The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-12-02
RAINES Law.
CONTINUATION OF THE IN
VESTIGATION.

New York, Dec. 1-ChSef OF Police
Conlin was questioned to-day by the SEN
ate special committee, now in session here
pursuing an inquiry into the operation of
the Raines excise law. He was not ready
to cGncede that the law had accomplished
all 'that It's friends had expected that it
would effect in regulating the liquor
traffic, but he said that in many ways it's
provisions had been found to operate ben
efcially. This was particularly true as
regards the removal of distractions mt
doors aud windows during prohibited
itours and the abolition of side rooms,
while the high license fee eXacted had
served to drive many of the lower class Of
liquor sellers QUITO the business. The
chief was asked il, in his opinion. liquor
can he obtained at'more places on Sunday
under the prcscntlaw than under the old
The chief at first declined to express an
opinion, and then said:
Judging from the number of arrests
for excise violations and selling without
IL license, I should say that there were
fewer places where drinks could he had
on Sunday
Father Doyle, pastor of .the Church of
the Paulist Fathers, and prominent III
Roman Catholic temperance work, was
next examined. He said:
sit is my first conviction that Sunday
drunkenness has increased very much in
the new law. This has caused great dis
tress and poverty. Our charitable socie-
ties hare had larger drafts made upon
their resources, and we have had II larger
number of drunken brawls to settle, and
Il large humble Of complaints from wo-
| men and children
did not know whether the places he found
open OH Sundays We're "hotels" or not
All he did know that about every place
he passed on Sunday seemed to be open as
on other days.
Theodore Roosevelt, president of the
board of police commissioners, took the
witness chair and went into "a long recital
of the violations, arrests and alleged
discrimination against liquor dealers not
| affiliated with Tammany Hail.
The apparent immunity now enjoyed by
excise violatols he attributed largely to
the defects i'll the law but more espe-
cially to the action of juries which
seemed reluctant to convict alleged
offenders.
Here the commissioner read Off num-
Der o. arrests made by the police, and
which arrests were afterwards nullified by
the action of the police magistrates.
1.-The tendency of the last nineteen
months, P" said Mr. Roosevelt, 'thas given
me perfect adherence of the senti.
mentality which surrounds the evil doer.
Some clergymen tend to think that sa
looms should be open some hours on Sun.
day
The commissioner said that the bonds
between the police and the saloon keeper
had been broken, and has reduced polit-
zeal corruption 10 a minimum. The ben
eiits of these things, he declared, could
not be overestimated
Having spoken freely in criticism of
the new law, ] feel that I ought to say
this: / would rather have the new law,
with its many defects, than the old law
81 would further suggest that there
should be Il law discriminating between
the man who goes to n bar and takes his
drink on Sunday, and the man who goes
to IL family resort with his wife and chill.
dren and makes the occasion holiday or
IN outing. say this, although realizing
how difficult it might be to frame such a
measure