The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-01-19
GRAND JURY MAKES
ITS OFFICIAL REPORT

| , - '"S Nutt NOuII VI INC Dldle OF
Oregon for Hood River County.
Hood River, Oregon, Jan. IL, 1911.
To Hon. W. l.. Bradshaw,
Judge of the Above Entitled Court.
Dear Sir-We, the Grand Jury EN-
paneled in the Circuit Court of the
State of Oregon for Hood River
County, at the January, 1911, term
thereof beg leave to report as follows
We have been in session three days
and have returned five true bills, and
no not true bills,
The greater portion Of our time has
been devoted to an investigation of the
question of the sale and disposal of
intoxicating liquors in this County,
and in that connection we have sub
pOenaed before US a large number of
! witnesses, and have summoned every
person whom we thought could give
any information, and have used every
means in our power to give this sub
Ject a most rigid and exhaustive scru-
tiny. Some of the indictments re-
turned are for violations of the local
option law, but in this connection we
hnd most deplorable state Of affairs
existing among certain Of the boys of
this community who lack several years
Of being of age. From the evidence
before us we find that the custom is
prevalent among certain of these
minors of bringing in from places out
side of this County VIII skey and other
intoxicating liquors, and drinking the
same to an extent which is positively
alarming. In certain places in Hood
River City these minors make prac-
tlCe of gathering and indulging in
the intOXicants, which, according to
their own testimony, they purchase in
Portland, The Dalles, and other places
and storing the same in barns, board
ing houses, and other buildings, until
such time as they would gather and
consume it, And further, these
minors, or some of them, will 90 with
bottles of liquor in their pockets to
the skating rink and other public
places, and while there drink the
liquor to such an extent that the City
peace officers nave been called to such
public places of amusement in order to
stop the rowdyism resulting from the
use of the intoXicants.
A large number of these minors
were examined before the Grand Jury,
and they told this body of the extent
to which they had been indulging in
this practice, but invariably claimed
that they had purchased the liquor
from other places than Hood River
and at the same time the Grand Jun,
was surprised to see the attitude as
sumed by these boys in their thinking
| that what they were doing was some
thing not to be condemned but thought
clever. From what has been said be-
fore us we believe that there are
places in this community where minors
are obtaining intoXicants, but from
all the evidence which we have been
able to obtain we are not able defrite-
ly to fix all Of such places, or all the
persons from whom such liquor is OBJ
tanned; and this statement applies as
we'll to adults as to minors
In this connection, inasmuch as
there is no State law making It pun
lshabIe otfense for a minor to drink
intoXicants, we earnestly recommend
to the City Council of Hood River that
an ordinance be passed making it
misdemeanOr for minor either to
drink intoxicating liquor or have it in
his possession, and we believe that
with such an ordnance the practice
such as has been referred to among
these minors can be speedily broken
up and these boys protected from
themselves. We make this recon-
mendatiOn earnestly because we have
been in position where we could see
the need of it. We are informed that
such ordinances exist in neighboring
cities, and that the result has been
satisfactory.