The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1914-01-29
Council Meeting.

full attendance of the aldermen.
President Battram called the meeting
to order and after the usual routine
of business and an unusual large
number of bills allowed, they got
down to the issue that has been upper
most in the minds of the Malta
citizens for some time past-that of
the Sunday closing Of the saloons and
to say the least the saloon men sue
cpeded in slipping one over OH those
that want dry Sunday. There has
been 10 meeting of the counci for the
past four weeks until Tuesday night
and during that time a referendum
has been filed with some fifteen
names attached asking that the ques-
tion of closing OH Sunday be put up
to the vote of the people at the
general ele ction i'm the spring thus
making the ordinance that was to
have gone into effect the first Sunday
in February null. Under the refer
endum it will n. can that the saloon
men will practically have two months
more of Sunday work before they are
closed.
AS soon AS the saloon closing argu-
meilts were disposed of there WAS an
initiative petition presented asking
the city council to pass an ordinance
causing the license of the saloons to
be raised from $500 a quarter to
SlO5.OO which under the laws of Mon
tana is the limit. A motion was
made and seconded to kill the pro-
posed ordinance and in doing this it
also comes up to y vote of the people
at the spring election for their ar-
proval OF disapproval.
A number of the aldermen went on
record at this meeting stating that in
the future when the people Of Malta
wanted an ordinance, that is one of
any Importance, that there would
have to be an initiative petition pre-
sented and the matter left to "a vote
Of the people. In this acti IN no one
can find fault with the aldermen. TO
begin with they were presented with
a pe'iti1's% ;asNin. for aSunday closing
ordinance and :ts soon AS it became a
law some Of the same ones that signed
for the ordinance, asked by petition
for the matter to be left to the people
to decide ut the election in the spring.
1t puts an alderman in a bad light.
If we are to have council of repre-
sentative men why not abide by their
acts and if not what is the use in
electing them and taking up their
time from other business. 1t is u
thankless job from start to finish and
the best they rect i've is abuse. Peti-
tion signing has become one of the
lat< st fads in Malta and unless one
can attach his name to about a dozen
week he feels slighted.
| AS far as we are concerned per-
sonally we would be in favor of the
saloon men and the citizens getting
together OH some proposition and go
along smoothly and in harmony as
there is nothing that hurts town as
bad as q fight between the citizens,
one faction trying to get the best Of
the other. But as we understand il
the saloon men tnrned down a very
fair proposition put to them by the
council at meeting some time ago.
In Glasgow one of the liquor dealers
made the statement that he had made
more money under the new ordinance
there than under the old and had a
far better place.
The saloon men were gwen a rest
for few minutes and the sidewalk
distractions were taken up and in
the future it will be misdemeanor
to leave snow OH the sidewalks after
certain time and those having foot
scrapers on the edge Of the walk will
be asked to have them removed.
| \ petition was presented by the
Woman's club asking an ordinance
be drawn to prohibit the splitting on
the sidewalk. This was laid on the
table until some future meeting. An
ordinance of this kind would be very
hard to enforce aud there are num-
ber of others on the books of Malta
that laight as well not be there as far
as enforcement is concerned. We do
not mean by this that the splitting on
the sidewalks is proper for in our
opinion it is not and any one who is a
gentleman will not do it unless it is
thoughtlessly done. The majority of
our people generally walk to the curb
although there is always a class in
every place that would as soon use a
parlor carpet as the street for such
purpose.
There will be another social dance