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Show (71 ANTI CIGARET" LAW FAILURE H IN MATTER Of CONVICTIONS With Apparently Strong Evidence Before Them Juries Return Verdicts of k Not Guilty; Drastic Pro- I visions to Blame W ( n tUOTD A. 'mniKKMAY) WMW Tf sponsors of the Southwlck anti- M? cipiiiot lnxv had in mind tn" rnHlne H of tho price of clgarctfl to consumers tj when they passed tho measure In he iii state legislature of 1921-thej havo EB accomplished their purpose. y ''n the otherhand, if they hoped to ii eliminate the -uuio ot Qlgsrets in storey mSmj Mop people su.i.klng' In public plnces HV such us restaurants, burbcr shops, of- Wmm flee buildings and stores they nac undoubtedly faired so far. Rjll This Is apparent oven to a casual HH observer who has no Interest either for or against the law. or the sale, or ; the smutting, afcer the new law ha B had more tnan seven months trial In mmmm BwM At the time tho bill went into of- Kl8 feet, men generally forecast their it Various and .millctlnw opinions as to whether the law would be effective andi Tj declared that tlx mntns would tell 9 the tale. They agreed that six months J El would give the law ample working " -fJjr'' '" either win or fail. JJy'" That t!m has :h.v passed and more Rl than SO days have been added. What f Is the result'.' PUBLIC SENTIMENT ENTERS Hol J'robabh the inoHt Important guide Dt9 in determining a public Issue Is pub-j f 11c sentiment And how Is this ob-l 4ftlned? From talk on the streets.! from statements of public men. f roiu i I riowepsper editorials and magazine ar-1 1 tides. But there Is even a tetter way J; tlun thesu or' obtaining a, expression! Hfl ot real public sentiment, and this is i hrousrh lurnrs or lurlos . , i : ,, ,. W the cases for prosecution. eI Jurors are drawn from all wjlks and paths f life and business. And rfl they are called whether or not they Kl want to appear. They are represonta-tho represonta-tho of the people for they ;uo the peo-H?fi peo-H?fi pie. themselves and hoy generally tell Kfl The truth VS And what have our juries done In jlH cases where the' arc asked to prose-HU1 prose-HU1 cute men who arc charged with tho HaH sale of cigarets? Jn the first plnco H ';KH Jt ! with difficulty that they are lUl-H lUl-H VH panelled, for they soon show through fH questioning that they are not In favor IMH r tne hiw. Juror after Juror has re- ijH marked in answer to questions put to Ji:i'' the prosecutor, 'No, i could I yW " ' I with tills ease t'liirly. for I H Mm not in favor of this lav.'." If SAYS I 1 KK.Y1USH tK Only a few days ago a possible Jur- HJB or was being examined for duty In an UH osden court. This question was put U to him. Arc ou ir. favor of enforce-B enforce-B ment of the Southwlck ant 1-clgaret ff lav. .'" He answered In nubotance as SjE manv oth r men I. , ,i l wmf uiylng, "No. its another one of those BSjEjEa freak laws." HB And when Juries have been finally SSV selected, eluence has been Introduced. I officers have testified tha.: they found I clgarots In the store, and the c Igaiets are exhibited, what Is .-he result? The Wi officer has testified that he. persona l- ly raided the 6tu;- and confiscated the i tgarets and arrested the clerk or II storekeeper The pro-ecu. ban rood the law to show that the keeping of! BEE .' cigarets for 6ale (s prohibltod. Trio jK case appears complete and It appears! BEE ' that there !s no loophole to fc&v con- f vleclon. NO 1 ( K TIONB but although there has been several by '-.set- 1 1 t.,,i b. fore Jury and BBfl such evidence ha be. n introduced, so Bff, far there has not been a single con BE I .vjclion. mk " proprietors in Ogden tiid Hp entei pleas of guilty to charges of KJA igareis. but they did it for a purpose. BFE Jn thCBe eases tiie officers hod seized Sft more than 11000 worth of cigarets and H the proprietors knew that if they en-PJ en-PJ tared. Pleas of guilty they would be BBSJE fined and their eases disposed of A El fine of $J.r,o each was Imposed -but BBjflM the owners trot hark their more than BEBfl tiniiA ii ,,ri. ..f . . . C 7 "'. .iistiei wnicn were B9H shipped to theai outside the state In BKB accordance with the law. BEJ In Salr Lake recently a dork In a EKS drug store was arrested aftor he had BBBJ old a packages of cigarets to an of- BEflfl floor. Convlnotlon seemed a certainty Bflflfl The officer testified to the purchase 1 KEJ and to having been handed the poek- 2E age over thc counter. Tho Jury hoard Kfl a" the testimony. The package was BftEl exhibited. They returned a verdict oi BEBM not gulltv d JVRY NOT SURE mm ' what eras their excuse? They BBS! : reported that the prosecutor failed tol BPH iipen the pnckag.x and show them that Kfl H icail-- contain. ,1 lKu!tts in , urt J mejM Consequently, they declared, they did MM not know whether, or not the packacs mum contained cigarets and they did not BRBj want to convict a man unless thev BX were sure. bE51 T''',,a fUM was slightly raw even mm u.ig.. in., iic ffave the Jurors a BE- k ongue-lashlng, but it did not have anv Bl effect upon their verdict the case was BBBD closed. Can it he supposed that the jurors BKtEi really believed ihat there was hair- WBm Pins or powder-puffs In the package ' BBB Jt contained the brand of a well-known KZ manufacturer and "cigarets" was Wnm PWr