Temperance Forces Move to Vote Stevens County Dry
Local-option workers in Colville petition for a September election that could close saloons across the county and set off a dry campaign across Eastern Washington.
At a meeting of local option workers of the county, called by the Colville club and held in that city last Saturday, it was decided to petition for an election on the question of local option in this county, the election to be held the first Tuesday in September. A similar movement is planned all over Eastern Washington and a strenuous attempt will be made to vote this part of the state "dry" under the new local option law.
Colville has had an active local option club for several months, and it is at that place that the planning of the campaign will be done. All fourth-class towns are units under the law, which means that the vote of the rest of the county will not affect any of the towns. It is quite likely under the law that saloons would be wiped out except in the incorporated towns.
As yet no organized effort is being made under the Idaho law to dry up Bonner county, but Kootenai and several other Idaho counties will soon have to face the issue.
“A strenuous attempt will be made to vote this part of the state "dry" under the new local option law.”
The 1909 local-option campaign was an early front in Washington's long march to Prohibition in 1916. Then as now, countywide votes over alcohol forced small towns to reckon with outside money, ballot law, and the limits of local control.
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