Sheriff Hodge Sparks Controversy in Seattle Dry Law Raid

There is a nice little fight going on over in Seattle between Governor Lister, Mayor Gill and Prosecutor Lundin on the one side and Sheriff Bob Hodge on the other. The controversy grew out of an attempt of the sheriff to enforce the provisions of the new prohibition law which provides that a person can not have more than one-half gallon of spirituous and one dozen quarts of malt liquor in his possession at one time. The sheriff's forces recently raided the Rainier club, whose membership is made up of a great many of the wealthy and influential citizens of Seattle, and the homes of Mr. Boeing and Mr. Skinner, two prominent residents of that town. Hodge says the value of the liquor taken from the Boeing home will approximate $6,000 and that taken at the Skinner home, $2,000. Four hundred bottles of whiskey and three thousand bottles of beer were taken in the raid on the Rainier club, in addition to a considerable quantity of gin, wine and champagne. The governor, mayor and prosecutor claim that the dry law was intended only to kill the liquor business as a business and that it was not the intention of the makers of the law that private residences should be raided. They say Hodge is making a grandstand play for the popular vote in the gubernatorial contest next fall, that if he persists in house raiding, people will become disgusted with the dry law and at the next election put the state back in the wet column. Hodge claims, on the other hand, that his official critics haven't the power to repeal the law and says he intends to enforce it even if he has to swear out the warrants himself.