Let 'em Holler - A Political Biography of J. Bracken Lee

Mayor of price, A wide open city

1 Mayor of Price, "A Wide Open City' J. Bracken Lee's political career began in 1935 when he was narrowly elected mayor of Price, an eastern Utah coal mining community of less than 5,000 people. It cost him $800 in court fees before he was finally declared the official victor. Subse­quently, he was elected to five additional two-year terms for a total of twelve years in office. Although the position was con­sidered part-time and paid only $50 per month, Lee attacked the city's problems with enthusiasm. Feeling that the people were "getting gypped" with a 34 mill levy, he promised reduced taxation. I intended to give them their money's worth, and I did\ . . . Every year I was in office, I reduced taxes. Every year! The last three years we didn't have one penny of tax on property. Tax free-the only city in the state. Of course, this raised the question, "where'd you get the money to operate?"1 Lee explained that since Price had its own electrical distribut­ing plant, the city purchased electricity wholesale from Utah Power and Light Company and then sold it to the people at an increased rate.2 He maintained that Price was paying an exorbi­tant rate to the power company, and so he applied pressure to reduce it. Incredibly, he discovered that stealing electricity was a common town practice. They'd wire a couple of nails on the back porch, and when they would hang a tub over it, it would short the meter out. Other people would wrap little wires around the meter, and then they'd let it run for a little while and disconnect it. And we found that we were buying a lot more kilowatts than we were selling. A terrific amount. And you'd be amazed at the people who were stealing electricity. The big thieves were the rich! When I say the rich-the people that could afford to pay were doing the most stealing. And when I found the J. BRACKEN LEE names on this list, why we'd a had a scandal-they'd a prob­ably run me outa Price! I concluded it was better not to expose it, and I got the city council together and we decided we'd put in theft-proof meters. . . and we created so much profit in the electricity that we could replace all the prop­erty tax.3 Total receipts in 1934 from the sale of electricity amounted to $57,542.59, while in 1943 the figure had jumped to $111,229.33. By 1944 Ben Ward, city recorder, announced that the profit to the city from the sale of electricity totaled $266,078.43.* The sale of culinary water marked another significant source of reve­nue for the city, producing an income of $60,958.94 in 1943, with expenses amounting only to $33,000.00.5 In the summer of 1943 Lee enthusiastically recommended to the city council that the property tax be entirely eliminated. Lee realized that Price was carrying a bonded debt, but he saw no advantage in paying it off in a lump sum because interest would have to be paid on the entire amount. He also opposed the continuation of property tax in order to build up a surplus because such a practice would create a temptation to spend money too freely and was contrary to law." When the city council accepted Lee's recommendation, Price became the only munici­pality in Utah without city taxes.7 However, the experiment was over by 1946 when city taxes were restored at a levy of 10 mills, with $21,500.00 collected. The levy was increased to 15.5 mills in 1947, with $42,723.35 collected.8 A tax-free city was a notable achievement for the period, but it was only a reality for three years out of Lee's tenure of twelve years. Effusive in praise of his own record in Price, Lee said: During my time in office we had the greatest number of improvements-civic improvements-of any like period in the city before or since! All you've gotta do is go down and look at the record!" The most notable achievements were these: The water supply line from mountain springs high in the Wasatch range was com­pletely rebuilt with metal pipe during 1935-37 at a cost of MAYOR OF PRICE $250,000. In 1939 a 750,000-gallon steel water tank was built for $13,000. In 1938 a municipal building, comprising a civic auditorium and city hall, considered to be the best in the state, was built with WPA help at a cost of $250,000. In 1940 a storage garage valued at $30,000 was purchased and rebuilt and a $15,000 park was constructed. Prior to Lee's mayoralty only Price's main street was paved; but during his tenure most of the city's streets were paved and a street lighting system was installed.10 Lee forgot his antipathy for federal funding long enough to float a bond of $180,000 to build the municipal building, which, according to him, was completely paid off when he left office in 1948: "The December before I left office, I paid off the last dollar of bonded indebtedness