Washington sentinel., 1898-10-22


Committee OF btftY.
! The concluding chapter Of tn
Committee oil Fiity's report ON IN
liquor traffic is contained IN In
following:
Prohibition has been thorough.
tried in the West, in the state @
Iowa. When the Clark Act, whicl
materially strengthened the pro
hibitory law already existing, wa
passed in 1886, it closed saloons bl
wholesale. At the same time
greatly imulated the trade o
drug stores in alcoholic liquors
and led to many sham drug dis
pensaries being opened.
"But the drug store was ey nc
means the only source OF supply,
says DIR. Wine, who reports on
this State. "Secret and illicit sales
were common. The amount OF
supervision and espionage needed
to prevent them was beyond the
reach ofmunicipalities, even where
there was a disposition to suppress
illicit traffic. The schemes adopted
in order to avoid detection were
varied and ingenious. The man
who went around with bottle
upon his person. and dispensed
drinks of the vIlest composition IN
back alleys, was known as boot
logger Few dealers sold openly.
They had a store OF liquor in one
place, from which hidden pipes
conveyed it to another, where 1t
was dispensed; the faucets through
which it was drawn were cunningly
placed, out OF sight, in the most
extraordinary places. Or the
liquor was in a cellar or subcellar
beneath secret trapdoor, and was
sent up, on.receipt Of the price, by
means Of a concealed hoist or
dumb waiter; or a step in a stair
way was so constructed as to hit
up, on hinges, and reveal a we'll
filed glass; or the glass was sent in
through a PARTITION wall by means
OF revolving closet. There was
no end of these devices, in most of
which the customer did not see
the man who supplied the liquor,
nor the dealer the man who drank
it," In rural and temperate com.
munities these evils did not exist.
On the other hand, there were
ounties in which the law was
evaded with the collusion of offici'
ais or was openly defed.
Prohibition had been inaugurated
as a political move, and for some
years served its purpose well. But
the party that had taken it up
found it growing unpopular, and
in 1894 an end was made Of pro-
hibition in Iowa by the passage Of
a mulcs law.
The idea OF a mulct law was
borrowed from Ohio. By the Dow
law OF that State the traffic is
neither prohibited nor licensed; it
is simply taxed, and many OF the \
usual restrictions are thrown round
it. The tax is $zso year, and is
a first lien on the premises occu-
pied. The dealer is civilly liable
for loss and damage resulting from
the intoxication oi any persons to
whom he may have sold or given
any Intoxicating liquor, and this
liability extends to the owner OF
the premises. The guardian or
any near relative may enjoin the
sale of liquor to any individual.
The law provides also for local op
llOl dS W pIoAAAOhAOh'
Statistics indicate some decrease
Of drunkenness in public since the
law has been in effect. The law
has not taken the saloon out of
municipal politics. although there
has been in ten years only one
election OF State officers in which
the liquor question is thought to
have affected the result. The deal
ers are impatient of any restric-
tions, and are constantly working
against a srIct enforcement of
them That against selling on
Sunday is especially irksome to
them. In Cincinnati the police
declare it to be impossible to close
the saloons on that day. The deal
ers are arrested. but juries cannot
be got to render verdicts Of guilty.
Public opinion is not behind the
Sunday closing law.
No recent attempt OF any State
to solve the liquor problem has
attracted so much attention from
the rest Of the country as the dis
pensary system Of South Carolina.
Il has become conspicuous from
the v;oor with which il has been