Higher Than The Law

The anti-saloon people of Aan Arbor were iiot in attendance on the common council to any great extent, Monday evening, but the saloon men and their friends were there, and that may account for the boldness displayed by Aid. Ware and Herz in openly advocating that the liquor law be violated. Aid. Allniendinger and Wines, supported by Aid. Sutherland and Barker, made a gallant fight to have the liquor law coraplied with, but it was of no avail. AU. Hammond also voted with tho8e gentlemen, when the yeaê and nays were called for, in favor of supporting the law. Aid. Allmendinger, as chairman of the committee on bond?, made the report which was signed by three members, or a majority. It is unnecessary to say that the two who refnsed to sign it voted to viólate the law. Tne committee had carefully considered the saloon bonds that had been presen ted to them, and, on the advice of the city attorney, had decided that most of them were legal and, so far as they knew, the sureties were sufficient. There were seven bonds, however, which they reoommended be returned for change. The council accepted so much of the report as related to the sufficient bonds, and then began the struggle. The first saloon-keeper on the list who, the committee thought, had not presented a legal bond was August Herz. Mr. Allmendinger ezplained the reason to be that one of the bondsmen, John Haghan, was not A resident of the city, and the law specifically declares tbat the bondsmen must reside in the city. Aid. Herz stated that on one oL the bonds which the committee recommended to accept, there was bondsman who resided in Ann Arbor town8hip and not in the city, and offengively intimated that partiality was shown and that wís the reason why he refused to sign the report. Mr. Allmendinger replied that, as Mr. Herz was a member of the committee, it was his duty to report such things to the committee; but, although he attended the committee meeting, Mr. Herz did not hint at any such thing then. The majority of the committee had acted on the best information they had. If any illegality were found in any of the bonds, he was ready to reconsider and reject them. Mr. Iïerz, of coarse, didn't want the bqnd reconsidered. Aid. Ware said that the council. in his opinión, ought not to obey the law strictly. The bondsmen, Mr. Haghan, was all right financially, and the mere fact of his not living in Ann Arbor city ought not to make any difference. (The Register puts Mr. Ware's powerful argument in a little more connected and plegant form than was used by that gentleman, but no reporter can put on paper the lofty way in which he brushed aside a little provisión in the state law as of no consequence in his opinión.) Aid. Wines offered the following resolution: Resolved, That we accept only uch persons as sureties on bonds as can be such by the expresa terms of the law. Aid. Herz perhsps exhibited the greatest ingenuity in argument against the resolution. He declared that the supreme court had set aside a part of the liquor law, and he couldn't see why the council shouldn't set aside other parts if they wanted to do so. There was no one wbo could, for very astonishment, meet such brilliant and unanswerable logic as that Mr. Ware spoke against the resolution with more boldness than exactness of statement. Mr. Wines, is supporting it, said that it would be as easy for August Herz to get legal bondsmen as for those who had complied with the law. He wanted no partiality showt). It was dangerous for the council to brush away a statute. Something terrible happened today in a saloon in Ann Arbor. Supposing damages of $5,000 or $10,000 are allowed to sorae one against that saloon ; in case the bondsmen are not legally bondsmen, they would not psy the money ; they would crawl out, and the city might have to pay. He, for one, didn't want to be responsible for bad bonde. The resolution was laid on the table by the tollowing vote : Yea : Aid. Martin, Herz, Kearns, Spokes, O'Mara, Miller, Ware, Mayor and Recorder. Nay: Aid. Sutherland, Allmendinger, Hammond, Wines, and Barker. Mr. Ortman, in behalf of August Herz, was allowed to address the council. He explained that Mr. Herz had tried hard to get bonds in accordance with the law ; but had found it impossible to get good sureties in the city. So they had selected Mr. Haghan, although he resided in Ann Arbor township. Fearful that this admission of the illegality of the bond might not be convincing, Mr. Allmendinger called for an opinión by the city attorney, who said that no one not residing in Ann Arbor city could legally go on that bond. In spitu of all this, the council accepted August Herz's bond by the same vote as given on the resolution above. Weruer & Brenner's bond, the committee thought, could not stand because one of the fureües had also signed another liquor bond. An unfortunate slip in the law gives a chance for dispute. In one part ot section 8 the law declares that a eurety shall not be " upon more than two [liquoi} bonds." In another part, it declares that the surely must Bwear, among other things, " that he is not a surety upon any other bond required by the provieions of this act." The city attorney cided that the Uw would permit a man to gb on but one bond. The mayor took issue with him, and the bond was acoepted. The case of C. Gauss was the same. H. C. Exinger's bond was accepted although the committee declared that the sureties were inaufficient. C. F. Kapp's bond was accepted, although one of the sureties waa an appointed officer, which invalidates the bond. The bonds of Geo. Waidlich and Mr. Reimold were returned for better security. The bonds which were accepted on the committee's recommendation were those of Herman Hardingbaus and Martin & Fischer, brewers; John Schneider, jr., Adolph Kemper, W. F. Schlanderer, 3. J. Koch. and Gottlieb Knapp, dealers in malt brewed liquors ; and John Reynolds, W. H. Mclntyre, Polhemus & Saxton, Eugene Gibney, Fred. Braun, F. Retticb, jr., Emanual Wagner, Fred. Besimer, Eugene Behr, Liidwig Walz, Albrecht Gwinner, George Clarken, William Frank, Charles Binder. The followinj? druggists bonds were accepted : John Moore, J. J. Goodyear, Elisha A. Calkins & Son. Mr. Allmendinger, for a httle pleasantry, moved that this council declare the liquor law unconstitutional ; but he and Mr. Wines both gave the council the most solemn warning against violating the law. It would embarrass future councils. Mr. Wines said that it would react on the saloon interesta, and if the legislature found that itg law waanot reapected, there would be a still more stringent liquor law enncted.