the city had. They didn't owe a dollar when I left office!"11 In fact, Price city records show a bonded indebtedness of $187,000 in 1945, climbing to $317,000 by the end of 1948 when Lee left office. Moreover, it remained high in the two years following, $288,000 in 1949 and $303,000 in 1950.12 LIQUOR CONTROL As mayor, Lee unleashed a barrage of attacks on the state liquor system. It adversely affected Price city finances, he de­clared, causing an annual loss of $20,000 in revenue. He sug­gested that the system ^be revamped to provide a more equitable distribution of revenue to cities and towns. In addition, Carbon County beer vendors complained to him that the liquor law did not provide protection against bootleggers. Lee asserted that "open drinking" was not allowed under the old act, but the new one encouraged individuals to "spend their last cent for a bottle, drink it, then end up in respectable places to cause trouble." He insisted that the old system of open saloons was superior to the present system of liquor stores. Finally, he expressed great concern about enforcement, which he thought was impossible without additional men or funds from the state.13 Soon afterward, agents of the state liquor commission arrested three persons in Price without warning for violations of the state J . BRACKEN LEE liquor law. Approximately twenty-seven officials participated in the raid, which culminated in the arrest of Steve Cafe, George Pappas, and A. Aramaki. Since local officials were not notified of the raid, they had no knowledge of it until the arrested people appeared in the sheriff's office with the evidence-sixteen gallons of illegal liquor." Incensed at the episode, Lee complained that officials had raided a private home (that of Pappas) in plain clothes without a search warrant. Claiming that the incident occurred without due process of law, Lee consulted with Marl Gibson, Democratic county attorney, and then drew up a law for Price, instituting a $299 fine or six months in jail or both for entering a private domicile without a warrant. The city council subsequently passed the ordinance.10 The most controversial incident of Lee's mayoralty occurred in January 1938 at the Jones Club on Carbon Avenue. Mayor Lee personally supervised the arrest of two state liquor enforce­ment officials, Chester Dowse and Henry Bell, on charges of alleged drunkenness and resisting a Price police officer. After a preliminary hearing Dowse was bound over to district court with bail set at $1,000 and Bell was released. Lee claimed that state officials used "high-handed" techniques and failed to cooperate with local authorities. The fracas occurred at 2:30 A.M. on January 25, nearly six hours after the club had been raided and closed by state liquor inspectors who objected to the sale of liquor by the drink. Inspec­tor Bell reported that whiskey had been purchased in the Jones Club at least ten times between September 24 and January 24 in specific violation of the state Liquor Control Act. Merlyn Jones, the owner, said that he approached the establishment after the raid and saw two men drinking beer, but that he was refused admission. He called night patrolman William Mclntyre to assist him, but they were still denied entry. Finally, Jones called Mayor Lee, who left his bed and joined the patrolman in seeking entry to the club. But the two liquor agents, who had been left in the building to map it and take an inventory, also refused to let them in. Lee then instructed Mclntyre to open the door with Jones's key. When that failed, they obtained the assistance of MAYOR OF PRICE passers-by to force the door open. Lee said that he had deputized those who helped him, including club employees, bartenders Arthur Camomile and Robert E. Lee, the mayor's brother. In the melee that followed, Lee charged that Dowse struck Jones on the head with a gun, inflicting several lacerations. With the help of additional police, the mayor arrested the agents and hauled them into jail, contending that they had refused to reveal their identities and their right to be in the building. "When they send men down," said Lee, "they most certainly should contact local police. There is nothing to keep anyone from entering a place, closing the doors and pilfering." Parnell Black, chief counsel for the liquor commission, de­fended the agents at the hearing the next day, while Marl Gibson, county attorney, acted for the prosecution. Lee testified that when he sought admission to the club, Chester Dowse refused him entrance and asked, "Who the hell are you?" When Lee introduced himself, Dowse reportedly remained unimpressed. Lee claimed that Dowse's "eyes were bloodshot, and he talked in a thick voice." When Dowse took the stand he admitted to taking one glass of beer but insisted he had drunk only