Dry County? Newport Saloons Take Local Option to Court

County Unit to Vote Tuesday, November 9th.

The Stevens county unit, comprising the territory outside the incorporated towns, will vote on the question of "no license for liquor traffic" on Tuesday, Nov. 9. According to all reports the county unit will go dry, as the ranchers generally do not favor the idea of having saloons in the country and in the smaller towns, where there can be no municipal regulation of the traffic. A committee has been named from each precinct to see that the vote is gotten out and to work for local option.

Voters residing in precincts in which incorporated towns are located are required to register. The registration books for Newport precinct are in the hands of Edward Britton. The books will close Oct. 29, ten days before the election.

The case of the local saloons against the town, testing the validity of the local option election held in Newport Sept. 7, has again been postponed and will be heard at Colville next Monday, Oct. 25. Cannon & Lee represent the town in the case and Jesse P. Grinstead, of Colville, appear for the saloon men.

At Springdale the local option workers ran up against a technicality in the law, which will require them to get up a new petition. The petition of 25 citizens asking for an election was presented to the council Saturday evening, but that body refused to act on the petition for want of authority. The "dry" forces had addressed their petition to the town council, instead of the town clerk, as required by law, and the result was that their petition was killed. It will now be necessary for them to do the work of obtaining signatures to the petition all over again.