Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-12
BILL FOR HIGH LICENSE
ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST
AT DISTRICT BUILDING.
Effect Of Proposed Amendment to
Present Law as Described by
Former Senator Thurston.

The question Of high license and other
changes in the LIQUOR laws OF the city. as
proposed In two bills Of the present session
Of Congress-. were the subject OF a hearing
before tho Commissioners in the board room
In the District building late yesterday after
noon. There was large attendance on the
part Of the representatives of the Anti-Sa-
loon League and various religious and tenn
perance societies OF the District, while the
opponents Of the proposed measures In
cluded wholesale and retail liquor dealers
and other business men.
As has been previously explained in The
Star, the proposed high license bill pro-
vides for increasing the retail license fee in
the District from $500 to 81 500 per annum
and the wholesale license fee from $500 to
1850 The other bill under discussion at
the hearing was that introduced by Senator
Hansbrough, which provides that an appli-
cant for liquor license renewal as well as
for new license shall be required to
obtain the consent of majority of resi-
dents and property owners on both sides
Of the block at the beginning of each
license year; that every saloon shall be
closed at 10 o'clock pm. and not open at
all on legal holidays, and that no saloon
shall be located within 400 feet of any
church or other religious institutions or
public or private school.
Objections Urged.
Objections to both the measures were
summarized In an address by former Sem
ator John NJ. Thurston attorney for the
Retail Liquor Dealers Association, who de-
clared that the bills were loosely, careless
ly and deceptively drawn, and that their
enactment would be piece of inadvisable
legislation because 1t would be practically
impossible for the saloon-keeper to comply
with their requirements and exist and
equally impossible for the District authori-
ties to enforce. The speaker declared that
both bills were so worded that they aimed
indirectly at local option or prohibition, and
he deemed 1t exceedingly unwise for the
Commissioners to favor any such legisla-
ton, as he considered the present liquor
laws sufficiently drastic and to his mind
better from a restrictive standpoint than
any similar laws In any city in the Union.
Referring to the undesirable conditions
which would follow the enactment of any
prohibition measure, Senator Thurston
cited the cases of several western jurisdic-
tons, where prohibition had been effected
only to be rejected at the first succeeding
opportunity. He said he was speaking from
his own knowledge when he declared that
more crime and drunkenness would exist in
Washington under prohibition than under
the present laws.
Taking up particular clauses in the bills,
Mr.. Thurston stated his objection to the
one which would require the proprietor OF
a saloon to secure the signatures of resi-
dents and property owners every year, and
to the apparently harmless specification
prohibiting the location of saloon within
400 feet Of any private school. Many peo-
pie in a block where a saloon Is located
might really be in favor of it. he said, and
yet the securing of their signatures at such
frequent intervals would be a great source
of annoyance and trouble, both to the sa-
ioonist and to the people themselves, while
slightly changing conditions such as the
n a 1yfYv mi in a
neighborhood might be sufficient to cause
the closing of saloon and the loss of a
considerable investment by its proprietor.
Regarding the private school specification,
Mr. Thurston said it would be possible for
a so-called private school with only one,
two or three pupils. to be located In the
vicinity of every saloon in the city, and thus
put them all out Of business.
Mr.. Ewin's Views
AS the chief spokesman for the advocates
of the proposed bills, President Ewin of the
Anti-Saloon League, in pointing out reasons
why the present laws should be changed
and license fees raised, told of the many
evils due to the laxity in the existing stat
ute. He contended that the higher the IL
censes and the more stringent the laws gov
erning the liquor traffic, the fewer would
be the saloons in the city. He produced
statistics showing a decrease In evils grow
ing out of the liquor traffic since the adop-
ton of the present law, which, when they
were adopted effected an increase in the
license. 1t was declared tbat,the advocates
of the bills at the hearing represented the
great majority of property owners In the
District and Mr. Ewin said IL the question
of favorably reporting the bills should be
put to a vote tremendous majority would
be registered in favor of the two bills
Christian Heurch, the brewer, stated
that he believed that drunkenness Is one of
the worst evils of any community, and that
no one would be more willing to see 1t
stamped out than he. But, he stated, this
would never be accomplished by prohibition
or local option, and that the results accom-
plished. should the present bills be enacted
would be contrary to the expectations of
their advocates Mr.. Heurich caused a
ripple of laughter at the hearing when he
expressed the belief that drinking was an
art, and that persons should be educated up
to it as they are to everything else in life
Mr.. Shoemaker Heard
Representing the Business Mems Associa-
ton. Louis P. Shoemaker stated that he
was not interested in either the anti-saloon
feared the effect of any such enactments
upon the District finances.
Others who spoke In advocacy of the bills
were ATTORNEY A. f. Shoemaker of the Anti
Saloon League. Mrs. Blaine, Rev. Mr.. But
Ter and other representatives of temperance
and church organizations in the city. Oppo-
sition to the measures, beside those voiced
Mr.. L. P. Shoemaker, was expressed by
Herman Gasch and John II. Magruder, the
latter furnishing the Commissioners with
information concerning the effects of any
such legislation upon the wholesale liquor
dealers He declared that the adoption of
the high license law alone would put scores
of grocerymen in the city out of business.