part of it because it was "not particularly palative." He said that he consumed about two-thirds of a six-ounce glass, "chiefly foam." When Lee had knocked on the door, Dowse had answered and said, "I'm sorry but I can't let anyone in here." Parley Salmon, his superior, had instructed him to let no one enter. When Dowse saw that the men intended forced entry, he told Bell to obtain a rifle from the other room and used it as a weapon in the fight that ensued, in which he was knocked down and kicked in the jaw. Bell testi­fied that the only reason that he and Dowse had been unwilling to admit Price officials was their failure to recognize Lee as the mayor. When Black asked Lee if it was true that he had told the liquor agents that "the state liquor commission is corrupt from top to bottom," Lee replied affirmatively. Black then lectured Lee, citing section 174 of the state liquor law, that "if any officer shall fail or refuse to do or perform any duty required by this act, Upper left: A 1928 photograph of Lee taken for the Masonic Lodge in Price just before his marriage. Upper right: Lee congratulates his successor as mayor of Price, A.D.Keller. Above: On Scofield Lake, seated, left to right, State Sen. Marl D. Gibson (D-Price), J. Allen Browne of Utah State Fish and Game Department, Mrs. Gibson, and Mrs. Browne; stand­ing, Margaret and J. Bracken Lee. Lee made the boat. Right: Lee in 1942 when he ran unsuccessfully for Congress. J. Bracken Lee photographs. Above: Gov. Herbert B. Maw with Mayor Lee of Price. In 1948 Lee would successfully challenge Maw for the governorship. Deseret News photograph. Below left: Lee, in white, played shortstop for the Price baseball team, ca. 1925. J. Bracken Lee photograph. Below right: Lee in the 1920s. Deseret News photograph. J. BRACKEN LEE he shall be removed from office." He also quoted section 165 saying that if the arresting officer believed a liquor violation had occurred, he should "seize all tangible personal property in said premises." As a result of the hearing, an official complaint was filed before a justice of the peace charging Merlyn Jones, proprietor, and Arthur Camomile and Robert E. Lee, bartenders, with main­taining a common nuisance in violation of section 195 of the state act. It was generally understood that the commission had evidence against practically every liquor-vending establishment in Price.16 Lee believed that bootlegging was not the issue ("I'm not saying they weren't guilty of bootlegging") but that the principles of private property and due process of law were at stake. Although he asserted that the ordinance passed by the city coun­cil, mentioned earlier, was the basis upon which the agents were arrested,17 that ordinance was actually not passed until Decem­ber 1942.18 Lee's recollection of the incident is more colorful than con­temporary accounts. He remembered a late night telephone call informing him that there were two liquor agents in the Jones Club with the blinds pulled down. But they don't know that you can peek through the edge of the blinds and see what's going on. And he says, "There's a gang down watching them and they've got a couple of girls in there, and they're playing the juke box and drinkin' Jones' liquor." And so I thought this'd be interesting, and so I got dressed and went down there and I watched them for awhile. I finally called the Chief of Police, and they were havin' a hell of a time-makin' a lot of noise. . . . I would guess there must have been close to 100 people standin' around there at midnight on the outside!19 Lee recalled that Dowse was unemotional when he opened the door, and probably did not recognize him as the mayor. "I said, 'Arrest them both!'" and the chief allegedly did so.20 Lee is wrong about who made those arrests, for all other accounts of the episode name Patrolman Mclntyre. The contradiction is probably attributable to the passage of years. 12 MAYOR OF PRICE Lee's recollection of the outcome is also faulty. He claimed that both agents were found guilty and that one was sentenced to sixty days in jail while Dowse was given a suspended sentence because he came from "a good family."21 Actually, Bell was released immediately after his arrest, following a preliminary hearing before justice of the peace J. W. Hammond. Dowse was represented at his hearing almost two months after the event by attorney Burton Musser, who argued that Dowse had a perfect right to use even more force than he did to keep out city officials. He said that Patrolman Mclntyre, in failing to aid the agent as required by law, was hindering Dowse in the performance of his duty of making an inventory of the Jones Club and therefore was more vulnerable to a charge of resisting an officer than Dowse. Judge George Christensen ruled in favor of Dowse and freed him, explaining