The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1907-08-15
THE WEEKLY JOURNAL,
rnmed Thursday. One Dollar a Year.
THE SALOON LICENSE.

L ~
brings to us from the State OF Indiana
II IS to the effect that the licensing
power exercised by the States in benah
Of drinking places is contrary to the
letter and spirit Of the constitution;
that the States do not possess the le-
gal power to permit people to sell
ltcuor. alcoholic or malt, to the thirsty.
He has decided in his court that this
is so and there appears to be no dis
oosinon on the part of the defense to
carry the case to the Supreme court OF
the United States.
Ut appears that citizen OF the STATE
az indiana has been reading the dlf-
eerent opinions handed down by the
courts with reference to the power OF
states to permit individuals under the
,,cense system to carry on specified
businesses which may be said TO con-
Aict with the laws touching the puonc
ne.i+h and morals. He concluded that
IL 1t was against the constitution 10
forbid places of gaming, of prostitn-
ton and of prize fighting as peing
against the public health and morals
an appeal to 1t in the case OF Aquor
licenses would be against them 100
TInon this theory he sought the legal
services of competent counsel After a
long search he found firm OF law
vers who thought there might be some
4tsny IN his contention. When a certain
man applied for a liquor license they
reronstrated against the grant on the
ground that 1t ran counter to the pur-
nose Of the constitution both OF the
T-nited States and Indiana, which is to
forbid everything contrary to pubic
morals, public health and public SAFE
W. The defense contended that the
state had the authority to grant IL
eenses under the police power which it
oossesses. This police power is defined
10 he the right on the part OF the
state to do whatever it chooses to pro-
mote the health, safety comfort, NOR
ais and welfare of the public
In considering the case Judge Art
man went exhaustively into the subject
from every point of view and rendered
decision which upholds the conten-
ton OF the prosecution that the license
nractice Is unlawful as being in viola
lion Of the constitution Agreeing that
the police power permits State to do
whatever is necessary to promote the
health, safety, comfort, morals and
welfare Of community, 1t follows as
a common sense proposition that It
does not possess the power under the
oolice fiction to permit State to do
what would necessarily endanger the
health. safety, comfort, morals and
welfare of a community. 1t is this
broad view Of the case before him
which led Judge Artman to determine
the case from the point of view of the
police power. This took him back to
the Bill of Rights, which is the founda-
ton stone Of the government. The
very first section of that document de-
clares that government is instituted for
the peace, safety and well-being of the
state. Judge Artman concluded that If
that document was a Bill of Rights it
was also Bill of Wrongs, which in
rerently forbids the doing OF what
makes for the disorganization of soci-
ETY. and the enlargement Of the peace,
safety and well-being of the state. Ac-
cepting the Bill of Rights as the SUI
preme law in effecting the public good
r. follows, according to the legal phil
osophy of Judge Artman, that what
ever contravenes this law Of self-pres-
ervation, by being destructive of the
GOOD order, the safety, the peace, the
health, the morals or the welfare Of
the people is unlawful" In considering
the legal status Of the saloon business
Judge Artman denies that it stands
upon the same basis as the business
of the farmer, the manufacturer and
the merchant. He further by plentiful
quotations from previous decisions de-
mics that the right to conduct saloon
business is granted by the common
law; he in fact finds that it is forbid
den by the common law. He says that
the courts are practically agreed that
Intoxicating liquor does not stand up
on the same footing as breadstuffs and
that the saloon business, because it
naturally and inherently endangers the
health, the life the comfort the safety,
the morals and the welfare of the peo-
ple, is inherently unlawful and is pro-
hibited by the common law
Judge Artman quotes many court