The semi-weekly messenger., 1907-11-29

l.esI
A. Mas Before the Conference
;-,Dor,ant secret conference OF
,ha hoard of aldermen was held last
night at the city hail, when II Is oe
reved proposed legislation for the oe''
70, regulations OF the saloon business
in Wilmington was discussed u'e
conference having been presided over
bv Mayor w. r. Springer with All 'ne
members OF the board except AIaeF-
man Rathjen in attendance. City Az
: torney Marsden Bellamy, Jr., was also
present
! The conference was very secret no
outsiders being admitted into the may
or's office. the doors of when were
locked and the window shades were
Drawn.
| Tho aldermen assembled at o clock
spd il was about twenty minutes 10
tw elve when the meeting ADJOURN
ed.
Newspaper men, waiting on the out
side were told that what had trans
pired was not foi publication, II nav
ing been decided that nothing shou'u
be given out
I, !. known however that the qucs-
ton of regulation OF saloons was the
matter at issue and lengthy confer
epce would seem TO show thai the mem
b,rs of the board We're not in accord
with any of the suggested regulations
that were proposed. The only authoH-
;ative statement made was that 40
agreement had been lcachc-.
Il is thought likely mas ID" dt-
fcrent methods Of regulation, suggest
cd recently by many citizens, an- 'e-
ported in the papers, wore under aEg-
gestiOn.
The one form on which an .Sge-
cially strong effort was made % reach
agreement, il is believed, was as 10
tne SEGREGATION OF saloons In a CO" ain
section OF the city. such an ordinance
having ;he effect Of "cmOv!,r the bar
rooms from the Outlying anu r2sden-
tial portions of the city. I.c move
was not, it is considered hase4 dSainst
the small saloons, but rather IN effort
to put the saloons in the down town
sections where police protection is ar
ways at hand.
The other forms of reputation, the
increasing of the license tax, the re-
moval OF screens, the diferen, meth
= DDS OF paying the tax and other mat
ters in connection with regulation were
' probably exhaustivey discussed, but
as said above the members OF the
: board could not agree on any pro-
p pCsed ordinance and the matter rests
e exactly where it did preceding the con-
ference.
1t was the hope of many citizens
! that some form Of regulation would
: be adopted by the board of aldermen
S a: it's December meeting, but the
e known result Of the conference last
D. night would seem 20 show that no
4 agreement is possible in open boArN
y The conference, it is understood, was
not the most peaceful ever held and 1t
: probably was of an exciting and inter-
. esting nature.
f The newspaper men were however
: barred out and nothing definite as TO
s what transpired can be reported
The only criticism IS that representa-
! tives of the public We're not allowed
: in the conference room. The ques-
II tions discussed probably affect the cit
e izens of Wilmington as directly and
= strongly as anyotner matters that
!. could possibly be brought up and il
would seem only far to the ciJizens,
who elected the aldermen and whose
servants they are, To have allowed re-
porters TO attend the conference SO that
they could know how their representa-
tives stood on the propositions sug
gested.
This is not a criticism Of the entire
board for certain OF its members were
willing to have the results made known
but the majority decided in favor OF
keeping it's outcome secret.