Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-05-05
FILES RGUMENT IN SUPREME,
COURT UNFOLDING REPEAL
or MuLcT STATUTE.
ORAL ARC uMENTs TO
De HEARD SATURDAY
Attorney General Holds That Lssisla-
tive Action Was Result Of Desire. OF
Majority Of People--Answers Arsu-
nients Of Vets Regarding Loss Of
Revenues--Points to Russia.

Des Moines. May 5. Attorney
General George Cosson defends the
mulct repeal law attacked by the
vets, in arguments filed in the SUI
preme court yesterday. Oral argu-
ments will be heard by the court to-
morrow. ISL
+ The attorney. general sums up the
argument with the statement, "The
legislature acting in a representative
capacity In response to the over
whelming. firm and abiding conviction
of the people Of the state, has re-
pealed the mulct law, thereby Danish
ing the saloon from Iowa. their act
was performed pursuant to the police
power Of the state In the interest Of
public morals, the public safety, the
public welfare and public health OF
the state. Every substantial and con-
stitutional requirement has been COM
piled with" 49,.
Originated at Davenport.
The case being argued originated at
Davenport, where three saloon keep
ers sold liquor on Jan. ., 1916, to pro-
vide grounds for test of the validity
and constitutionality of the repeal of
the mulct tax law. Judge Donegan OF
the Scott county district court held
the law both constitutional and valid.
The vets appealed to the supreme
court. The liquor men asserted the
law Is invalid because the Legislature
did not recognize the supplement to
the code, 1918, and that the measure
did not refer to Davenport as special
charter city; and the law could not
close the saloons while a valid saloon
petition is in existence.
The states argument says the title
of, the mulct repeal law is sufficient
as it furnishes a key to the contents
of the act; that the law is valid as the
defendants, nor any other persons, had
vested right to sell whisky or beer,
or otherwise maintain a liquor
nuisance in Iowa; that the repeating
act is valid as the sections repealed
expressly referred to and included
special charter cities; that the enrolled
bill is the actual law itself, and it Is
not material that the supplement to
the code, 1913, did not have an index
at the time the Thirty-siXth general
assembly was in session.
Revenue Cut or. ! I A'.-#
The vets complained that the clos
ing Of the saloons cut off certain reve-
nue. from the cities which had been
paid as the mulct tax. To this, At
torney General Cosson, says: * Fn'+
considering that the government
of Russia had monopoly on the
liquor business and yet abolished the
sale of vodka and saved enough money
to carry on the war-considering that
every nation engaged in war found 1t
advisable from the question OF econ
omics to prohibit or greatly curtail
the liquor traffic-considering that for
every dollar paid to the city in the
form Of q license tax by the saloon, a
hundred dollars is collected from the
working man and those who enjoy the
bare necessities of demonstrating
that the saloon has always meant a
very greatly increased cost to the city
and the taxpayers by reason of In
creased crime necessitating larger
police force and expense incurred In
maintaining jails and penitentiaries,
by way of added expense for the main
tlnance Of insane hospitals and in
ebriate asylums. county homes and
charitable relief, orphanage and all
court costs incident, to crime and
divorce--it REQUIRES a bold man to ad-
vance the exploded and generally dis
regarded argument that saloon Is a
good thing for a community because
for every hundred dollars it takes out
of mems pockets, it returns tone OF
those dollars to the city in the form
of license tax" - . Y. ....r. -"
,u,t $v@s Code Was Approved.
, Continuing, the state declares The
legislature properly recognized the
supplement to the code, 1913. and that
the code commission properly ap-
proved the work. The attorney says:
ut may be true as counsel state