Norwich bulletin., 1911-04-05
At Hearing on Bill to Give County Commis-
 sioners Discretionary Licensing Powers
CITIZENS SPEAK IN FAVOR
Seven Liquor Dealers Would be Forced Out of Bushes Under Present Law, After an Era of No-Lcense- "Keep Saloons in Water Street," Keynote of Areu> ments of Bills Adyocates-Some Opposition.

This view was also coincided in by Judge Ayiing, Judge Barnes and Mir Pratt, who all agreed that the coundy commissioners are very careful as to and that it would be safe to entrust discretionary powers to them in this manner.
 Spooner. of kensinston Opposed
 IT. H. Spooner of Kensington 2p- peared in opposition. He thought that a good case had been made out ss far as Norwich is concerned, but he did not think it wise to enact a law sIcn9 the lines of the bill under cons3dcrA-- tion. MT. Spooner said he was famff- jar with conditions in Norwich. Dtfr those conditions were not the same m every other license town in the state The committee should not consider ths interests of seven men in the liquor business in Norwich and 1egisiste for them, to the detriment of the whoIe state.
 The Norwich men. Mir. Spooner said. are crying about something that 1Ra not happened and cannot happen uuoi the city goes ITO license Should f. UD no license, 1o out of the 75 saloons H Norwich will have to go, anyway. 8s knew that Norwich WAS peculiarly ~ uated as to the mattef under d1o- cussion, but what was wanted fhef9 would not be good for the state, aD c general proposition.
 Former Norwich Man Opposed.
 o. E. Ryther, formerly of NoBw1ots thirteen years a resident there. vas also heard in opposition He spok9 of three other sections of Norwich Yet- ative to the matter under cons1derz~ tion. With reference to Water strccfs however he said that thousan0s oE men and women. girls and ooys e e the shannon Auditorium to attcud picture shows, and that the thezfer was in close proximity to the Wz4>n street saloons. At Taftvf1le, Mx. Hy- ther said, school children are obhSod
 to run a gauntlet of saloons on fs7e1r way to school, and this was made en issue in the last election, with the re-
 suit that the Taftville diztr1cf voted for no license by a majority Of fbreek He also spoke of the Falls section and
 of Franklin street, criticising br3ef1Js Opposed by Hartford Clergyman Rev. M. A. Sullivan of Hartford Spoi<1 against the repeal of the Z50 foot fe~s which in the interest of Norwich men if might be desirafofs to repeal. but he did not think it would be for the ben- eft of the state. He cited pArtlcu- | lar case in Hartford county wherein h9 had received what he termed q HW deaP' from the county commissioners. who granted a license to a. saloon bo- cated within a very short distance Cf & parochial school where 800 cl1sDreu were attending, and that he had tD fight two years 10 pc rlu or tHe LAsss- ance that would likely return If tns bill under consideration became lars and the present law repealed A few Norwich men might suffer, but 10 re- l feet the bill would be for the best in- terests of thousands and thousands OF people throughout tho state.
 South Manchester Man Against Its l E L. c. Hohent1laI, of South Man. chester, prohibition candidate for gov 1 ernor last fall, also said a few words asainst the proposed charge from fhs present law.
 The closing argument was by Ar- Comstock-
 l The hearing proved a very iDteresf< i ing one, particular stress being lad I by the Norwich speakers on the desfr- | abiloty of protecting Norwich policy | and Norwich property from Doss1Dfs h. jury. and on tfla desirabfifty of grant, | ing discretionary powers in the prsm> l ises to the county commissioners