Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-04-06
Larger Cities That Then Went Dry Generally Re-
turned to the Wet Column as a Result OF
the Election of tuesday,
PARTY LINES SEEM TO HAVE CUT NO FIGURE
CT the 260 Places Voting the Question 80 Dry Towns
Went Wet, 19 Wet Ones Went Dry and II
Wet Ones Kept the Saloon.

Springfield. Ill, April 6.-Elections
in 260 cities and towns in Illinois
yesterday on the saloon issue show
decided reversal of the vote of two
years ago. Reports today show 80
dry towns went wet" 19 wet"
went dry" 72 wet retained the sa-
loon and 110 "dry' remained true to
their colors.
Rockford Back to Saloon.
Rockford was recaptured by the
liquor men by a small majority. De-
catur, Dixon, DeKalb, and Belvidere
Iare among the other places where the
i"dryt' victories Of two years ago were
reversed. The "drys" failed to gain
entrance to Danville, Aurora, Joliet
land Bloomington
GaIesburg Does Not Change.
Galesburg went dry" by a small
majority, while wet majorities were
reduced at Rock Island and Moline.
AT Bloomington the wet majority of
two years ago was doubled. Decatur,
which gave the "drys" 1,020 majority
two years ago, Joined the saloon col
umn by 500 majority.
Mattoon is another city claimed by
the "wets." election day being marked
by riots and charge of fraud
wets Get Long End. f
Chicago, April 6-Local option cleo
tions held throughout Illinois yesterday
af viz
les for the ''wets."
Almost everywhere the "wets" held
on to the cities where saloons have
Ifiourished, and In only few instances
were their votes cut down. In addt
Etion, they won a considerable number
of cities back from the "drys," who
had driven out the saloons in the cleo
Etions of two years ago. In large
number of cities the wet" majorities
showed considerable increase.
| The "drys'' gained a few cities from
the vets, but none of these was of
Importance. The inroads they made
upon the wet" vote were more than
offset by the reductions which their
opponents made in the dry" vote in
other cities
I
80 had voted in favor of saloons and
Ga against them.
OF the 80 credited to the "wets," 81
! had been voted dry two years ago.
Out of Ga which voted dry" only Ia
represented places which had been
taken out of the wet" column.
Recall the saloon.
The biggest wet" victories were rep |
resented by the return of the saloons |
to Decatur, Rockford and Mattoon, |
whose capture by the "drys" two years
ago had been considered a remarkable |
triumph for the prohibitionists. In ad- |
dition to these, the ''wets" recaptured, |
among others, Batavia, Belvidere, Clin- |
ton. Fairbury. Naperville and Pana.
The "wets" also succeeded in hold |
ing on to Rock Island, Aurora, Bloom
ington, Danville, Centralia, Elgin, Free
port, Joliet, Waukegan, Moline, Sprin-
field and Sterling.
The anti-saloon forces ended the day
with no notable victories, although the
fact that they held their own in the
city of Galesburg, which they kept in
the dry column, and the fact that
they won over several minor places,
gave them some cause for rejoicing.
The three largest towns which they
succeeded in writing into their list
were Monmouth, Canton and Mount L
Pulaski.
Threaten to Contest Returns.
The "wets" are overjoyed by the re-
suits of the day. The "drys" refused
to be downhearted over the returns,
but laid most of their failures to ille-
gal voting. In some places they threat
en- to contest the narrow pluralities by
which the "wets" are supposed to have
won. In other places they threaten
arrests for Illegal voting.
In addition to these charges of ille-
galities, the "drys" lay the blame for
their failures on overconfidence on the
part of their followers
The most notable fight of the day
was that made in Danville, where for
time it seemed as though Governor
Deneen might have to use the militia
to end rioting. The disturbances were
put down. however, without such ex-
tremes. But at night, when the votes
were counted, it was found that Dan {
vile had been held in the "wet'' col 1
ur1n by a majority of LOIS. This, how |
ever, was a decided decrease from the
$500 majority of two years ago, and i