Omaha daily bee., 1907-02-05
THE LIoUuF BILLS.

more severe RESTRICTIONS upon bhe
liquor traffic than are embodied in the
present Slocumb law. The county OPP
ton bill is Of course the piece de re-
sistance," being drawn TO make the
county the unit of local option instead
of the city or town. If the county OPP
ton became a law each county would
be called upon to vote itself wet or
dry every two years. II 1t voted
dry" no liquor selling could be IL
censed in any part of the county, but
If it voted wet" each Incorporated
city and town in the county would
again vote wet or dry at every mu-
nicipal election. The object is to en-
able the people outside of towns
which would otherwise favor license
to close those towns up and to give
the anti-saloonists two cracks at the
liquor men instead of one"
Two other proposed bills relate to
the transportation of liquor In pack
ages, requiring each package to be
plainly labeled on the outside "Intox-
icating Liquors" and making the
place of delivery and collection the
place of sale. The purpose of these
measures is to abolish what is known
as the jug trade in no-license COM
munities. They might have some
merit could they be made effective,
but inasmuch as the state law can be
directed only at shipments made be-
tween points wholly within Nebraska
and cannot affect shipments into this
state from outside points, which con-
stitute interstate traffic, they could
operate only to discriminate against
home jug houses" and in favor of
jug houses" in other states.
Still another bill undertakes to
make every person who signs a petit
ton for an applicant for liquor license
co-responsible with the sureties on the
liquor dealers bond. OF course, peo-
pie would hesitate to endorse liquor IL
cense applications il in so doing they
incurred financial responsibility and
signatures would soon be worth some
thing on the market. The scheme
would have about as much reason for
1t as one to make every person signing
nomination petition q bondsman for
the candidate after election to office.
Another liquor bill undertakes to
prohibit any brewer or distiller from
having any interest in any place where
his products are sold at retail or from
owning or leasing any real estate used
for saloon purposes. 1t also sets 9
limit on the number of licenses to be
granted In any city at not to exceed
one to every 1000 population, as
shown by the last census. The pro,
claimed purpose of this bill is to di
vorce the brewers and 'distillers from
the retail business and to restrict the
| license to more responsible men. The
injury it would do in depriving the
brewers and distillers of the use Of
their property seems to cut mo figure
nor does 1t give any assurance that In
dependent saloon keepers would b,
ANY more responsible than thos,
| backed by the wholesalers.
AS to limiting the number of salooI
licenses issuable in any city, tina
power now rests in the discretion o
the excise board and that this discre
ton has not been seriously abused Il
shown by the fact that in Omaha toda.
only 24S licenses have been issued TO
the current year, whereas fifteen year
ago, when the population was not hal
so large, the number of licenses wa
252. The same is true Mn Soutl
Omaha. where, notwithstanding tn
noticeable population growth, tn
number of licenses now issued /
eighty-one-less than in any yea
since 1898.
When all these questions of liquo
traffic regulations are sifted down, tn
present Slocumb law, which has don
satisfactory service without chang
for more than twenty-five years an
which has given the perfection of 10
cal option to every community in Ne
braska, seems to furnish the best solu
ton. Not only has 1t stood the test @
time, but on the whole 1t has produce
better conditions of liquor traffic tina
those in prohibition states surround
ing us, or in the states that have eithe
| IaWar Or mora otrip Uanf raOuIafiOn