that the club was not a public place at the time of the arrest, meaning that Dowse could not be held for drunkenness.22 Undoubtedly, the Jones Club incident was terribly embar­rassing to Lee and his administration. However, he used it as a springboard for his private investigation of the liquor commis­sion and the state land board. When the Price Chamber of Com­merce offered to help finance the study, Lee promised to produce evidence so damaging that it would lead to a grand jury. He had studied the 2,600-page transcript of testimony given to an investi­gating committee of the 1937 legislature and found evidence that big monthly retainers had been paid to the commission for long periods after service had been ordered terminated. Lee hired a private investigator, formerly employed by the liquor commission, to help him resurrect the data. Moreover, Lee per­sonally paid part of his salary.23 Lee claimed that the liquor commission never turned into the courts the same amount of money agents confiscated during a raid. The commission, he said, would insist that the money was put in the safe and that it must have rolled out of the drawer. "They had the damnedest excuses! But they kept stealing!"24 Lee wrote an angry letter to James Funk, then chairman of the Liquor Control Commission, attacking him for what Lee 13 J . BRACKEN LEE characterized as "misstatements" credited to Funk by newspapers about the Jones Club incident. Lee strongly objected to a rumor that he was personally interested in the Jones Club, and he held Funk responsible. He also took exception to the undue emphasis that Funk allegedly placed on the involvement of Lee's bartender brother. It had nothing to do with the liquor agents' decision to violate the law, asserted Lee, but it did indicate the "contemptible methods" a "political machine" would take to mislead the public. Lee quickly added that he held no sympathy for a bootlegger and would never offer any assistance to a liquor law violator.25 Lee also charged that the liquor commission had paid a prominent Salt Lake attorney $15,000.00 obtained from state funds to defend the commissioners against possible grand jury indictments.20 Although he did not mention him by name, the attorney Lee was referring to was the commission's chief counsel, Parnell Black, a highly successful attorney. Black angrily denied the charge and labeled the liquor investigation as Lee's "great campaign as the modern savior of depleted Republican hopes." Black also accused Lee of libel and pointed out that no audit had ever revealed even a trace of "such misappropriation."27 Black reacted to Lee's charge that Corby's whiskey was not for sale in the stores or package agencies of Utah because the liquor commissioners had refused to sell it unless they received a payoff from representatives of the company. Actually, Corby's liquor had been removed from the market in the United States and could not be purchased.28 Lee made a number of other charges, among them that the land board had caused the state to lose $2 million through cor­rupt practices. After going over records at the State Capitol personally, he announced, "I don't believe there are half a dozen departments that are not implicated." He suggested that state officials were trying to "hush things up" and predicted that the public would be shocked at the findings. Finally, Lee wrote a scathing letter to Gov. Henry H. Blood, a Democrat, calling his attention to "irregularities, various forms of graft and downright pilfering of public funds" and challenging him to "return the government of Utah back to the people." No pun intended, Lee 14 MAYOR OF PRICE insisted that the governor choose between the people of the state and "the political rats who are sucking the very life blood from our State Government."20 Lee's charges were never substantiated. A grand jury was convened on April 4, 1938, to consider the charges and even called Lee as a witness. According to Black, Lee was "unable to produce one single vestige or scintilla of evidence or testimony to support the charges" that he had "so recklessly made."30 So the huge scandal Lee had prophesied never came to pass. When Blood completed two terms in 1940 he was replaced by another Democrat, Herbert B. Maw. TROUBLE AT HOME While Lee was taking liquor reform to the state, church leaders and school officials in Price were becoming more incensed by the perceived moral problems. The Jones Club incident aroused some of them to action. A delegation of eighteen men and women approached the city council to urge adoption of measures designed to "clean up" Price. School superintendent G. J. Reeves outlined three policies: (1) keep slot machines out, (2) keep minors out of pool halls and drinking establishments and off the streets at late hours, and (3) require that