Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1890 — PROHIBITION PLUNDER IN IOWA. [ARTICLE]

PROHIBITION PLUNDER IN IOWA.

Chicago Tribjyie. ’ The On» JJeines Reflate 1 * has compiled from the official rffisords figures which ihow in a striking why how the lowa prohibitory law is being used by searchers, Informers and the like to plunder the public treasury. The Prohibitionists, in the hope of securing the execution of the law, provided liberal fees for spies and prosecutors and made the counties responsible for costs, but the result has been in Des Moines to give certain “fellows of the baser sort” uncommonly good opportunities to get their hands into the public treasury and gorge themselves on fees and costs. The strict enforcement of the prohibitory law is the last thing these mercenaries desire, since that would close their source of revenue and force them to seek a livelihood in some occupation more laborious and less profitable than making liquor seizures and pocketing fees. The policy pursued in Des Moines with a view to the maximum of fees and the minimum amount of restraint on the liquor tfaffic is to seize single bottles of liquor and start condemnation proceedings against each-oner-Ia each instance the State is brought into controversy, not with a saloonkeeper or with the premises where liquor is sold, but with a bottle of whisky or beer. Thus, while the saloonkeeper is harmed only to the extent of the loss of a bottle of beer worth 20 or 25 cents, costs and fees to the amount of $7. 25 are extracted from the county treasury for the benefit of the searchers and witnesses. Among the entries taken from the docket of a justice of the peace by the Register are the following, which show the systematic way of gathering in boodle under pretense of enforcing the prohibitory law: “May 19, vs. one bottle of beer by Cleggett fifom Shaffer; witnesses: Cleggett, Burdick, Hansen, J. Callender; total costs, $7.25. “May 19. vs. one bottle of beer by Cleggett, from Lew Foley; witnesses: Burdiek, Keller. J. Callender, I. Wilson; total costs, $7.25. “May 19, vs. one bottle of beer by Cleggett, from Foster; witnesses: Burdick, I. Wilson. Keller, J. Callender; total costs, $7.25. I “May 19, vs. one bottle Of beer by Cleggett, from Richler; witnesses: Wilson, Keller, Burdick, J, Callender; total costs, $7.25. “May 19, vs, one bottle of beer by Cleggett, from Alex Cordon; witnesses: Burdick, Wilson, J. Callender, Keller: total costs, $7.25. “May 19, vs. one bottle of beer by Cleggett from M. Myers; witnesses: J. Callender, Burdick, Keller, G. B. Hamilton and Wilson; total costs, $7.25. “May 19, vs. two bottles of beer by Cleggett from Jo Anderson; witnesses: Burdick, J. Callender, I. Wilson, G. B. Hamilton and Keller; total costs, $7.25. “May 24, vs. eighteen bottles of beer by Wilson from Ida Comisky; witnesses: Cleggett, J. Callender, Burdick, Keller and Sumner; total costs, $7.25.

“May 24, vs. one bottle of beer by Cleggett from Skrebner; witnesses: Wilson. Keller, Burdick, J. Callender and Hamilton; total costs, $7.25. “May 24, vs. one bottle of beer by Cleggett frqm M. Myers; witnesses: Burdick, Wilson, Keller, J. Callender and Hamilton; total costs, $7.25.” There is evidently in Des Moines a three-cornered conspiracy between the justices, the constables and the liquor venders to plunderlhe taxpayers under the guise of enforcing prohibition. Without closing a single place where liquor is sold, the searchers in Des Moines have compelled the expenditure from the public treasury of SBO,000 in the last six months. No such scandalous state of affairs prevails in other cities in lowa, for the reason that public sentiment would not tolerate it, and it is not likely that Des Moines will endure robbery in the name of prohibition much longer.