The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-23

Liquor License-Promfnent Hostel
 ries AHected-Hub's Board of Police
 Commissioners Has Reached No De-
 cisiOn fin the Matter of Stopping the
 Sale of Liquors at the HoteIs-Likely
 to be Settled in the Courts.
 Boston, Dec. 22-In lengthy com- munication Attorney-General Herbert Parker to-day instructed the Boston po- lice commission as to it's duties regard ing investigations of alleged violations of the laws, and expressed as his per sonal opinion that District Attorney John B. Moran's claim that violations of the law annul liquor license was we'll founded
 The communication of the attorney general to the police commission was in response to 6 request from Charles H. Cole, jr., chairman of the commits District Attorney Moran called the at tention of the police commission to the fact that four of the leading hotels in the city, Young's hotel, Parker house, Adams house and the Hotel Essex, had maintained screens or other obstruc- tions on licensed premises, and he as serted that, although such Instructions had later been removed, the law had been violated, and that therefore the licenses were invalid. Accompanying this claim was demand that the com mission immediately stop the sale of liquor at the four hotels mentioned.
 The police commission is appointed by the governor and is, in a sense, a state body.
 In his communication Attorney-Gen eral Parker informed the members of the commission that 1t was their duty to investigate the alleged violations of the law and to act according to the re- suits of such Investigations. The at- torney-general held, however, that the demand of the district attorney for &C., ton was of no more weight than sim liar demand from any other citizen who might be actuated by good faith and a desire to see the law enforced.
 Referring to the maintenance of screens and the effects of such main tenance upon the license, the attorney general writes:
 "The opinion expressed by the district attorney with regard to the effects of the maintenance of screens or other like structures or devices, while so main tained and existing as affecting such licenses. for the sale of liquors, appears to. me to be in substantial accord With the established law. I am not, how ever, able to concur absolutely in the opinion of the district attorney as to the complete extinction of a license, through such transitory conditions, after the same shall have ceased to ex- ist."
 Continuing, Attorney General Parker expresses his personal opinion as fol- lows:
 "In my opinion there is strong ground for holding that the maintenance of prohibited screens and structures under such as those asserted to eX- ist by the district attorney would, in the fact itself, destroy and completely annul license for the sale of liquors, and thereafter such licenses could not be pleaded in justification or defense of such sales.'
 Chairman Cole said tonight that the board of police had not reached any decision in the matter of stopping the sale of liquor at the four hotels men, toned by District Attorney Moran. Chairman Cole was of the opinion that the question was too delicate to be de- cided by the police commission and that it would be settled by the courts.