The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1908-07-18
Only Eleven Counties Would
Remain Wet in Two Years
If the Law Were Enforced,
Says Shumaker.
WAYNE IS NAMED
AMONG THE DRYS.
This County Would Be Among
The Forty-four Other Coun-
ties Which Would Abolish
The Saloon.

indianapolis, Ind, July 18.-Believ-
ing that the state will be carried for
county local option, as advocated by
the Republicans, E. S. Shumaker, SUI
lperintendent of the Indiana Anti-Sa-
loon League, yesterday completed an
estimate Of the probable effect of
such a statute. He predicts that at
the end of two years use of the coun-
ty local option law not more than elev-
zen counties out of the ninety-two will
remain wet. The eleven he mentions
are as follows: Marion, Lake, Laporte,
st. Joseph, Allen, Vigo, Clark, Floyd,
Dubois, Vanderburg and Posey. Mr..
Shumaker's statement continues:
"In forty-four counties Of the state
our voters are at present disfran.
chised upon the liquor question. They
are: Adams, Bartholomew. Benton,
Carroll, Daviess, Decatur, Dekalb,
Elkhart, Fayette, Gibson, Greene,
Hamilton, Hancock, Harrison, Hen
bricks, Huntington, Howard, Jackson,
Jasper, Jefferson. Jennings, Knox,
Lawrence. Marshall, Martin, Miami,
Montgomery, Newton. Noble, Parke.
Porter. Putnam, Randolph. Rush, Shell
by, Spencer, Starke, Switzerland, Tip
ton, Wabash, Warrick Wayne and
Whitley.
These counties have 357 ,693 people,
according to the last census, living in
wet territory and they have a total of
953 saloons. In some of these counties
the majority of people living in dry
territory is overwhelming as. for exam
pie, Jasper, where the voting popula-
tion in dry territory outnumbers those
In wet territory, twenty-five to one.
believe beyond doubt that the sa.
loon will be banished from every one
OF these counties by the enactment of
a county unit local option law.
in addition, the following counties
would also likely go dry because of the
fact that the temperance sentiment Is
so steadily on the increase and be
cause of the additional fact that al
ready the number of voters living In
dry territory Is almost, IL not quite
equal to those living in wet-Cass
Dearborn, Delaware, Fountain, Frank
lin Grant, Madison. Ohio, Perry. Tip
}pecanoe and Vermillion-eleven in all
In this list of counties the population
living in wet territory, according tC
the last census. was 213,S97. They
have about 6S4 saloons.
"Thus total of 571.571 people. liv
ing in wet territory and having al
least 1,637 saloons in their midst
would very probably go dry under q
county local option law. Add to that
number 1.60s,912 people already liv
ing in dry territory and we would ther
have 2,1S0.4S4 people living in terri
tory free from the curse of the liquor
traffic
Under such law a person coult
start from Indianapolis over the Van
dalia and would not pass through {
saloon town until reaching the city O
Terre Haute. Going south on the
Pennsylvania, not a saloon town would
be reached until Jeffersonville. Going
east on the Pennsylvania one wouls
have to cross the state line into Ohit
before finding wet goods emporium
Going northwest over the Big Fou
the traveller would have to pass be
yond Lafayette and on beyond th'
state line into Illinois some distance
before finding a place where intoxi
eating liquors would be served. Coin.
north over the Lake Erie & Western
not until Laporte would be reachet
would wet town be passed"