
drink on Sunday and the man who goes
to a family resort with his wife and chill
dren and makes the occasion a holiday
for IN outing J say this, although real
ling how difficult it might be to frame
such a measure