Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-03-25
WHO CLOSED OTTUMWA
Waterman Says Mayor Never Moved
Hand Until Liquor Dealers
Asked Him to Help Regulate
Saloons-Pithy Remarks.


the present administration was sub
jected to the most scathing criticism
at the hands of the law enforcement
advocates.
The meeting was opened by Chair
man E. H. Emery, who announced the
big mass meeting Thursday night at
Fry's hall, the meeting at the Grand
opera house Friday, and then called
upon H. l.. Waterman to preside at
the session. Mr.. Waterman spoke
first
Waterman's Administration.
Before speaking directly of the is
sues of the present campaign, Mr.
Waterman took occasion to explain
certain remarks made recently about
his administration years ago as may
or of Ottumwa, which have grossly
misrepresented the true state of al
fairs. The perpetrator of this report,
Mr.. Waterman asserted, had referred
to his administration in terms calcu-
lated to whiten the hideous blackness
of the present city condition The
speaker read the article referred to
and then commented upon it.
"1n reply to those insinuations," Mr..
Waterman said, insofar as my admin.
istration is concerned it is true that
the old Ferry house was running on
the South Side; that Dan O'Brien did
conduct a gambling house and that
Mrs. Thompson kept resort on the
hill between Union and College
streets. In that day keeping a house
Of Ill fame was not felony. We got
up bill during my administration By
which we could condemn that house
as nuisance. We padlocked the
doors, closed up the house and Mrs.
Thompson skipped from the city.
South Ottumwa was then outside Of
the city limits and we could not touch
the old Ferry house. We undertook
to incorporate the South Side so that
we could touch the Ferry house and
finally succeeded in Incorporating it..
but the limits did not extend clear to
the river there and the Ferry house
was still on neutral territory. Later
we got the South Side and the North
Side united in one corporate city and
then the Ferry house went. The
woman who ran it went out to South
Dakota, and the very day that Captain
Madison succeeded me she was back
there ready to open up, and she did
there were forty-six saloons and when
my administration closed we had re-
duced them to twenty-one."
Phillips is Reasonable.
Reading from the same paper that
| contained the one-sided report of Mr..
Waterman's administration, the speak
er then quoted the following extracts:
They say that Mr.. Phillips was elect
ed on an open town policy two years
ago. In part this may be admitted.
We say that in part Mr.. Phillips cleo
ton was due to the pledge that o.
| tun1wa would be governed with pur-
pose to enforce the law within all
reasonable bounds. The principle Of
municipal government as interpreted
\ by Mr.. Phillips is to do all things rea-
sonable in reasonable way"
They say that Mr.. Phillips has re-
| formed; that we have not wide open
town; that he stopped these evil
things Mr.. Waterman proceeded,
"but | say he never stopped anything.
1t was inside pressure that made him
stop these things. I recollect being
out Of the city repeatedly during the
past two years and arriving in the
city after IL and 1 o'clock and finding
the saloons running full blast. / say
that Tom Phillips never made these
saloons close at 10 o'clock until the
Liquor Dealers association saw trou
BILE ahead and asked the mayor Of this
city to help enforce the laws Tho
president of the association came tc
| Ottumwa, saw conditions here, got
scared and shortly afterward this
+ Drno1ar1afinn ypac iccnod
| Want Law Enforced.
Mr.. Waterman then read the follow
ing proclamation. which was issued
wholesale liquor dealers, or their local
agents:
I'VE, the wholesale liquor and beer
desB,rs' agents Of Ottumwa, hereby
proclaim that we will use our best en-
deavors, through instructions given us
by the brewery firms we represent, t;
force the saloon keepers Of Ottumwa
to strictly comply with the mulct law
of the state of Iowa, and we fully be
! lieve that our interests will be better
protected by the enforcement of the
law.
In our judgment, the situation is
not to be belittled and the demands
upon our business at this time are
not greater, than those which public
impotence has imposed upon other
lines of business. The public mind is
keen, and 1t would be mistake &c
4 permit this time to pass without do
ing what we can to bring all Our in
terests to proper standard"
"Then they called upon the mayor tc
use his policemen to help enforce the
law" the speaker continued. when
Mr.. Phillips came into power two
years ago-I mean power, for Phillips
is Car in this city-there were nc
known gambling houses in this town
1 believe gamblers began arriving or
every train. They set up everywhere
in town, on every business street
Tom Sumner was running wide open
ON Second street in few weeks;