Omaha daily bee., 1910-07-19
Law and LawleSS
County Option Leads Up TO
Prohibition and Substitutes
Lawlessnsss for Law.
Second ArhIcIe.

A man might as we'll deliver a temperance
lecture to a man suffering from delirium
| tremens as try TO reason with a fanatic
/ The politician uses the fanatic for the at
tainment of his own selfish ends. The pres
ent writer addresses neither OF the classes
but speaks to the plain, common people
| Now, all men Of all parties have a COM
mon interest, and, disregarding the desires
! of fanatics and politicians alike, they
should look to what will conserve the inter-
est of the state as a whole. That prohibit
ton will be dead letter I'm a great part OF
the state. we firmly believe and have,
think, already shown. Nebraska is not
Maine and is not Kansas Maine, on three
OF its sides, is enclosed by custom houses;
! for whole generation 1t had a barricade
! of two prohibition states on the other side.
| The people of the state are Spartan and
| Purtanical in their tastes and habits. With
an interregnum OF one year, they have had
prohibition so long as l have lived; and IT
is now a part of their existence Without
stopping to discuss, at this present moment
whether it is a good thing for them or
not will simply say that the conditions in
Maine are not the conditions in Nebraska.
Kansas was settled in antl-slavery time bv
abolitionists from Massachusetts and the
western reserve. These people we're ideal
| lists, who have always been ready to take
up any fad that On its face promised a bet
terment of humanity. Their constitution
did not allow foreigner to vote until he
was naturallzed. On the other hand. the
law Of Nebraska allows a foreigner to vote
II he has taken out his first papers thirty
days before election, and has resided in the
precinct or ward, county and state the re-
quired periods. This inducement has brought
into this state large foreign vote The
German has drank beer since the days of
Gambrinus. Caius julius Caesar, in his
commentaries, describes the national drink
or the German, and 1t answers to lager
| beer. To force Puritanism upon these for
eigners, would be like England forcing her
Sepoy soldiers in India to bite cartridges
creased with lard and tallow. The Budd
hist sepoy objected to biting the cartridges
creased with tallow because the COW which
produced the tallow was sacred to Buddha
The Mohammedan sepoy objected to lard
because the hog was unclean These oh
jections brought on the sepoy revolt in
India. Perhaps the sepoys were fooljsb
but they had right to be. The German as
rule is not drunkard. They all drink
but they are the most moderate drinkers
have ever met.
Power of Custom.
You will make failure in atteynptine
to legislate against a national custom. Wa
have had plenty Of experience in this state
For nearly generation we have had the
celebrated anti-treat law in Nebraska The
treating is the Americans method Of show
ing his hospitality. You say Il is foolish
and grant it. But we have made a
miserable failure of attempting to legislate
against 1t, and the whole thing should be
wiped off the statute book We have in
Nebraska the best civil damage law ever
enacted on the planet. Our supreme court
has construed this law rigidIy against the
seller of intoxicants. In any community
wheie liquor is sold each and every man
who signs the bond of a LIQUOR dealer
whether that dealer be a druggist or saloon
keeper is in a sense the bondsman OF
every other dealer in the town. We win
suppose that there is one druggist and
three saloonkeepers in certain town. and
that man goes to the drug store and gets
very light drink of brandy for an in1aRin-
airy illness, and thon goes to two of the
saloons and gets small beer at each place.
afterwards he goes to the third saloon.
and. in the popular vernacular, bowls up:
then on his way home he falls off his
wagon and breaks his neck ANY one OF
the dealers can be held responsible to his
widow for his death. A widow can recover
from a saloonkeeper, even though she had
given him express permission to sell her
husband liquor. But 1t is useless to 20
through all the stringent provisions of the
so-called Slocumb law and the stringent
constructions given, for these are familiar
to nearly every man. woman and child IN
the state.
Safeguards Repealed.
Now remember when we enact state wide
prohibition we repeal this Slocumb law
with all of its stringent provisions for civil
damages. All of the provisions of that law
making q man liable for remote and conse-
euental damages are purely statutory and
do not exist in common law. The boot
logger is generally irresponsible, and, were
he otherwise, he could not be held RESPONSE
BILE for the remote and consequential result
OF his traffic. Remember again, for I
state what every good lawyer knows. that
1t is the high license state like Illinois or
Alabama which has held the LIQUOR dealer
to strict account. II is the prohibition
state like Maine or Kansas which has con-
strued the law in his favor. The supreme
court OF Maine quashed an indictment
against a liquor seller because the venire
which summoned the grand jury which
indicted him was not impressed with the
seal of the court which issued the writ. |
Let me contrast this with some of the |
rulings Of the supreme court OF illinois,
for during long years I have run these
questions down thoroughly. In the early
history OF the state they had laws punish |
ing people for harboring runaway slaves. |
They had democratic court then which |
was disposed to favor the stakeholder That
court held that a host was bound to know
the character of his guest, and, conse- |
quently, farmer who harbored a white
woman over night and was innocent OF any
knowledge that she was an octoroon ana
runaway slave was criminaliy liable for
giving her shelter. Years afterwards a re-
publican supreme court in passing on cases
which involved the selling OF liquor 10
minors, cited these decisions and held that
liquor dealer was bound to know He
incapacity OF his vendee and. although the
person who purchased the liquor was six
feet high and had a beard, yet the seller
was criminally liable.
I hope the voters OF Nebraska will pause
and hesitate before they repeal the best
liquor law in the American union and turn
the state over 20 lot OF unreasoning ia
natics, herded by designing politicians.
nv gwe1