Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1907-04-11
FIELD DAY FOR
TEMPERANCE
ONE BILL DIES AND ONE GOES
TO ENDORSEMENT.
PROTECTION FOR HOMES
Residence District Option Measure
Advanced and Gothenburg DisPen-
sary Bill Is Killed After Long De.
base-ProposaI for investigation
of the Liquor Traffic.
Madison. April 10.


Madison, April 10.
Yesterday was w. c.. T. U. field
day in the assembly and the tenn
perance people had rather the better
of the argument, securing engrossment
of the residence district option BILL
which is more than could be secured
two years ago when the memorable
Thayer bill was debated-and main
tanning an all-day debate on the Goth
enberg dispensary bill.
The consideration Of the Gothen-
burg liquor bill was characterized by
the best debate Of the session, and
the assembly finally refused to order
the bill to engrossment, by a vote of
55 to 80. The debate lasted over two
hours in the morning and occupied all
4 to after o'clock. A stubborn fight
was put up by both sides.
The bill authorized the turning over
of all the licenses in a community to
a private corporation organized for
that purpose, after the people in the
community had voted in favor of such
proposition The proponents of the
measure argued that intemperance
and many other evils of the liquor
traffic would be eliminated by this
system because the element of private
profit would be eliminated from the
traffic. The violation of the law at
the present time, that is, the selling
to minors and to intoxicated persons,
came, they claimed as a direct result
of the personal interest of the men
behind the counter. By eliminating
this element they believed these and
other evils would be cured.
Feared Liquor Trust.
/ The great objection raised by the
opponents, chief among them Assem-
| blyman B. S. Potter, was the creation,
as they claimed, of a liquor trust.
The democrats were fairly solid in
their opposition to the bill on the
ground that they were acting consist
entity with their sworn enmity to cor
pOratiOns and trusts. Many pointed
questions and direct retorts were the
| features of the debate with Assembly,
man Reynolds creating laughter by
some well-chosen Irish bulls, some
made Intentionally, good many
made inadvertently. Assemblyman
! Potter took occasion to inject into
one Of his short speeches the declara-
! ton that the democratic party had
found the Moses it had been seeking
in the past Is years and would surely
| be carried to victory under his lead
ership-Wiilliam Jennings Bryan.
Those who fought most vigorously
| for the bill were Speaker Ekern, who
IrelinqusLed the cnair to Mr.. Esta-
brook to take part in the discussion
and who led the fight on the side ia
yoring the measure, Assemblymen
Mains, Ainsworth, Norcross, McGre-
gor; the opposition members were
Potter, Reynolds, Elver, Georgi,
Thompson and Harring. Mr.. Elver
suggested general referendum
clause in addition to the provision
that each locality vote for it before it
would be applied. He voted against
the bill.
The Vote.
The vote on the question of order
ing to engrossment stood as follows:
Ayes-Ainsworth Anderson, A. S.
Baker, Cahoon, Coolidge, Ingram, r.
vine, Jones, Kay, Keppel Keup, Kim
ball, Kuckul, Mains, McGregor, Nc
Kenzie, Morris, Norcross, Nye, Glen,
.ONeill, J. B. Peterson, Roethe, Roy
crat, G. E. Scott, Fred Smith, Soren-
son, Sprague, Stout, T. NJ. Thomas,
Ties, Turner, Ekern-33.
Noes-Aldridge, Bauer, Berg, Bell,
Berner, Bichler, Brockhausen, Burke,
Campbell, Carpenter, Cernahan,
Cleary, DomachOwski, Douglas, Dur
ley, Elver, Estabrook, Everett, Georgi,
Goldsworthy, Grassie, Hagen, Harrass,
Harring, Hebron, Hughes. Kander,
Luy, Marquardt, MCGEE, T. H. Miller,
Nelson, Neitzel, Palmer, Pens, Fred
Peterson, Pickart Potter, Reynolds,
RolIman, Schauer, Nicholas Schmidt,
Simon Smith, Soper, Stewart, ]. O..
Thomas, Thompson, Weber, Wehr-
vein. Wellensgaard-5
District Option Favored.
The Baker residence district bill,
similar to the Thayer bill of last SEES
sion, was ordered to engrossment
without opposition. The bill in its
present form comes as a substitute,
which, according to Assemblyman
Turner, chairman Of the committee on
state affairs, has been agreed upon
by all parties concerned.
The bill provides that any district
of from 100 to 1000 inhabitants may
bar saloons from within that territory
subject to certain qualifications. In
no case may the prohibited district be
more than four times as long as it is
broad, nor may any Of the same dis
trict be included in any other resi-
dence district If one-third of the
frontage in any block is composed Of
stores. mercantile establishments or
manufacturing plants, saloons cannot
be driven out of such block.
Would Have an Investigation.
Another piece OF temperance legiS-