The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-04-11
COUNCIL REJECTS
AN7|-L|QU0R PLAN.
Majority Report Adopted ir
Petersburg, With Shorter
Hours.
Especial to The Times Dispatch. ]


PETERSBURG VA. April 1o.-By n
decisive vote the City Council at an
adjourned meeting this evening re-
jected all the more important restric-
lions on the liquor traffic in Petersburg
contended for in the present temper
concessions being the shortening OF
business hours and the removal OF
billiard and pool tables from saloons.
Majority and minority reports were
submitted by the Finance Committee,
the minority report signed by three
members, consisting OF the proposed
ordinance presented by the temper
ance committee OF two citizens from
each ward providing for reducing the
number of saloons to fifteen, limiting
their location to the downtown bust
ness section of the city. increasing the
license tax from $3.50 to $1,000 and
various other restrictions, such as al
lowing only one entrance, removal of
all screens and forbidding the playing
OF billiards and pool in barrooms.
Each section OF this report was sep
arately voted on and defeated by a
vote of Is to s.
The majority report. which had been
adopted by the committee by n vote
of to 4. was then adopted by the
Council by a vote of is to 6 on each
section, about the only changes in the
present liquor law being the provi
sions that bars shall remain closed
from IL at night until s in the morn
ing. and that no billiard or pool tables
shall be maintained in bar.
Councilman Richard 3. Davis, who s
chairman of the Citizens Temperance
Committee. offered a resolution re-
questing the Judge of the Hastings
Court to grant no licenses for saloons
in residential sections of the city. This
was voted down. 10 to 9.
Before the voting on the reports Mr..
Davis made strong speech reviewing
the work of the temperance committee
as the expression OF the wish of 500
Petersburg citizens eligible to vote
who had signed petition presented to
the Council. Dealing with the legal
aspect of the question, the speaker
read extracts from decisions of the
Supreme Courts of -the United States
and Of Virginia, declaring that no citi-
zen had any inherent right to sell in
toxicating liquors, and then cited sec
lions of the cty's charter to prove
that the Council was fully empowered
to regulate the liquor traffic. An espe
c!al plea was made for the elimina-
ton of saloons from the residential
sections.
Mr.. Davis emphatically denied what
he said were reports that the Anti
Saloon League was behind the Citizens
Committee in this movement, and that
the committee was really working for
prohibition. Members of the committee
strongly emphasize the point that this
campaign has not been inaugurated
with the ultimate purpose of producing
a local option election, but only to Sc
cure reasonable regulation, this being
the statement made to the liquor rep
rcsentatives at the futile conference
between the temperance and liquor
committees to-day. Now that the Coun-
Gil has rejected the proposed methods
of regulation. a local option election is
generally considered more than prob
able.
No important changes in the general
license tax law for the ensuing year
were made by the Council.