Arizona republican., 1907-12-27
PHoENN. ARIZONA DEC. 27. IsO
A MODEL LICENSE LAW.

The Republican Is n recoinS nf some literature and additional suggestions from the Model License League which it Is stated Is engaged fin furnishing "a solution of the liquor problem" It is perhaps unnecessary to observe that the members of the league are mostly. if not all. associated with the liquor trade The headquarters Cf the league are at Louisville. Ky. m Ine of the three counties of the state which .he prohibitionists have nJt yet captured. though even they are pretty well d)t ted with local option precincts.
 Feseiged thus in thar stronghold. having lost one county after another, it is natural that ;hey shoIld desire to make terms with the enemy. The proposition for a model license law is suggestive of the preliminary arrange ment of an armistic on one side.
 The address Is presented in a con trite spirit. It is Admitted that such laws as have been ena ted for ,hc reg ulatIon of the liqou' traffic have been violated by considerable part of the retail trade whose acts the address holds responsible for the Crusade against .Se entire traffic, widespread fanatical and destructive to property rights. to the revenues and to individ- ual liberty of action"
 II Is proposed tO remedy the status by a license law which will at the same time reward the salOOnkeepers who observe the law and severely pun ish those who do not.
 "The Model License" in the opinion of the league should be transferable as any other property or thing of val ue. An arrangement which would tend to take the saloons out of politics by relieving the proprietors of the ex- actions of the political boss; license should yield 6 good annual income but should not be excessive: the license should be an unambigous contract between the state and the saloonkeep- CT and its violation should be punished first, by conviction. next by suspen- sion and last by cancellation of the contract, never to be resumed with the offending salOOnkeeper. There should be no sale of liquor to minors and drunkards, but a penalty should be provided against minors who repre- sent themselves to be of age in order 10 procure intOXicants. These are the main points of the suggestions but up- on them may be hung other regulat- | ing legislation by the state or munici- | pality.
 This is an appeal not to the prohi- i bitionists but to the great body of the l people who have made prohibition pos | sible and who would have taken little | interest in the liquor traffic but for | the persistent violation and disregard l of such laws as had been enacted for | its regulation. The appeal comes per haps too late for the mass of the peo- ple and 1t could not have came early | enough for those who never recog- l nlzed the legitimacy of the trade.
 In this territory we now have an ar rangement embracing some of the fea- lures of the Model License Law" though it Is rather more rigid and still it does not fully meet the views of a large and apparently growing number of citizens.
 The Model License" suggestion will Il hardly be able to stay the tide of sen timent though it may find considera- ton in the reaction which will possibly II come later.