The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-20
DRY SUNDAYS.
Senator Raines Trying to Close
Up New York.
He Wants No More Drinks With
a Meal.
HITS CAFES AND CLUBS
Is Preparing More Radical Bill
Amendments.
To Stop All Liquor Selling In
the State.
HITS CAFES AND CLUBS

Albany, N. Y, Jan. 20.-If Senator
Raines has his way, Sunday will be a
mighty dry day in New York city, and
all the rest of the state, and the
'Raines' law sandwich" will be no
longer a cloak to hide a multitude of
| drinks.
For the honorable senator, whose very
| name is so suggestive of water, would
make it impossible to get a stimulant
stronger than tea or coffee with a meal
served in any hotel or restaurant or
club on the first day of the week.
Not satisfied with the prohibitive law
which bears his name, Senator Raines
said today he was preparing radical
| amendments to it, and that if they were
adopted they would stop all liquor SELL
ing on Sunday, no matter where the
place.
He wants to strike out a portion of
section 81 of the state excise law which
now allows hotels, clubs and restaur-
ants to sell liquor with a meal on
Sunday. He said that in his opinion the
only way to stop the many violations Of
the law, ''fake'' clubs and fake" hotel
licenses, of which many complaints, he
said, had been made, would be to pro-
hibit Sunday selling entirely.
The people of the state, he said, by
their votes had sanctioned the excise
legislation Of the Republican party.
He has collected statistics relating to
the subject of Sunday liquor selling
with fake sandwich served as
meal, and the people of the state, in his
opinion, desire this loophole, which per
mitS of open violation of the spirit of
the law, should be closed.
1T is not just" said he, 'to reputa-
bic hotels and restaurants who pay
their license fees to try to observe the
provisions of the law, to allow disrepu-
table places to take refuge behind that
flaw in the state excise law and sell
lou fesaTT
Sunday open door must be closed, and
the only way to close it is to close it so
tight that nobody can open it,
State Commissioner of Excise Lyman
does not favor Senator Raines' proposed
amendments. He thinks that the law.
as it now stands, is working well, and
that all that is necessary is a fair and
impartial enforcement of it's provisions
by the local authorities in each COM
munity.
81 have absolutely no amendments to
suggest" he said, when questioned con-
corning Senator RaineS' idea. THE law
is working pretty smoothly as it is. The
legislature, of course, has the power to
make and change the laws; L have not"
In his annual report Commissioner
Lyman went further and said:
1T is in the interest of law, as well
as of those who do business under it,
that frequent changes which disturb
business should not be made"
Many Republicans agree with Com
missioner Lyman in this view of the
excise question, and 1T is doubtful If
Raines' radical amendment will pre-
vail in the legislature. The New York
members. including the Republicans, be-
lieve such a strict provision would work
havoc with the party in every part of
the state.
Governor Roosevelt, too has his own
idea of the excise question, learned by
experience as president Of the police
board in New York. Some of his friends
say he will oppose any proposition look
ing toward preventing a man from get
ting a glass of beer anywhere on Sun
day; in short, that he believes in Sum
day selling, under certain restrictions.
The governor, however, has not ex-
pressed himself recently on this SUBJ
ject.
In the opinion of many senators and
members of the assembly, Senator
Raines will find that he can not lead the
party into interfering with the excise
law as it now stands. They want it let
alone, and it probably will be.