The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-11-09
PECULIAR SITUATION
IN HLLSBORoUGH


selves nightly, the county of Hills
borough will soon be dry, and it may
be for all they can do.
The cutting off of PineIlas county
and the desire to redistrict the coun-
| ty, the changes in the method of reg
istering made by the last legislature,
systematic, concentrated work on the
part of the dry faction and over-cop-
fidence and lack of unity among the
so saloon owners of Tampa, and half
dozen at Plant City has brought
| about condition in HIillsborough
that the vets fear will overthrow
| them. While there are so many sa-
looms in the county, there are some
twenty odd less than a couple of years
| ago and about four firms, in Tampa
at least, practically control the sa-
loon business there. These men have
not been working in harmony have
failed to see after the registering
and proper districting of the known
wet voters, while the dry factions
have been laboring earnestly, in a
very quiet way, and have register
ed, so they say, sufficient men to
carry the county dry by safe ma
jor:ty. Now they are busy obtain
ing a petition to call an election to
determine whether liquor can be sold
or not, and claim they will have no
trouble to get ample signers to call
an election, and do not anticipate
any trouble in carrying HilIsborough
dry.
Just think of told lHillsborough.
the strongly fortified stronghold of
the wets for so many years, likely
to so dry. The vets have foolishly
depended on the heavy foreign popu-
lation" that could never be won by
the drys. Unfortunately, for them,
the foreigners, or thousands of them,
cannot vote either never having been
properly registered or having neglect
ed TO do so, under the new law, those
OF hem who have been naturalized.
There are very heavy property in
terests in Tampa owned by. liquor
men and especially the Tampa Brew
ing Co., but they have possibly wait
ed 100 long and may fight losing
ed TOO long and may fight losing
battle.
To give an idea of how it is going,
there is only one saloon open in
Plant City, where, we understand
there were six last year. Good party
generalsh!p on the part of the drys
has done this. by skillfully handling
the matter of districting, registering
a1I by ccntesting applications and pc
titions, etc, made possible by the
new state laws and local conditions
and district lines.
Should Hillsborough go dry Pinel-
las county, just across the bay, or to
be more explicit, st. Petersburg, will
do a booming business in the wet
goods line, but maybe transitory, for
Pinellas is only wet by an accident,
as it were, and an election is sure to
be called soon, with the probable re-
suit of a dry county.
With this kind of a situation
Ocala would he the only oasis for the
thirsty, on the north, and south, there
would be nothing till Key West was
reached, some three hundred miles
away.
This condition would make the
Ocala saloon people fine mail order
pickings, but on the other hand
would be an added incentive to the
drys to make the fight of their lives.
The condition that has jeopardized
Hillsborough's liq Yor traffic, does not
exist in this county, where the sa-
loon men, whatever else they may
have done or left undone, have new
er fallen out among themselves but
have pulled together and stuck to-
gether and with an undivided from
have managed, so far, to repe1 the at
tacks of the drys.
: Sufficient Names Have Been Secured
Sundays Tampa Tribune says:
Call for an election to settle tlit
wet and dry issue in all likelihood
, will be issued by the county commits
sioners at their regular meeting Mon
day. the petition of the dry eIemen
} having been found to contain NOR,
r than the required number of voters
: for such an election. The work o
t checking up the list of names wa
5 carried on until $50 last night, whel
: 1.001 names of qualified voters hat