amusement halls be closed at the time specified by law. George Rowley, a juvenile judge, declared that juvenile delinquency was increas­ing and the chief cause was beer and liquor: "I find two or three places where no restrictions have been made. I tell you, gentle­men, it is a disgrace to this community."31 Orson H. Guymon, president of the Carbon District School Board and bishop of the Price Ward of the Mormon church, complained of the damaging publicity Price was receiving and feared it would harm Carbon Junior College. Noting that many people were convinced that Price was not a proper place to send college students, Guymon demanded that the city fathers create a new atmosphere. Lee expressed regret that the Jones Club incident had occurred but defended his own role in it: "If I had it to do over, I should do the same thing again." He claimed that 15 J . BRACKEN LEE many statements made about the event were "gross lies" which would eventually be proved. With respect to the group's pro­posals, Lee assured them that the police would do everything possible to keep children off the streets and out of trouble. Slot machines, however, came under county rather than city juris­diction. 32 School coordinator D. E. Williams made a plea for more rigid enforcement of laws prohibiting the sale of liquor to minors and estimated that most of his problem cases resulted from such laxity. Rowley cited instances in which boys and girls only thirteen years of age had been allowed beer. But Frank Hanson, city attorney, blamed the state liquor commission for overselling liquor. "We have a wholesale establishment for every bootleg place in the state in our liquor set up. Do not hold Price respon­sible for this." Hanson complimented Lee for being the only man with enough "backbone" to fight a strong political clique.33 During 1938-40 little progress was made in eliminating slot machines. Years later, Calvin L. Rampton, a Democrat and former governor, asserted that Price was without question "more loose" than the rest of the state and recalled that while he was serving as assistant attorney general in 1940 numerous Price citizens complained to his office that slot machines were openly operating against state law. Accordingly, he went to Price with two other deputy attorneys general and destroyed approximately 150 slot machines. Rampton also recalled the unusual case of highway patrol­man Joe Arnold who was arrested on Lee's direct order while speeding through Price to take an injured man to a hospital. Rampton tried the case for the state, with Lee the chief prosecu­tion witness and an argumentative one at that.34 For his part, Lee believed that Rampton in his capacity as assistant attorney general was "a member of the Maw machine" and that the arrest of the highway patrolman was actually less important than the arrest of an ambulance driver. I'd had trouble with a fella that had an ambulance. He was one of these fellas that just loved to put on the whistle 16 MAYOR OF PRICE and go like the dickens, see. And it scared me, because we had a lot of traffic in Price. You took all these coal miners on a Saturday-just filled the streets with cars. He'd come down there and I don't know how he ever kept from murder­ing people. But two or three times I warned him-I says, "/ don't want you to exceed the speed limit, to run a red light, or do anything in violation of the law with that ambulance of yours, because I'm gonna have to do something." He paid no attention to me. So one day I took him out to the edge of town in his car, and I said . . . "I want you to drive me just as fast as you can go. Put your siren on, I want to run the red light, and get to the hospital." So he did, and I timed him. I says, "We'll go back and do it over, and you'll obey the ordinances. Stop for the red light, you won't blow your horn, and see how much time you save." It was only about a minute! 'Cause the city's only a mile square, see. Amazing! It was a far shorter time than / thought it'd be. I says, "ya see-you run the risk of killin' and injurin' a lot of people, just to blow that damn horn and drive fast." I said, "Next time you do it, I'm gonna have you arrested." Well, it wasn't two or three weeks, Saturday afternoon, and God! I heard these sirens in my office-it was about half a block from the intersection, and I stepped out and I saw these two cars flash by. . . . I called the police and told them "I want those two men arrested."35 According to Lee, the ambulance driver was found guilty and fined and the patrolman was found not guilty with Rampton's help. The court concluded that the highway patrolman had a right to speed when he thought it necessary, a practice Lee re­garded as despicable. Immediately afterward, Rampton brought suit against Lee for $10,000 for false arrest of Arnold, but