Daily Arizona silver belt., 1910-02-24
A "DRY" CHICAGO? HARDLY

At the coming April city election, Chicago will probably vote on the momentous question of wet or dry?'' This is common enough in the smaller communities. Townships and villages vote upon it often, and the thrilling campaigns for and against the saloon hel nightly in re- Ilieving the tedium of existence in small con- Imunities. But it is not the usual thing to have Igreat cosmopolitan cities like Chicago voting
 on it just like village, and the result is fore Igone conclusion, the campaign and the election will be interesting indeed.
 In order to bring the question to a vote under the law it necessary to secure 61 000 signers to petition This meant 61 ,000 real, live and present voters, and it was something of con- tract. When the ''drys" had that many, they kept on and got nearly 14,000 more for good measure, so that the petition as presented con- taned the names of 4,805 voters. It was pre- sented by thousand temperance workers, who
 spent the hour preceding the formality of it's de- lhverance singing gospel hymns in a neighboring hall. After the immense document had been duly presented and it's receipt duly acknowl- Iedged, the concourse of earnest and enthusiastic
 workers sang 'Praise God From Whom All
 Blessings Flow" From the published descrip-
 tons of the scene, there is no mistake about the
 earnestness and zeal of those who seek to free ]Chlcago's 2,OOOOOO people from the "demon
 rum, which they manifestly believe to be task lof greater moment than anything now pending in the public life of America
 | It would be tremendous triumph for prohi
 bition of course, if the ''drys" should carry the Chicago election and vote out the saloon Equal ly of course, they will not do it. Whether they believe there is chance of success does not ap- pear. At any rate they appear to be going at their campaign exactly as they would if they saw victory in sight. Maybe they intend it only as moral lesson, and as an opportunity to edu- cate the public to the evils of drink
 Though Chicago is one of the most cosmopol- itan cities in the world, and though there is probably about as great a proportion of 'lib- Ieral voters on her poll lists as any other large |cty could show, it is clear that the iquor trade Ils not understanding the importance of this movement. At first they hoped that it would not be possible to get the required number of sign CTS to the petition. That was false hope, of course, because there IS nothing easier on earth than getting signers to petitions Now the sa-
 loon interests rallying to the defense, and if the antl-saloonlsts are proceeding as though they saw chance for victory, the pro-saoonists are proceeding as though they intended to take no chances of defeat.
 A 'dry" Chicago is utterly unthinkable, on the basis proposed. If there was little broad CT spirit among the anti-saloon crusaders, there is way that even in Chicago it might be poss-
 ble to do their cause some good. Where they make mistake is in chasing beer and more ardent liquors together. Among the large for eign element whose votes for "liberality" to- ward the saloons may be counted upon, beer is
 the thing that will hold them in line. If the light were to prohibit the sale of whisky, for in stance, it would get many more votes While beer can be and is abused, and while maybe ev erybody would be better off if they refused to drink even beer, unquestonably the ardent liquors are far greater offenders than beer. Be- sides, under prohibition it is easy to smuggle bad whisky through the legal lines because it is cheaper and less bulky.
 An experiment that would stand far greater show of success would be to ask Chicago to vote against whisky, and give it to understand that it could keep its beer. That would be move in 1 the interests of temperance and while it might not win, it would stand better chance than the present forlom hope of asking Chicago to vote to deprive itself of everything that cheers and stimulates