The Election That Decided Whether Stevens County Would Stay ‘Closed’

According to a Colville report, Stevens County is to be a wide-open county during the next two years, the change from the present tight closed conditions taking place with the change in the county attorney's office last week, when former Prosecuting Attorney J. A. Rochford turned the affairs of the office over to Samuel Douglas, the regularly appointed deputy of his successor, H. G. Kirkpatrick. The issue in the county election last fall was one of the most clear cut ever placed before the people of Stevens County, as it was generally understood that if Mr. Rochford was re-elected the county would remain closed up tight, while if his opponent, Mr. Kirkpatrick, was elected the county would be allowed to return to the open condition in general effect up to two years. The verdict of the people was most decisive, as Mr. Kirkpatrick received a majority of nearly 400 votes, notwithstanding the fact that he was running against one of the most popular men in the county, and now it is to be hoped that the verdict of the people in this respect may be allowed to stand.—Springdale Reformer. It is hard to understand how the vote of the people of Stevens County prosecuting attorney can have any effect on the question of law enforcement or give any warrant for law infraction. The issue of which the Reformer speaks was not clear nor was there any understanding that Mr. Kirkpatrick would assume the right to say that the laws of the state could be broken with impunity. The saloon men of the county will be wise if they continue to live up to the law, as it is reasonably certain that a local option measure will be passed and they will have the fight of their lives to maintain their business, a fight in which they would be seriously handicapped by a record of not living up to the laws of the state.