The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-01-21

proposed Ill IOWA .l.lt measured the
ianaucism and unreasonablenes found
III the Byers propositions relating to
state enforcement of laws and police
regulations. Iowa people generally are
law ABIDING and patriotic and while
they may not be agreed as to the wis
dom OF some laws and regulations, as
a rule hley accept what has been given
them without open objections. Prac-
uealiy every law is violated and en-
forcement is matter of public opinion
and always will be and no statute or ac-
uvlty of thousand attorney generals
can change the situation. There are
certain crimes and offenses which
everybody recognizes as inexcusable
and nobody objects to rigid enforce
ment but the majority of laws de-
inning crimes and misdemeanors are
accepted with smile and practically
everybody violates them as their in
terests dictate. Maybe this is wrong,
but 1t is a fact and nobody can change
the facts in a free country like Amer
lea.
Tie Sunday laws are lived up TO
TO an extent that most places of bust
ness are closed on Sunday, but baker
les livery stables, cigar stores. gro
ceres, markets, etc, are open more
or less in every city and community in
the state and any attempt to close
them would be looked upon as unrea.
sonabie. On the farm about orr homes
there is more or less work done that
violates the law. Hundreds of people
go hunting, ball games are played and
III hundreds of ways the Sunday laws
are Violated. This is Illegal, but it is
a common practice, so common in fact
that most people have ceased to no.
tee what is done In all of our larger
cities in Iowa nickledoms and thea.
tiers are open on Sundays and more
people attend on Sunday than on anv
other day of the week. We are not
excusing such violations. but are mere
~ calling attention to what every
body knows is true.
In this state three-fourths of the
men over twenty-one drink liquors to
some extent This NAV be disputed
but it will not be by anybody who
takes trips TO Chicago with cattle
men. who go to conventions, who go
on excursions and have opportunity to
know what men do under certain cir
cumstances But not one man in a
thousand who drinks liquor ever gets
drunk or abuses his privileges. So
long as this condition exists. people
are going to get liquor, and every law
restricting the sale of liquor will be
more or less violated 1t would be
better if such We're not the case. but
before we can change the situation.
We must change the habits and feel
ings OF men.
When we take into consideration
such conditions and facts as are .lere
mentioned, it will be seen that the
proposed Byers laws are not only OBJ
noxious to the sentiments of the ma
Jority. but are fundamentally weak
in this that they seek to do at dis
lance what no officers or combina-
tons of citizens have succeeded in
doing at home. and what the people
of any community will shall not be
done, no state officers or appointed
spies and assistants can do from a
distance. The people cannot be de-
priyed of the right of trial by juries.
in their lome courts. and it is hard
to convict where local continent does
not strongly uphold the laws.
As is well understood. the Byers
plan is to have the attorney general
given lot of assistants and en-
force the laws and also to give the
governor power to remove mayors,
sheriffs. county attorneys, city attor-
neys and other officials for not en-
forcing the laws 1t is well under
stood that the only purposes of tle
plan is to hit the larger cities on the
rivers, not to enforce the laws in a
half hundred counties where the
joints and drug stores supply liquor
10 the people in quantities or by
drinks without any restrictions save
there is no bar to be seen from the
streets. Byers has never touched a
druggist who disgraced his profession
by becoming a liquor seller. He has
stood by and helped a state admins
tration that kept whiskey sympathiz-
ers in charge of the pharmacy bust
ness. he has lived in Des Moines.
where bawdy houses, restaurants and
fashionable cafes serve liquors at all
hours and DAYS, without offering a
word of objection. hence he must no.
object if many doubt is honesty or
his sincerity.
But assuming his good intentions.
what does his proposition mean?
Il it is seriously intendc. to en-
force all the laws from the attorney