The daily sentinel., 1907-07-16

+ court cases that has been tried I
+ in the city this summer came up q
+ this morning in the police court I
with Judge c. b. Hill presid- I
+ ing, when John w. Brainard, I
+ Moses Franklin, C. Teachout, I
and o. It. Jaynes, pool room !
+ operators and proprietors. were :
+ arraigned for trial on the charge !
+ of violating the newly adopted i
i. city ordinance which regulates +
+ the closing hours of the pool and +
+ billiard hall. provides for Ii +
+ censes for tables and prohibits +
+ minors frequenting the places. +
The four defendants were repre-
sented by Attorneys Wheeler and
Weiser while City Attorney ]. w.
Rozzelle appeared for the prosecu-
tion.
AS was expected the attorneys for
the defense offered a lengthy mo-
tion Immediately on the opening of
court, asking for the dismissal of the
cases on the grounds that the ordin-
ance under which the complaints
were drawn was illegally passed, in
complete, unconstitutional, provides
no penalty and is in other ways de-
fective.
Attorney Weiser after presenting
the motion addressed the court at
length in support of the motion. He
declared that he would admit the
right of the city to pass an ordinance
regulating the pool and billiard halls
as this ordinance proposed to regulate
them but that the ordinance must be
legally passed. The attorney created
no little amusement when he dramat-
ically declared that 81 have been criti-
cized by the biggest pulpit in this city
for the stand | or rather We, Mr..
Wheeler and |, have taken in this
matter and they have even charged
me with coming here and selling my
influence for a measly $3.50" Contin-
uing he declared that he was willing
to stand on the position he had talk
en- in the matter.
Attorney Weiser declared that the
ordinance in question. known as or
dinance No. las was not passed in
accordance with the provisions of
ordinance No. IL, passed ten years
ago which regulates the passage of
ordinances. He held that to pass le-
gally and in accordance with Ordin-
ance No. 12, an ordinance must "lay
over at least five days from the time
of its presentation" before 1t is voted
the city council showing that the pool
the city council showing that pool
and billiard room ordinance did not
lay over five days but passed its
first reading on the very night of its
presentation by Alderman Plank This
Attorney Weiser held, alone invali-
dates the ordinance.
Again Mr.. Weiser held that the or
dinance is incomplete in so far as II
does not provide a penalty for the of
fenses. This was a surprise to many
people in the court room as the or
dinance at least on its face provides
a penalty of from $40 to 500 for
each offense.
Mr.. Weiser also held that the or
dinance is no good on the ground that
it does not set forth all of its purpos-
es in its title or heading, which he
holds is necessary under the law.
The principal and final ground up
on which Attorney Weiser based his
claim that the ordinance is no good
is that it never passed by a vote OF
the majority of the elected members
of the city council. holding that the
ordinance passed after Mayor Went
worth had voted for its passage fol-
lowing a tie vote of the aldermen.
The attorney holds that the mayor in
such cases has no right whatever to
vote and that he is not an elected
member of the councill
Attorney Weiser spoke for nearly
two hours and he grew very warm
indeed. His address was marked
by a forceful line of argument and
he undoubtedly well presented his
side of the case. He was given the
closest attention by the court and
the numerous interested spectators
Mr. Weiser closed his argument about
11:15 O'Clock. City Attorney Ro-
zzelle in a brief, well worded and
well arranged argument replied to
Attorney Weiser. He spoke for only
about twenty minutes but In that
time covered much ground and PROV
ed that he had given the matter n
great deal of attention and investlga-
tion.
The city attorney in replying to
Attorney Weiseris contention that
the ordinance did not lay over for
five days after passage showed that
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