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44 stories matching opt
- The Ministers' Quarrel That Split Colville's Temperance Fight
A local-option campaign turned personal when the Rev. W. A. Diggins claimed all the town's ministers were behind temperance—and the Rev. G. H. Wilbur publicly called that a lie.
- Seattle's Chinese Community Resists Mandatory Registration
Local merchant groups and the Chinese Six Companies instruct laborers to defy the Geary Act until the Supreme Court rules on its constitutionality.
- The Case for Ending Local Option Prohibition
A 1909 editorial argues that 'local option' is an ineffective, demoralizing policy and suggests an elected board of excise commissioners as a better way to regulate the liquor trade.
- The Unceremonious Ousting of Seattle's Police Chief
After refusing to answer for rampant gambling and open corruption, Chief J.C. Mitchell is fired by the city council as the city pivots toward long-overdue municipal reform.
- The Great Garbage Debate: Seattle’s Early Fight for Sanitation
While the city council opted for a cheap, pollutive scow system to dump waste into the Sound, local doctors warned that the tides would only bring the filth right back to Seattle’s doorsteps.
- Newport Would Vote Itself Wet or Dry
A local-option petition with 80 signatures forced a September 7 election to decide whether saloons could operate in Newport—and Idaho's border loomed over the fight.
- Stevens County Sets a Date to Vote the Saloons Out
With the petition deadlines cleared, the county auditor orders a Nov. 9 local-option election — and the dry forces, organized out of Colville, are predicting the small-town saloons are finished.
- The Dry Vote Is Blocked by 74 Missing Signatures
A Stevens County judge sides with a saloonkeeper and halts a countywide local-option election—but Newport and three other towns still vote Sept. 7.
- Stevens County Votes on the Saloon
A countywide local-option election on Nov. 9 will decide whether saloons can operate outside incorporated towns—and Newport voters must register at the I.W.N. station to be counted.
- The Rapid Rise of a City from the Ashes
After a devastating fire nearly destroyed Spokane, the community bypassed despair, opting instead for an immediate, high-velocity reconstruction effort that saw the city rising before the smoke had even cleared.
- The Price of Coal and the Cost of Control
When miners at Black Diamond challenged a shift from daily wages to piecework, the company boss opted to shut the mine down entirely rather than negotiate the rate.
- Stevens County Votes the Saloons Dry — Then Newport's Saloon Men Go to Court
A low-turnout local-option election shut down thirty rural saloons, with Newport precinct voting 18 to 5 dry while Ione held out wet and the legal fight moved to the next court term.
- Newport Saloons Lose the First Round in the Dry Fight
A Spokane judge upheld the town's local-option election, forcing saloon owners to amend their challenge—while the anti-saloon league plotted a dry Washington.
- A Temperance Victory Built on Small-Town Spite
After a chaotic night session, the Anti-Saloon League's local-option bill cleared the Washington House — not on moral conviction, but on rural resentment of Seattle, Tacoma and Spokane.
- The Dries Sweep Stevens County—and 39 Saloons Get Their Notice
A local-option election gives the dries a 677-vote majority, closes 39 saloons, and leaves Newport's saloonkeepers pinning their hopes on a court challenge.
- The 1909 Legislature Went Home With a $10 Million Tab and an Unfinished Scandal
Washington's eleventh session adjourned with record spending, a sweeping new criminal code, a local-option liquor law, an equal-suffrage referendum — and an insurance investigation the House only agreed to after the acting governor threatened to drag them back.
- Newport Votes Itself Dry by Sixteen Votes
A local-option election on Sept. 7, 1909, ended licensed liquor sales in Newport, 110 to 94, after challenged voters, an illegal-registration arrest and a hard-fought badge campaign. The saloons were set to close Dec. 6, with a countywide vote still to come.
- The Rule That Told Workingmen to Keep Out of Politics
Everett's Labor Journal goes after Roosevelt's civil service order, arguing that machinists and mechanics in government shops are muzzled while partisan appointees run the machine — and quotes Grover Cleveland back at the administration to prove it.
- 651 Bills, 13 Laws: Inside Olympia's Frantic Last Two Weeks
A deadlocked local-option fight, a women's eight-hour bill that ended in fisticuffs, and a marriage law barring 'drunkards' and the 'feeble-minded' — the 1909 legislature's chaotic home stretch.