Senate Smothers Temperance Measure in Heated Legislative Battle
A key liquor-control bill meets its end in Olympia, with temperance advocates denouncing the replacement legislation as a toothless farce.
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The old trick by which political parties keep the temperance voters in line—passing a bill in one house and killing it in the other by a bare majority—was worked again at the state capitol. The Falconer county option bill was smothered by the senate yesterday after a day-long battle. Dry senators offered 20 amendments, but all were defeated by a 21-to-21 tie vote. The final blow came when Senator Rosenhaupt crossed the line to defeat the measure. The senate is now expected to push the Nichols bill instead, which critics claim is full of loopholes and makes it nearly impossible for voters to challenge the saloon industry.
“It does not provide for county option at all, prevents the holding of any special election and requires 45 per cent of the voters on a petition before an election may be ordered.”
The tension between local control of alcohol and state-level policy remains a recurring theme in Washington politics. While the issues today often center on tax revenue or public health rather than the temperance movement of 1909, the suspicion that legislative compromises serve industry interests over the public will remains an enduring feature of the discourse.
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