The Forrest City times., 1901-04-26


White county granted license to c.
I. Ross to sell liquors in Beebe dur
ing 1901. Afterwards certain citizens
took the matter to the circuit court
and had the license quashed. 1t was
shown that Beebe is an incorporated
town and that there is no separate
voting precinct for the town. but the
town and township are to be included
in one precinct, the voting place for
which is in town. At the general
election in September. 1900. a major.
ity of the voters in White county
voted for license" and a majority of
the voters in Union township, in which
the town of Beebe is included. also
voted for license, but no separate
election was held for the town.
In his opinion Mr. Justice Riddick
said: THE circuit court in this case
quashed the order of the county court
granting license to sell liquors in
Beebe, on the ground that no separate
| election was held in the town on the
question of granting license. the
| court holding that an election must
be held in an incorporated town sep
arate from the township and that a
majority of the votes cast for the
town must be in favor of license be-
fore license to sell liquors in the town
| can be granted.
THE decision of this question de-
| pends upon a construction of the act
of March s, 1879, and the amendment
| thereto made by the act of March 10,
| 1881.
THE act of 1881 amended only two
sections out of the twenty of the act
| OF 1879. The statute as amended re-
quired the question of license or no
license to be submitted to the electors
| of each county, and provided that
| majority of the votes cast on the ques
| tion in the county be against license
| that it should be unlawful to grant
| license at any place in the county un-
| til after theinext general election, but
| If majority in any county voted for
license. then license could be granted
in any township. town or ward of
| city in such county,
1T seems obvious that the main
purpose of the amendment was to re-
quire the vote of the whole county to
| be taken on the question. Previous
to this amendment if one ward or
township in county, however small
voted in favor of license it was lawful
+n hn 1A 30
although nine-tenths of the votes of
the whole county may have been op-
posed to license and may have voted
against it. This was changed by the
amendment so as to require not only
majority vote in the township or
ward, but also in the county, before
license could be granted. The amend
ment also provided that license should
only be granted to persons of good
moral character. over the age of 81
years These were the chief purposes
of the amendment.
In this case the circuit court doubt
less based its judgment on that pro-
vision of the amendment to the effect
that If the vote in the county was in
favor of license, then license might be
granted in ANY township. town or
ward of city in such county where
the majority of the votes cast upon the
question was for license, but in no
other" This language, if it stood by
itself. would probably support the
judgment of the circuit court, but it
must be taken in connection with the
whole act Of 1879 not specifically
| amended.
Reading the whole act as amended
it is plain that the legislature did not
intend to require a separate vote in
each town in the state, or even in the
incorporated towns, or it would have
said so; all it required was a vote by
the whole county in favor of license
as prerequisite to the granting of IL
censes.
THE statute, as it now stands. pro.
vides that the question of license shall
be submitted to. the electors of the
county at each general election for
state officers. 1t provides that such
election shall be held at the same
time and place and in the same man
| ner as other elections and makes no
change in the voting precincts.
I'VE therefore conclude that it was
not the intention of the legislature or
the meaning of the statute that
| separate vote should be held in those
| towns which were not separate cleo
tion precincts. Every ward and every
township was. at the time these stat
utes were enacted, and is still, sep
arate election precinct. and il is there
| fore necessary under these statutes
before license to sell liquors can be
| granted in ward or township. that
a majority vote should be cast therein
| in favor of license. But it was and is
the rare exception for a town to be
separate election precinct, and we do
not think this statute intended to re
quire separate elections in those towns
which are not separate election pre-
cincts. IL the town is not a separate
election precinct and a majority of the