The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-05-25
COMMISSION AND SALOONS.

On Thursday morning The Tribune
ediorially expressed the opinion that
tho Commission was not deprived of
discretionary powers with regard 10
saloon licenses bv the new liquor law.
AS question of legal principle and on
general reasoning, ii would appear TO
be entirely clear that no legislature
would wish to deprive a city govern
ment of such discretion as is uniyer-
sally conferred and exercised by such
governments Accordingly. we are
gratifed TO see that tho district court.
practically en- banc, has taken that
view. basing its opinion upon the letter
of the statute, which is as follows:
Nothing In this act contained shall pre-
vent or prohibit any city council
board of trustees or board OF county COM
missioners from enactinc restrictions
upon and regulations Of the traffic in in
| toNicatinE liquors IN addition TO but not
act.
This is merely carrying out the uni.
vcrsal application of the principle that
municipalities must necessarily have
discretion such as this, otherwise they
| would be subject to dictation from An
authority not OF their own entity, and
having no proper relation to municipal
affairs. Without this, the discretion
which naturally belongs TO municipal
government would be transferred to
jurisdiction wider than the city, and
would impose upon the city rule
which is created by citizenship large
lv outside of the municipality Accord
ingly, the Legislature. as shown, fully
protected the discretionary power of
the municipal government, and the dis
trict court accordingly holds that this
discretionary power is not abridged by
the law.
We note that the Smoot organ, in its
had scornful sort of editorial in yes
terday mornings paper which was di.
rcctly contradicted by its own news re-
port Of the ruling Of the judges. In
that editorial, the Smoot organ quoted
some irrelevant portions of the law, and
TO read English and understand it.
This inability, it now appears, is
shared also by the Judges of the dis
trict court of this judicial district, and
The Tribune is not IN the least wor
ricd by the "inability' referred to.
In this connection, we note that the
Smoot organ rciterates its false and
scaudalous accusation that "Tribune
deficits were overcome by taking up
collection among saloonists who feared
The Tribune city government. Such
a base accusation as this, so utterly
false and slanderous, repeatedly made
by the Smoot organ and repeatedly dc
nied by The Tribune, places the Smoot
organ on scale Of low depravlty not
reached by any other newspaper in
Utah. We cannot imagine what pos
slble benefit it can hopo to derive from
the rcitcration Of that unmitigated
falsehood. II is perhaps true, however,
that in the fading away Of its subscrip-
tion list and in tho general crumpllng
I'D Of its business brought about bv It's
fakeries. fslsehoods, and general un-
trustworthinoss, it lashcs itself into in
sane rage which finds expression in
such spitework as that quoted,
1t is qualification to The Tribune
to find that the courts come TO the same
conclusion that We reached in regard
10 this matter of the discretion Of the
municipal government in the matter of
location and number Of saloons, The
Dowcr of the city government to refuse
a license for good reasons stated, either
because of Objectionable location Of
saloon or because Of excess numbers
above the limit fixed by the commits
sion, is fully affirmed by the court. 1t
would necessarily be so, of course, in
anv reasonable legislation. The por-
tions of the law quoted by the Smoot
organ supposedly contrary TO this view
are merely intended to give the court
the necessary power to correct any ex-
hibit of discrimination or injustice
when tested by general propositions
and general principles of the law.
The court states the question with
admirable clcarncss and precision, and
has unaucstionably arrived at the prop
er conclusion. The advice which we
rendered to the Commission to make a
test case is thus made unnecessary by
the ruling of the court in favor Of the
powers of the Commission, to as full
an extent as could possibly be reached
by special case made TO test the
point.
THE NORTH BENCH PROTEST