The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-10-20
On Its Merits.

on Its Merits.
Davenport Times: The vote on the
constitutional amendment in Iowa
comes as a surprise to many people
who have been assuming that Iowa
was overwhelmingly dry, These peo-
pie are expressing their wonder at the
result of Mondays election. They do
not understand how it is that with so
much of the state dry for so many
years and all of the state dry for two
years, there is such q discrepancy be-
tween the conditions that prevailed
and the result of the election.
1t may be helpful in arriving at
conclusion to call attention to the pro-
vision OF the mulct law which required
that in order to have saloons 65 per
cent. of the voters of county had to
sign a petition of consent. Under this
arrangement a county wherein the ma
iority favored saloons, the IS per cent.
provision often made the county dry
territory 1t was an easy step to the
ASSUMPTION that such county must OF
necessity be overwhelming dry.
But the amendment was submitted
to a majority vote, according to the
provisions of the constitution. The
issue was not complicated by the per.
sonality of candidates. pride in party
success or any other of the several
factors that are encountered at the
time of general elections. And it is
quite possible that if the amendment
had been submitted at the time of a
general election and had been cham
p.oned by one party the result might
have been quite different.
But on Monday the whole question
was submitted strictly on its merits.
No Abatement of Prohibition.
Burlington Hawk-Eye: Judging the
personnel of the next general assembly
of Iowa by the election returns from
the respective senatorial and legisla-
tive districts, that body will be dry"
in both branches and the present pre-
fibition and enforcement laws will be
retained on the statute books. II the
vets are cherishing hopes OF return
OF the saloon in Iowa they are doomed
to disappointment. There is class of
voters who believe in end favor stat
,utory prohibition, but who are opposed
to making it rigid feature of the con.
stitution. The popular repugnance OF
the LIQUOR traffic has not changed. Pro-
hibition is here to stay and the people
will not be satisfied with evasive con-
duct upon the part of public officials
in the enforcement OF the spirit and
letter OF the law
That the state can go wet on the
total vote and still vote dry by legis-
lative precincts in the same election
is illustrated by the Marshalltown
Times Republican, in the returns from
Dubuque and Scott counties, where
Dubuque gave a majority of 6,045 for
the vets and Scott gave wet ma
iority of $685. Marshall and Polk
counties both went dry by small ma
jorities. but they cast about the same
total vote as Dubuque and Scott. The
two wet counties. however, threw a
combined wet majority of 1850 into
the balance while the two dry coun-
ties with the same total vote added
only 1885 to the dry balance. Dubuque
and Scott were worth four times as
much to the vets as Marshall and Polk
with the same total vote were worth
TO the drys.
And over the state, the well-organ-
lied vets polled their full strength,
while the over-confident. unorganized
drys stayed away from the polls, COM
placently expecting to read in Tues
days papers an overwhelming major
ity for the amendment. Their chagrin
because they were caught mapping will
be manifest at the polls at the election
of members of the next general assem-
bly, But they can count upon the GER
tainty that the vets will also be alert
to their opportunity.