Local Option Petition Secures Enough Signatures
Proponents of the anti-saloon movement in Newport have gathered sufficient signatures to force a local option election on the sale of liquor.
Local officials of the anti-saloon league announce that they have sufficient signatures on the local option petitions to call the local option election. The petitions will be filed with the county board April 8, and it will probably take 60 days to get ready for the election, which will bring it about the first of June or the last of May. While the 'drys' have enough now on their petitions to insure the calling of the election, they will put in the time between now and April 8 in adding to the number already secured.
“While the 'drys' have enough now on their petitions to insure the calling of the election, they will put in the time between now and April 8 in adding to the number already secured.”
This local push for prohibition was part of a massive, state-wide moral and political movement that eventually led to Washington going dry years before the national amendment. It highlights the intense civic battles over vice and public morality that defined early 20th-century town politics.
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