The Glenwood post., 1911-09-16
Frown on Subterfuge of Mesa County
Petitioners IDEAL is Too Raw
and is Turned Down
THIS ESTABLISHES PRECEDENT

The county commissioners at their
session last week broke all records for
this county and established prece lent
VIII ,ch future boards may take advant.
age of if they choose. They actually
turned down an application for a 81
loon license. OF course. 1T will be hard
for you to believe it, but it is a fact,
nevertheless.
Heretofore almost any old Tom, Dick
or Harry could 90 before the board ana
get a country saloon License, almost
without regard to the character of the
applicant, the location of the proposed
saloon or the demand for or opposition
to the same.
All that seemed TO be required was
that the applicant 20 through the for
mality of securing some kind of pe,-
ton, fling some sort of bond and, most
important of all, paying stipulated
license fee into the county treasury,
But applicants can no longer point
| to an unbroken record of this kind as
Joe Duncan and Z. A. Fitzsimmons
can testify, for the reason that their
application to establish groggery ON
Roam creek Just barely over the line
in Garfield county, was ''trun down -
url of IL, Ials
week.
Some time ago Abe Ong of DeBeqne,
Mesa county, was arrested on a charge
of running a bootlegging joint in the
DeBeque town. He was convicted and
given a stiff Jail sentence, No sooner
was he well behind the bars than the
members of the ''club'' which he had
managed began search for new
manager of the place. No one was
found who cared to take chances on
looking through the screens and as
last resort some one thought Of the
Roam creek scheme.
''It S only two miles up Roam creek
until we can reach the Garfield county
line,'' said the DeBeque soaks, "and
as the Garfield county commiss oners
are easy we II just ask them for
county license and DeBeque will have a
saloon close enough for all practical
purposes, and the best of all the fellow
who runs it ought to have no trouble
in keeping out of Jail, a feat that $
getting to be almost imposs bic in
Mesa county,
Duncan filed an application for a Ii
cense and then the Roam creek fellows
got busy. They secured lengthy pro
test against the issusmcc or a license
and then sent a man up here TO say
to the commissioners that the Garfield
county portion of the settlement down
have none of it, They claim that Dun
can and Fitzsimmons are only stool
pigeons in the hands of a Glenwood
wholesale liquor firm that has been aid
ing. abetting and encouraging Ong IN
the violation of the law in Mesa county
and that recent developments have COZ
vinced these fellows that lawbreaking
is becoming more and more risky IN
Mesa county and this looked like the
easiest way out of the difficulty. In
other words it was only an effort to
force the Garfield county commissioners
to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for
the DeBeque boozers and to enable
them to do indirectly what it was be
coming too dangerous for them to try
to do directly.
The friends of the scheme had glee-
fully boasted that they had the promise
of the Garfield commissioners that the
license would be allowed. The Post be
lieves this statement was unwarranted
and we have the positive assurance
from Diffendarfer and Switzer that it
was unwarranted so far as they were
concerned. At least when the matter
came up for a vote these gentlemen
stated that they would not stand for