The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1915-04-16

and national political campaign
that 1t is sure to play big part in the
selection OF candidates and they fear
1t will result to the advantage of the
Democrats.
The Republicans claim that practi-
cally all the vets voted the Demo
cratic ticket last fall, or at least voted
for Governor Ferris, and they say
that If state wide prohibition is made
an issue in another two years and
Lieut.. Governor Dickinson runs for
governor and gets the nomination, it
will mean that the vets will again
line up with the Democrats and will
again elect the head of the Democratic
ticket.
Dickinson has the idea of campaign.
ing for the nomination for governor
firmly implanted in his mind and even
those who will oppose him, which
means all the old line party leaders,
admit that he has an excellent chance
Of winning. They say that If Diekema
and Glasgow and one or two others
who have been mentioned and who
would like the job get into the race
that Dickinson will certainly win.
They go farther than that and say that
with three men in the Republican race
Dickinson will be sure of the dry vote
and will get the nomination.
His opponent, they believe, would
be Senator James Murtha, the Demo
cratic senate leader from Wayne
county. Murtha has striking person
ality, a gift of speech which exceeds
that possessed by the fluent Osborn
and he knows politics from the foun-
dalton stone to the top brick in the
chimney. He Is also an avowed liberal
and was the one who tainted Senator
Straight into presenting the statewide
prohibition bill.
The Republican leaders gloomily pre-
dict that with the race between Muir
tina and Dickinson there could be but
one result and that would be Murthas
election by an overwhelming vote. For
this reason they are anxious to see
the vote on state wide prohibition
taken in the spring and divorced en-
tirely from the state campaign.
Straight Issued Warming.
To this plan Senator Straight and
the drys who follow him are strongly
opposed. They realize the value of
having their proposition up at a time
when there will be big vote out and
they are more interested in the sue.
cess of state wide prohibition than in
that of the Republican party.
81 want to give warning" declared
Senator Straight, that the plan to
hold the state wide prohibition cleo
ton in the spring rather than in the
fall, will certainly meet with the op-
position of the drys. We are going
to hold this election in the fall, that
is all there is to it. If the legislature
won't let my bill stand as drafted the
dryswill defeat it and will, by popular
petition, bring up the question for the
fall of 1916. We're going to vote on it
at that time whether the legislature
wants us to or not, so this body might
as well make the best of it and pass
the bill as it stands today.
Looks Like Dry Victory.
Political predictions are never worth
much and should always be taken with
considerable salt. But in this case
the probabilities seem to be that the
dry measure as framed by Straight
will pass both house and senate. AS
the Coldwater man says there is not
much use of the legislators defeating
it. They will only be running contrary
to the wish of the people as ref1ectd
in the recent dry victories and they
can accomplish no lasting results be-
cause it will be easy to call state
wide election by means of the initia-
tive.
Torrens Land Bill Dead.
The Torrens land bill, that measure
which bobs up at every session of the
legislature and is promptly swatted
down again with big stick, met its
usual end last week when the house
committee on state affairs, by vote
of six to three, killed the oranges pet
bill.
Senator Walter r. Taylor of Kala-
mazoo was the strongest opponent of
the bill and it's death is his voctory.
The grange lobbyists who were here
working for the bill are not discour-
aged and declare that they will try
again. They say the measure is a
big step in advance and that it will
take time to educate the state to it's
value.
Adjournment Uncertain.
Although the house has set the ten
tative date of adjournment at April
%, it is becoming more and more evil
dent that this will probably have to be
changed to April 20. If the senate
should concur in the action OF, the
house many of the most important
bills which have been introduced at
this session would go by the board
1t is pointed out that the judiciary
committee has been at work during
the entire session on the judicature
act, a bill which covers several hun
dred printed pages. Even though this
measure be read and considered in Sec
tons, 1t will occupy an entire day IL
adequate attention is to be given to
tn proposed measure. The bill was
drawn up by the special committe
created by the legislature Of 1913 and
appointed by Governor Ferris. It's
work cost the state $4,000 and the
legislative leaders acknowledge that
it would be poor economy to adjourn
without taking advantage of the work
Of the committee and at least coming
to a decision on the bill.
Election Measures Lacking
None of those important election