the case never reached conclusion.36 PROSTITUTION AND GAMBLING Lee readily admitted to the presence of prostitution in Price during his regime, noting that there were at least six or seven houses within a four-block area, including at least two on Main Street. However, he accepted such establishments as a normal 17 J. BRACKEN LEE result of urban living. "There's whore houses in Salt Lake. There's whore houses in every town in somewhere! So when people try to say that their town's clean-they're not so clean. I never could lie about it."37 Although the Mormon church was strong in Price, it was not dominant. Accordingly, a mayor could never achieve reelection in Price, "because he would either try to close it (prostitution) down, or he would open it up." If it was opened up, church interests opposed the mayor, ensuring the election of someone else next time. If it was closed down, payoff conditions were created and prostitution continued although in a covert, illegal manner. Lee claimed that prior to his tenure, the job of city physician was a very lucrative one. Every prostitute had to be examined by the physician once a week and obtain a certificate of health at a cost of $25.00 per exam. In Lee's opinion, it was a shakedown-"a racket with 30 whores, at least." He insisted that prostitutes be protected by changing the provision to allow them to get the certificate from any licensed physician. "Immedi­ately the price went down to five dollars."38 After election to his first term, Lee called together Catholic priests, Mormon bishops and stake presidents, and other com­munity and church leaders and outlined a moderate policy toward prostitution and gambling. He said that he did not want either to "get out of hand" and sought to convince community leaders that each would always exist regardless of the method of control adopted. He proposed that prostitutes not be permitted to solicit on the street and promised they would be arrested should they do so. If they act like ladies when they're downtown, and they keep their places and they run 'em in a decent manner, and they don't roll anybody . . . then all we'll require is the physi­cian's certificate. No payoffs to anybody. Now, I said, we know that you're gonna always have gambling. You can't stop that, because these people like to gamble. What we will do-we will require . . . no back room gambling. They can play cards. They cannot, for all intents and purposes, play for money. Cause if they play for money, I'm gonna have to 18 MAYOR OF PRICE ask the police to confiscate it. Now, I know that you will undoubtedly play with chips and they'll be redeemed with money. I can't stop that. If you take anything away from a man, other than what he can afford to lose, and I have any reports of it-of cheating, you're going to be up against it. There'll be no roulette tables-there'll be nothing like that permitted.39 Lee recalled only one incident in which a man offered him a payoff, and he immediately returned it without counting the money. He denied that any money from gambling, prostitution, or liquor went into city coffers: "I don't ever want to get in a position where somebody else is my boss. And I can honestly say that nobody can honestly say that I took one dime of graft in any way, shape, or form from anyone!"40 It can be concluded that Lee believed in stopping solicitation by prostitutes but not in closing down the houses. Some cor­roboration came from a former district judge and Democrat, Fred W. Keller of Price, who recalled that he ordered the police to close down a specific house on Main Street. When Keller sent an officer to accomplish the purpose, Lee personally stopped him from entering the building. Keller said that he witnessed the incident and that it was the beginning of a continuing feud between him and the mayor.41 Although Lee conceded that he feuded with the feisty, square-jawed Keller, he denied that any such incident ever occurred.42 Keller entertained "no tender feel­ings" for Lee because of his failure to stop prostitution, but he conceded that civic improvements and the elimination of the property tax would rate as Lee's positive accomplishments.43 In spite of his problems, Lee was a very popular mayor as his six consecutive terms attest. His civic improvements were lauded by the citizens of Price, and his liquor publicity propelled him into contention for statewide office. Rather than being polit­ically ruined, he became an attractive candidate for governor. Probably most people knew few details of the liquor controversy, but they knew that J. Bracken Lee's name frequently appeared in the news. Lee himself later asserted that the liquor issue brought him to the attention of the public and that the Democrats had 19 J . BRACKEN LEE unwittingly elected him governor.44 Ironically, the mayor of an open city was destined to become governor of a state especially known for a religion that eschews liquor and vice. 20 MAYOR OF PRICE interviews with J. Bracken Lee, Salt Lake City. Author began interview­ing Lee in 1972. ^Sun-Advocate (Price), January 6, 1944, reported that Price paid Utah Power and Light Company $47,000 a year for electricity that retailed for $103,- 000, making a gross profit of $56,000. Yet, rates to consumers were still lower than in all but four Utah cities. 