Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 3.djvu/226

 The Twenty-fifth General Assembly convened at Des Moines on the 8th of January, 1894. The House was organized by the election of Henry Stone, Speaker. Lieutenant-Governor Warren S. Dungan was President of the Senate. Frank D. Jackson was inaugurated Governor. The most important act of the Twenty-fifth General Assembly was the enactment of a law taxing the liquor traffic and, under certain conditions, protecting saloons from the enforcement of the penalties of the prohibitory liquor law. This act, while not repealing the prohibitory liquor law in terms, provides that the penalties for the violation of the same should be suspended, if the saloon keepers procure the written consent of a majority of the voters in the city for the establishment of saloons and pay an annual tax of six hundred dollars for the privilege of keeping a saloon. This act was devised and enacted by the Republican members of the Legislature to comply with a virtual agreement made by the managers of that party at the late Republican State Convention, with that element of the party which was opposed to the prohibitory liquor law and had united with the Democrats in demanding local option. The enactment of the “Mulct Law,” as this was called, satisfied the license Republicans as will be seen by the elections held since the compromise was agreed upon. The license Republicans in the two former elections for Governor had supported Horace Boies as the champion of local option and had been numerous enough to defeat the Republican candidates. The Prohibition party, instead of uniting with the Republicans, had put a ticket in the field and thus far had aided in dividing the prohibition vote and indirectly contributed to the overthrow of prohibition. The Republican prohibitionists remained in the party but were completely shorn of their influence in its councils, in the selection of candidates and in shaping of policy. Thus a small minority of the party, the license Republicans, became the leaders of the organization and the prohibition Republicans surrendered