printed In large type across tho face of he package. .'o, they were apparently looking for a loop-hole and they found it Tholr verdict showed conclusively that they wore not in favor fa-vor of ih law TWO RJBGENT CASES j Two oases of alleged cigaret sellinp have been tried In the Ogdon court in I the last ten days. The Junes refused .o convict. The defense contended that while the cigarets may have been I found In the stores, they v.er not j there for sale, that thev were owned I by individuals wh kept theni there for private use and he Stores were not responsible. re-sponsible. It in unlikely that convictions convic-tions can bo obtained In tho future if stores continue to offei thc same de-fonse de-fonse Hut one thlr.g Iiqs been accomplished through the Working of ."he Inu whether or not It was desired by tho lawmakers or not. Cigar store proprietors pro-prietors have raised their prices and are collecting their bounty from the consumer to pay tho expenses of attorneys at-torneys and court actions should thev bo "pinched 1 m tbr future. Those who are fortunate enough to keep away from the clutches of the law in .he days to 09ms will be ..hat far ahead. Others will have their attorneys attor-neys paid by the cigaret-buving public pub-lic ONE BENEFIT Whatever the effects of the cigaret law, there is ono redeeming feature at I least. Undoubtedly it has kept the younger els of boys nw iv from the 1 weeds because it has been more difficult diffi-cult for the boys to procure them. A man can send outside ; rtate and have olgareta sent to his home by parcel par-cel post by tho carton. Hut the boy is handicapped. He may not have tho price to pay for a carton and ho would also experience difficult', in having the package lonl to his home if he did. The deslro of a cigaret to a boy who has not yet formed the habit Is in the major.', y of cases only momentary and if a rtoep barrier is to be overcome, he generally forgets and goes about his way without them Storekeepers who do sell cigarets at his time are taking few ohanoeg and I thoy must know their man before a 'sale Is made. A boy ha no 1 ha nee at n, and there are few men who will i go into a store to buy cigarets foi a I lad of tender years As far ns hopes of eliminating smoking smok-ing in public places, the law has so far failed to prohibit, ulthough It may havo brought about a decrease of tho practice Most proprietors of restaurants restaur-ants and stores who r.llow their patrons pat-rons to 6inoko have Ktt aside a portion por-tion of tho place and designated it Vmokliig room." and have had no trouble As far as Is known there has no yet been a case where a man was arrested and prosecuted for smoking i'i plates where the new law prohibits OFFICIAL OPINION Public officers who have the re-m re-m ilblllty upon their !iou!ders of en-forclng en-forclng anv law which the legislature might ena.t are of th- composite opinion that the cigaret law is Jnef-Cective. Jnef-Cective. They also declare that public opinion is against its operation. They know- that their officers are greaMy handicupped in endeavoring u enforce a law which Is not popular and they feol .'.hat it is only a matter of time until It is thoroughly delermined that convictions cannot be obtained and thc wide-open sale will return. Mayor Frank PYanc!s believes thero is not enough public sentiment behind be-hind the law .0 insure its success. Af-ter Af-ter watchine Its operation for more than six months he said vesterday; "The cigaret habit is "a erv bad habit. 1 ha-e nevei used cigarets 1 do olieve however that there 1 not enough public ser. iment back of the law to properly enforce it ami that thero are bigger tasks before us in the matter of reformation Our mont Imperative call at th present time Is nr.' to stop people from smoking, hut to . le.m up the boudeorgpi and gamblf-i-WhO are reallv dangerous." irNPOPUTiAK PROVISION Commissioner J. Ray Ward, who directs the police department and the enforcement of the cigaret law as well as other laws in ugden said; "Prohibition of tho sale of cigarets is certainly a good thing, but the law or enforcement Is being killed by the many provisions that should not bo there to make R effective. if the measure simply prohibited the sale It might have hari bettor effect but the superfluous provisions such as making mak-ing it unlawful to smoke in many places ha made it unpopular and has cuuse.j public sentiment to be agalnsi Its enforcement ' To be effective, it should be modi-fled modi-fled and changed, in my opinion. As it is It cannot be called anything else but a failure. It has had one good effect ef-fect In that It has made It difficult for tho smaller bov to procure elc--arets and form the habit " IX) ENFORCE 1,W Sheriff Kichard Plncock, who has directed his officers in making several' raids in ugden upon cigar stores, said The ciguret law Is unpopular Ir is not difficult to find cigarets' in stores, but It is difficult to obLaln convictions. While the law is on the statute books it Is up to my department to enforce It whether Jt Is ;i good law or not. Officers aro practically powerless pow-erless when they seize cigarets for they cannot have the rvorokeepcrs ' punished but this ahull not stop us In tho future from trying to enforce the law, even under this handicap," |