Saloon Keepers Challenge Dry Vote, Test Case Heads to Higher Court
After Spokane County townships vote dry, John W. Kritzer of Elk opens his saloon, gets fined $25, and appeals—setting up a legal fight over local option.
As a result of township organization, which gave the voters the right to vote on the question of permitting saloons to run in the outlying townships, practically all the small towns of Spokane county were voted dry, among them Elk and Milan, between here and Spokane. The saloon men have formed an organization and will test the law through the courts. John W. Kritzer, a saloon man of Elk, was chosen as the one to stand the test, and accordingly he opened for business Monday and was promptly arrested and fined $25 and costs. The case has been appealed and will be fought in the upper courts.
“John W. Kritzer, a saloon man of Elk, was chosen as the one to stand the test, and accordingly he opened for business Monday and was promptly arrested and fined $25 and costs.”
The local option battles of 1909 foreshadowed Washington's statewide prohibition in 1916, four years before the 18th Amendment. Today, disputes over local control of alcohol sales still flare in communities across the state, though the terms have changed.
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