Dry Forces Gather Steam in Stevens County
Backers of a local option election say they have more than 30 percent of registered voters signed on — and they vow to keep pushing.
The committee in charge of circulating the petition calling for a local option election report that they have been successful in securing the signatures of more than 30 per cent of the number of voters registered at the last general election. They have not discontinued the circulation of the petition and will endeavor to make it even stronger.
A mass meeting of those favoring the movement will be called to be held in a day or two to make final arrangements. The petition must be in the hands of the clerk of the town 60 days before the election can be held.
Reports from the west side of the county indicate that the local option people will have no difficulty in securing the signatures of 30 per cent of the voters, which will enable them to have an election called. In one country precinct 25 out of 29 voters signed, and in another, 60 voters — every one in the precinct — signed. The situation at Colville is such that the Northport Republican rises to remark: "Niagara Falls will run dry in about 3000 years, says a scientist. Colville seems quite likely to make the trip within the next few months."
“Niagara Falls will run dry in about 3000 years, says a scientist. Colville seems quite likely to make the trip within the next few months.”
Washington would go dry statewide in 1916, four years ahead of national Prohibition, and this signature drive shows the machinery of that fight: petitions, mass meetings and a 60-day clock. Local option votes were the front line of a temperance war that reshaped the saloon economy of towns like Newport — a battle over what a community would allow on its own main street.
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