Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-02-21
HER DILEMMA.

Erie county jutting far northward beyond
the straight boundary line of the State, and
being in the extreme northwest corner, has
peculiar and unprotected position. New
York forms its southwest corner deep in
Erie county forests, and Ohio's hills could
be brought within the same range of view
by powerful glass. Lake Erie chops the
county off diagonally, and skirting the lake
shore, grand trunk railroads use Erie coun-
" for near cross-cut of less than 30 miles
between New York and Ohio. Erie City is
very nearly in the center of this cross-eut,
and on much the same route would this jug
line be surveyed between New York and
Ohio.
Although this geographical difficulty in
the way of enforcement of the amendment
is the objection of considerable number Of
people to adopting any other than high Ii
cense laws, it could hardly be called one of
the principal factors in the campaign.
Other questions seem to have equal weight
in deciding the issue. The county promises
to be one of the battle-felds in Western
Pennsylvania in June. A victory will not
be won easily by either side, and with such
a hard-fought battle it will be pity that
the victors, be they liquor men or prohibi-
tionists, will have so little majority that it
will have but little part in grand aggregate
of majorities in the State at large.
Every phase of the situation here appears
to be full of contradictions. 1t is in this
way that the uncertainty of the conflict be-
comes apparent. There are some astute
politicians in Erie, but 1 could not find one
who was competent to forecast the result. A
oounf IF tho UokaS alone wi III datarpoina that
A CONTRADICTORY HISTORY.
Even the history of the county on prohi-
bition is a series of contradictions. Just
now the impression is general throughout
the State that Erie county will vote against
the amendment. Many of her own resi-
dents believe she will, yet here is what
BENJAMIN Whitman, one of the ablest and
most unbiased thinkers in town, tells me:
In ls47 when the question of license or no
license was before the people of Erie county,
they gave 2,7l4 votes for license and 2,lS3
against. In 1854 when the adoption of the
Maine law was voted on in this State Erie county
voted 2767 for the law and only sol against
In 1873 in the local option election the county
voted against license by 81 majority. In that
campaign Erie city stood 20l7 for license and
6g6 against. Cory our next largest town.
voted 566 for license and 3l9 against. The
country districts gave 2,62O against license and
l766 for.
In a general way, therefore, should say that
in this election the county outside of the cities
of Erie and Cory, will vote for the amend
ment proably by a considerable majority. The
two cities will vote against it by considerable
majority. do not know how much the rural
vote has increased since the local option fight
to say whether the townships and boroughs
will be able to outvote the cities or not
The population OF Erie City has increased
very much since the local ontion fpht
Even in 1880 it had grown to 27,737, and
now 1t is estimated to be $1,000. The coun
ty's population is between $4,000 and
10000.
BARLEY AND GRAPES.
The contradictions also extend to the
agricultural vote in Erie county The past
shows that it has, like the granger vote else