3Lee interview. 4Sun-Advocate, March 9, 1944. See also Price City Electric Reports between January 1, 1942, and July 31, 1949, Price City Hall. E'Sun-Advocate, June 15, 1944. See also Price City Culinary Water Reports between January 1, 1942, and July 31, 1949, Price City Hall. ^Sun-Advocate, July 15, 1943. "'Sun-Advocate, July 29, 1943. 8Price City Financial Statements for years 1943-48, Price City Hall. 9Lee interview. wSun-Advocate, January 6, 1944. Information supported by Lee interview and the following articles: Joe Alex Morris, "The Stubbornest Man in Utah," Saturday Evening Post, May 6, 1950; Don Eddy, "Lone Wolf of Utah," Ameri­can Magazine, May 1950; and Richard L. Williams, "Politician without a Future," Life, May 1, 1950. xlLee interview. 12Price City Financial Statements, Bond and Interest Chart, for years 1945-50. 13Sun-Advocate, April 16, 1936. Lee's letter to Hugh B. Brown, adminis­trator of the Utah Liquor Control Commission in Salt Lake City, was quoted in full. The Liquor Control Act passed by the legislature in March 1935 eliminated open saloons and established state liquor stores or package agencies where bottled liquor was sold under controlled circumstances. The stores were adminis­tered by a Liquor Control Commission consisting of three commissioners appointed by the governor. Persons over twenty-one who held a legal permit could purchase liquor at a state store, providing they did not appear to be under the influence of alcohol. The liquor could be taken home for consump­tion or to a restaurant where set-ups could be purchased. Thus, all liquor was purchased from the state, and no business was allowed to provide patrons with liquor by the drink. The state organized its own enforcement agency to imple­ment the new law. 14Sun-Advocate, July 9, 1936. 15Lee interview. ir'Salt Lake Tribune, January 26, 1938; Sun-Advocate, January 27, 1938. 17Lee interview. lsSun-Advocate, April 1, 1943. Liquor agents A. H. Jaynes and George H. Lunt were charged with violation of that ordinance for allegedly making an illegal search of the room of P. B. Aguirre at the French Hotel and taking two sealed bottles of whiskey and other items. The case was finally dropped when witnesses against the two men failed to appear. See Sun-Advocate, March 4 and July 8, 1943. 19Lee interview. 20Ibid. 21Ibid. ^Sun-Advocate, March 17, 1938. ^Sun-Advocate, February 17, 1938. 24Lee interview. 21 J. BRACKEN LEE ^Sun-Advocate, February 17, 1938 ^Sun-Advocate, February 24, 1938. "Radio speech by Parnell Black, September 1950, p. 4, MS obtained from Black's son, Wayne L. Black, former Democratic national committeeman from Utah. ssibid. ^Sun-Advocate, February 24, 1938. Full text of letter to Blood printed. 30Black speech. ^Sun-Advocate, February 17, 1938; Salt Lake Tribune, February 15, 1938. Others included in the delegation were: George Jorgensen, president of the Mormon church's Carbon Stake; Rev. T. H. Evans, pastor of Price Community Church; Melvin C. Wilson, principal of Carbon High School; Ace Boulter, superintendent of the Price Ward Sunday School, Mormon church; Milton Jones and Mrs. Wallace Grange, MIA representatives of the Mormon church; John Pettit, patriarch of Carbon Stake; R. R. Higgins, former superintendent of Price Ward Sunday School; Mrs. C. J. Reeves, president of Ladies Aid; Mrs. L. R. Eldridge and Mrs. Darrell Leonard, representatives of Notre Dame PTA; Mrs. Orson Guymon, president of Price Ward Relief Society; and Mrs. John Chapman, president of Southside Primary Association. 32Ibid. 33Ibid. 34Interview with Gov. Calvin L. Rampton, Salt Lake City, August 3, 1972. 35Lee interview. 3«Ibid. "Ibid. ssibid. 39Ibid. 4°Ibid. "Interview with Judge Fred W. Keller, Price, Utah, July 9, 1975. Keller subsequently drove the author around Price and pointed out the building to which he was referring, which now houses the Montgomery Ward store, as well as several other former houses of prostitution on Main Street and in the imme­diate downtown area. He believed that the existence of the houses was very well known. Keller died September 19, 1976, at age eighty-four. 42Lee interview. 43Keller interview. 44Lee interview. People in Price remain proud of Lee's accomplishments. When the author talked with various Price residents he became convinced that Lee is fondly remembered. 22