The Coconino sun., 1915-10-08
APPELLATE COURT SETS
 "DRYS' LAWS AT NAUCHT

The failure of prohibition to pro hibit is evidenced by he fact that every incorporated city in California having ordinances making possession of booze misdemeanor has been i'm posing fines and sending citizens to jail without legal right to do so.
 Pomona, the worst offender of all the cities of the state, has an ordi- nance on its books which gave officers license to meet incoming trains, seize luggage, break it open and confiscate liquor found therein, while the person caught with the wet goods was carried off to jail.
 Other cities, following the suit of Pomona's two-year-old ordinance, have fallen into the same mistake, and fines and imprisonments have been lavished upon thirsty citizens.
 The Appellate Court has just re- versed case of this kind, and has held in unequivocal terms that such ordinances are invalid and unconsti- tutional, and an overstepping of po lice powers.
 In other words, suburbanites may hereafter carry home as much liquor as they please without fear of arrest, but, of course, they will not be allowed to sell it.
 Further evidence that prohibition does not prohibit is cited by Col. Hen, " Laub, head of the allied liquor in- terests in California, who points to a decision of the United States Supreme Court in support of the contention.
 Can Ship to Arizona
 This decision, interpreting the Webb-Kenyon Act, declares that h- quor may be consigned and delivered to individual persons in dry" States, providing the liquor is not resold after reaching its destination. If it is not used for commercial purposes, it may be delivered, and the owner of the liquor cannot be prosecuted.
 Railroad and express companies have refused to accept shipments ot intoxicating liquor from California to Arizona since that State went dry. According to Col. Laub, these com panies do not understand the full i'm port of the decision of Justice Day, concurred in by his associates on the Supreme bench.
 The effect of the interpretation of the Webb-Kenyon Act is to restore to citizens of Arizona the privilege of taking their morning drink, as in the days when the State was wet. Booze for personal consumption shipped direct to consumer is not barred by the interstate provisions of the Webb-Kenyon law.
 In Arizona as in Pomona and else where, the authorities have intercept ed trunks, grips, suspicious-appearing bundles and boxes and have taken therefrom the booze which they de- clared to be contraband, and which was so considered until the interpreta tion of the Web5-Kenyon Act
 Many Wrongly Fined
 In Pomona more than S2000 has been collected in fines since the dry ordinance went into effect. This or dnance provides that the mere pos session of intoxicating liquors is misdemeanor. Chino, modelling its ordinance after that of Pomona, pro vides that liquor in unreasonable" quantities makes the owner thereof liable to prosecution, and the court may determine what is reasonable or unreasonable.
 Other cities in the State, using the same ordinance as guide, have made laws governing confscation of liquor in households, carried in handbags, etc., and some of the laws are so drastic that even the possession of corkscrew is deemed prima facie evi- dence of intent on the part of the owner to take a drink, and he is frowned upon accordingly.
 Judge Willis has just heard two Pomona cases that came up to the Superior Court on appeal. w. H. Me Caslin and Percy Howell were fined $500 each. McCaslin was arrested as he alighted from train, carrying a suit case. It contained beer. Percy Howell was caught after he had just left half dozen quarts of the amber fluid at his mothers house and was taking the remainder of an original dozen home.
 One of the men remained in jail sixteen days before he could raise bond and the other was liberated at Dz%