Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-07-13
TIn1Es-REpUBI1CAN MARsHALITOwN, IOWA. 10, 1909

sending registered letters (and having
your letters published in the newspa-
per) to our clients in the saloon res
olution matters?
Did you want little cheap adver-
tisement that is prohibited, or did you
forget that you were under the obliga-
ton, or are you after votes?
Now if you had addressed your
communication to us in these matters,
we would have replied as follows:
Bradford Gives Advice.
"'Joe: We have your letter. Aren't
you tired of following the attorney gen
erals advice yet? You will remember
you followed his advice when he pub
lished in the paper a corporation could
not run a saloon, and you believed him
without looking up the law and caused
two men to be indicted in this county,
and found out when it was too late that
he was mistaken as to the law. Would
it not have been better to have gone
show then and not believed the attorney
general, and will it not be better to go
slow now and not believe the attorney
general when he writes letter that
is not the law, because he may be mis-
taken now as he was then, and you
know neither he nor you construe the
law.
Judges construe; Attorneys Guess.
of you will permit me to make the
suggestion, might say the judges of
the courts construe the law and not at
torney generals or county attorneys.
The attorney general, county attorneys
and ourselves only guess at the law
bo+ &c. oil Nd wrong
lit costs our clients money, as it did in
the corporation case where you fol-
lowed the attorney generals advice,
and perhaps more. The attorney gem
eral realizes he was wrong in his ut
terance as to corporations, and went 10
the legislature and got the Legislature
to enact law that corporations coulo
not run saloons after March l, 1910. II
it had been the law that they could
not run saloons, Why enact this law?
Read the Constitution.
Regarding the attorney general s re
cent guess if you will take the pains
to read the constitution of this state
ION the subject. and consult the author
I tiles you would find he is again mis-
taken In fact, since you wrote your
letter he practically admits In tire
newspaper that he is mistaken if HI
is quoted correctly in this; that h.
bases his hopes now on what he thinks
the legislature intended, and that Is
that it intended it to go into effect or
that date, tho they did not so enact
He does not now say it is the law; he
says he thinks they intended it to bt
the law A reply to this Is that if they
intended it to be the law that 1t wa:
effective at once A publication clause
should have been adopted.
What Barber Thinks.
"'When you are looking for 'guesses
as to law, you might observe that Mr.
Barber the head of all the prohibition
forces in the state. says he is Yer.
sorry. but the attorney general is mis-
taken as to the law. I don't see how
Mr.. Byers gets around that constitu
tional point 1t is my understanding tn
law did not become a law until Jul.
A. Then if YOU don't want to guess
You might consult the supreme cour
: whose guess goes. and it has said an
held that the words 'heretofore,' here
after prior to the passage of thi
: act at the time of the passage of thi
act do not refer TO the time the ac
was passed and approved by the gov
ernor, but do refer 70 the date whe
the law took effect, and it would prob
ably be fair to say the supreme cour
will still adhere to that doctrine, an
! as to the word now in the Moo