Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-06
10TH TO OFFEND
PUBLIC SMOKERS
COUNCIL DELAYS ACTION ON
ORDINANCE
WANTS WOMEN BARRED FROM
REAR OF CARS
Fears Members of Fair Sex Would
Not Permit Men to Enjoy Their
Cigars Unless Seats Are
Reserved

The present city council Will PROB
ably not find its name enscrolled hlSn
in the pages of history, but there is
one thing this council has done that
has made 1t notable. II has mace
procrastination a fine art. When q
member of the council can think OF
nothing else to say, and that Is not
often. he says "manana, and over
the matter goes to come up again at
some future time and to so through
the same performance.
This was never more vividly Illus
trated than when the ordinance pro-
hibiting smoking on the street cars eA-
cent on the rear end came before that
body yesterday. This matter has peen
up three times and apparently every
thing that could be said for ana
against it has been said, but the
council is not satisfied. 1t wants TO
hear the same arguments over ana
over, so it deferred consideration Oh
the ordinance for two weeks more
When it comes up again in two weeks
the same people who have talked on
it three times already will probably
talk again and repeat their argu-
ments.
1t seems improbable the ordinance
will pass. Four members of the coun-
ell, Dromgold, Blanchard, Wallace and
Pease, favor it. The others are op-
posed, and it requires five votes to
pass an ordinance, even without
suspension of the rules,
Wren Leads Fight
Councilmen Yonkin and Lyon both
declared yesterday they were willing
to vote for 1t if some way could be
found so that the rear end of the car
that is reserved for smokers could be
reserved for them exclusively and
women forbidden to occupy the rear
end seats. They argue that If the
back end is reserved for smokers
women will occupy seats on that end
as well as on the front and the poor
smokers will have to stand up ana
puff their pipes. Neither Lyon nor
Yonkin smoke, but a large number of
the men they expect to vote for them
at the primary election do.
City Attorney Hewitt advised the
council it had no right to enact an
ordinance that would prohibit women
on the rear end of the car. but Lyon
and Yonkin believed that in two
weeks they could persuade the street
car companies to enforce such a rule,
and it was at their request the ordl-
nance was laid over again.
Councilman Wren was back in his
seat in the council chamber after
three weeks vacation, and, much re-
freshed, he led the fight against the
ordinance. Wren would not hear of
any kind of compromise. He wanted
the smokers to have the freedom of
both ends of the car and blow their
smoke wherever they chose, irrespec-
tive of whether there were people
who OBJECTED.
Wallace Fights for Ordinance
loJ h. Ru,f
for the ordinance, and he was at mis-
best yesterday afternoon. He rose to
dizzy heights of oratory, but failed to
move Yonkin or Lyon one inch.
For one minute 1t did look as if
Wallace and Lyon were going to mix
things in true senatorial style when
Wallace said something Lyon did not
fully understand, and Lyon replied
with something that Wallace did fully
understand.
Wallace was commenting on the ut
ter folly of laying the matter over
any more and asked one of the W. c.
T. q. women who have been pushing
the matter how long they had been at
It. She replied one year. and Wallace
added they had been after him for
six months to have such an ordinance
passed. Lyon jumped to his feet and
said:
"Mr. Wallace does not tell the
truth, and he knows he does not
when he says this matter has been be-
fore US for a year"
Then in tones that were easily heard
in the next block Wallace demanded
that the president call Mr.. Lyon to
withdraw his words.
President Pease, in the mildest way
possible, suggested Lyon was going a
little too far, and all difficulties melted
away when Wallace repeated what he
had said.
Boy Makes Address
Mrs. Wheat, Mrs. Griffith and 9TH
ers who have been instrumental in
presenting the ordinance to the coun-
ell repeated the arguments they have
gone over a number of times, and Rev
Glen MacWilliams declared the mat
ter would be taken into the churches
and Sunday schools of the city.
Then the campaigners sprung a sur
prise when they introduced Master
Cecil Noll, a 12-year-old school boy,
who presented a petition signed by a
number of school children asking that
the ordinance be passed, and made
speech in it's favor.
While it was evident Master Noll's
speech had been carefully prepared,
there are many lawyers who appear
before the council. also with carefully
prepared speeches. who do not make
addresses half as good, and certainly
do not make half the hit Master Noll
did. He spoke of the bad effects OF
tobacco on the human system as
taught them in their schools and told
how they objected to having to inhale
tobacco smoke secondhand on the
street cars.
Master Noll's appearance injected a
little interest into a subject the
council had worn threadbare and
which yet seems nowhere near solu-
ton.