Let the Courts Work On.
By Editor
Nebraska has a mighty good law to the effect that saloon-keepers are liable for damage resulting from their sale of liquor, and that wife and children may legally lay claim to damage when the husband and father has become a habitual drunkard. Under this law, a Mrs. Bulger sued a saloon-keeper, Prenica, of Nebraska City, for damages, and the courts awarded her $5,000. The case was carried to the United States supreme court. Prenica's appeal was dismissed, as the Nebraska law was not unconstitutional. We wish every state would follow Nebraska. If liquor dealers paid the damage wrought by their business, that business would be annihilated. Another recent decision by the federal supreme court makes most of northern Minnesota "dry" under the old "Indian Liquor Treaty" provisions. It is said that the United States supreme court, on no less than twelve occasions, has declared that there is no inherent right in a citizen to sell intoxicating liquors; and the same decision practically has been made by twenty-two states and the District of Columbia. Here is an utterance by the highest judicial body in the country: "No legislature can bargain away the public health or public morals. The people themselves can not do it, much less their servants."