The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1916-11-29
Will Present Petitions for
Anti-Liquor Vote Bearing
Signatures of so Per Cent.
of Voters. .,,u.
NICHOLSON LEADS
COMMITTEE WORK
Sympathizers Declare They
Voted for Bartel in Ignor-
ance of His Prohibition
Views. =,

A dry drive which will be the great.
est ever put across in Wayne county,
is being worked out here in an effort
to swing Representative-elect William
Bartel from the wet" column.
Mr.. Bartel probably will be present
ed with petition which dry workers
declare will have signatures of more
than SO per cent of voters appended,
asking him to cast Wayne county's
vote for statutory prohibition.
Timothy Nicholson, head of the Of
ficial dry forces in Wayne county and
state president of the anti-saloon
league, today gave out first informa-
tion on the plans of his committee. He
will not issue the names of his COM
mittee members, he said.
Names Are Withheld.
"You never heard the names of wet
committee members, did you?" said
Mr.. Nicholson
With a map of Wayne county and
list of every person in every. commu-
nifty who has ever worked for the dry
cause, committee of three from the
dry committee is blocking out the
campaign. The committee will be
ready to assemble its facts and plans
Friday night, Mr.. Nicholson said.
"Our work hinges entirely on that
committee" said the chairman today.
"This will require great organization
work. We are not going to stop at so
per cent of the voters but we will get
100 per cent if possible AS soon as
this subcommittee is ready to report.
we will have another county commit
tee meeting to adopt or amend their
plans"
Charges Stand Not Clear.
The committee will attempt to show
Representative-elect Bartel that from
1000 to 5000 of the 5000 votes cast
for him were cast by dry sympathizers
in Ignorance of his stand 1t will be
charged that his stand was not clear
to the voters at large, and that he was
not elected as wet" but as a Re-
publican. Other arguments, which
the dry members say are incontrover-
tible will be presented.
S. Edgar Nicholson, editor OF the
American Friend, who was one of the
leading dry workers until few weeks
ago, and who led the city option fight
two years ago, will be out of the coun-
ty fight surrounding Representative
elect Bartels vote in the legislature.
He has been troubled with his health
recently and has dropped everything
but his publication, he said.
Cites Dry Statistics
However. | have the figures hero
which believe will show Mr.. BarteI
conclusively that this is dry county,
not wet one," he said I'm the coun-
ty option election in 1908, the wet ma
jority was 700, which was caused by a
wet majority In Richmond of 1900.
Two years ago the wet majority in
Richmond's option election was re-
duced 500 to 1900
This shows that there would have
been only 200 wet votes in the county
including Richmond, to form a ma
jority. But | believe the growth OF
dry sympathy has been even greater
proportionately in the county dis.
tricts than in Richmond.
IF | had the time and were feeling
well enough to go into this campaign,
would present this figures to Mr..
Bartel, myself. If Mr. Bartel is pre-.
sented with a petition signed by more
than so per cent OF the voters OF
Wayne county, l believe he will be-
convinced that his wet sympathies
were not understood.
Only yesterday, a prominent man
who is said to have dry sympathies.
told me he voted for Mr.. Bartel, not
knowing that he intended to join tho
opposition to dry legislation, but that
L. oxIn ;vfz
that they would know what his sym.
rathies are if Mr.. Bartel asks for their
votes again"