Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 March 1908 — LOCAL OPTION PLANK [ARTICLE]

LOCAL OPTION PLANK

Expected to Have a Plaoe in the State Rep üblican Platform This Year. ■ ■ ""r 1 ■ THERE’S A PROBLEM TO 80LVB Will it Interfere with the Remonstrance Law?—Tom W. Harper’s WUl—ltems. Indianapolis, March 12. Republican politicians are giving much thought just now to the proposed local option plank, which, it is thought, will be built into the party platform by the coming state convention. They agree that much care will have to be exercised in preparing the plank, as it will be subjected to the closest scrutiny by the voters during the campaign. Republicans drawn to the city by the meeting of their state committee declared that nothing less than the county should be accepted as the unit by the proposed law. The township or city ward would not do at all, they said. So also says the Anti-Saloon League. Remonstrance System Must Stay. The politicians also agree with the League in declaring that local option must not supplant the remonstrance system. They point out that the present system is the result of long years of hard work, and that it must not be abandoned, now that it has become effective. They say.that local option, if adopted at all, should be adopted as a reinforcement to the remonstrance system. In this respect a point of law has arisen and legal advice will be sought to iron it out Point That Has Come Up. The point is this: Would a local option law be in conflict with the Moore remonstrance law? In other words, could a township or city ward seek to make itself dry by remonstrance after its county had voted for local option, that the county should remain wet? Any local option law contemplates that the result of the election shall determine whether a given territory shall be wet or dry for a given period of time. This makes It appear to many that a county voting to remain wet would be exempt by towngMps and city wards from the use of the remonstrance law. Interpretation Hoped For. Local optioners hope to have the point interpreted in a way that will convince them that there is no conflict between the present law and the proposed one. Otherwise, they say, the remonstrance system will be vitally weakened by a local option statute, and they are not willing to espouse any legislation that will tend to undo that which has been done in the way of temperance reform.