The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-02-19
TIE POLITICAL LIQUOR BILL.

The political liquor bill reported by
the select joint committee of the Legis
lature is a measure of extreme length
Of deep compleXity, and that is wei
calculated 10 keep the State hot with
litigation for the next ten years II
not only provides within itself large
and constant subjects for litigation
but it invites litigation on the side
as where 1t provides that if licenses are
refused by officials authorized to pass
upon applications for them, appeals
from the discretion vested in those off.
cials to the District and Supreme Courts
are expressly arranged for. Nothing
could be more vicious than 4 PROPOSE
tion of this kind. What the people
are most desirous of avoiding is Just
this sort of complication. Where the
law confides the distinct authority in
any set of officials, vesting in them
a discretionary power to act, it is as.
sumcd that they will exercise that dis.
cretion candidly, honestly, and to the
best interests of the community. If
they do not do this, the people can
reach them at The end of their terms
and oust them from their official po.
sitions. To hold over the officials en-
trusted with the granting of liquor Ii
cense an express threat carried in the
law itself, that any ono denied a IL
cense should appeal to the District and
Supreme Courts against that denial, is
an innovation upon our administrative
system that should he condemned with
out stint, and defeated AS an invita-
tiOn to litigation for which there is no
possible excuse.
Another invitation 10 litigation is
carried where it is provided that drug
stores that pay license as retail liquor
dealers, because of liquor they may in
clude in prescriptions, or by reason Of
liquor being prescribed on doctor S
certificate, may he required, as all
liquor dealers are required, to close
bhcir places of business on Sundays, on
election days. and on holidays Whether
this bill 10 have the drug stores close
on those days by reason of their be.
ing classcd AS retail liquor dealers, is
one of the things that the courts would
have to determine, in case this law
we're passed.
But why specify? The law is full
If pitfalls, contradictions, and invita-
ions to serious and bitter litigation.
Besides, it is legislation that is wholly
Everything proposed in
hat tiresomoly long bill that is of the
cast value we already have in our
statutes and ordinances. The present
liquor legislation has been thoroughly
by the courts, and legal
questions arising thcrefrom are settled.
This bill would not only lfnsettlc every
hing that has been settled before, but
t would provoke by its provisions liti-
,atIon on ITS own account, and would
'rovidc vast opportunities for litigation
n the implications and contradictions
which it seems to carry.
1t is absolutely iDcomprehcnsiblc why
NY sane men should undertake TO enact
'Sioidbltu Ilht lHlSs anu WncH we
onsider that the only excuse urged for
is that it Will fulfill the Republican
arty pledge at the late election, one
lust naturally feel an utter contempt
or the whole vicious procedure. 1t
ppears also that the committee itself |
as no great faith in the passage of |
his cumbersome litigation- breeding
leasure; for it is announced that an
ther liquor bill is held in reserve to |
G pushed to the front in ease this one |
ails. In that view of the case it |
rather important TO find out what |
hat reserve liquor bill actually means.
nd also why it should be presented
The loinder of liquor and politics is
lways an unmitigatcd curse to any
tate or community where that joinder
rs been mnde, In this State it has
cen made, explicitly by the Federal
unch. and has been worked by that
bunch TO the limit And now, the
ollticlans want fresh hold OH the
quor crowd, so they can bleed them
ONE more, and keep the State in
lrmoii Tor many years to come
trough litigation that would inevitably
ollow the enactment of this or any
milar measure. The whole malodorous
rocedure is an offeuse in the nostrils
the people of Utah. There is not
he least excuse for it from any public
.andpoint. The majority of the peo-
lie of this State are opposed to it, as
lown in the fact that the Republican
arty did not cast a majority of the
otes at the recent election; and the
est possible thing that could happen
the people of this State would he
} have this bill disappear as "lost,
rayed, or stolen. -