Statewide Prohibition Ballot Initiative Confirmed
Secretary of State declares petitions sufficient; voters to decide the fate of liquor sales in Washington this November.
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A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Petitions initiating the bill for state-wide prohibition have been declared sufficient by Secretary of State I. M. Howell and the bill will go on the ballot for the election November 3. There were 70,182 valid signatures, more than twice as many as required. The bill proposes, if it is approved by the voters, to make unlawful the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors in the state after January 1, 1916.
“The bill proposes, if it is approved by the voters, to make unlawful the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors in the state after January 1, 1916.”
Washington’s path to prohibition in 1916 occurred four years before the national 18th Amendment. This grassroots initiative process shows how deeply the temperance movement had permeated the social and political fabric of the state, anticipating the radical shifts in moral legislation that would define the era.
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