Denver labor bulletin., 1918-04-20


speeches, averaging one hour each.
The interest here is wonderful, and
large, appreciative audiences of men
and women have greeted and cheered
the Message from Denver" every
where. The principal event of the
day was a mass meeting at 3 O'Clock
this afternoon in the large and beau
tiful new High School Auditorium,
where it was said over 1000 were
present, standing room being at
premium. A feature of this meeting
was the singing. Two hundred school
children, each waving an American
stage, rendering patriotic songs. Fol
lowing this young ladies' sextette
sang the dry campaign songs which
have made a big hit in all the cities
visited. They are all new, at least
to me, and everybody seems to have
learned to sing them. They are "The
Brewers Big Horses Can't Run Over
Me-" "Mollie and the Baby" "The
Rummies Are on the Run" John
Barleycorn and Billy Booze" and
Goodbye Mr.. Saloon" Last night
spoke in a school house over in the
foreign residence section of Bingham
ton, and two interpreters, Slavonic
and Italian, translated the main points
crowd present could under rstand. 1t
was an interesting and novel expe-
rience.
BINGHAMTON is beautiful city
of $4,000 population, with large ma
chine shops, cigar factories and shoe
factories. 1t is the home of kilmer's
Swamp Root medicine, which has
made millions for the promoter thru
persistent and copious newspaper ad-
vertising. Kilmer appears to own
good part of the city, judging by the
numerous instances the name is
carved on downtown buildings. He
also owns the only evening newspaper
here. There is also morning paper,
but neither print Sunday editions. A
Syracuse paper publishes a special
Sunday morning issue for Bingham
ton, and of course the New York City
papers, only $50 miles away, reach
here by o'clock Sunday morning, so
the residents and visitors are well
supplied with Sunday newspaper
reading. The city is situated near
the Pennsylvania state border at con-
fuence of the Chenango and Susque-
hanna rivers, both of which run thru
the town.
THERE ARE ITO LICENSED SA-
looms here, and the liquor interests,
as in the other thirty-eight cities
which hold special no-license elections
next Tuesday and Wednesday, April
16 and IT, are putting up a stiff fight
are not holding many public meet
ings, evidently depending upon the
liberal expenditure of money to defeat
the drys. The state legislature this
week passed a special act providing
for a two-day election in the thirty
nine cities voting on the no-license
proposition next week. This was
made necessary on account of the sur
prisingly large registration of women
voters in each of these cities, the
woman vote in most instances exceed
ing that of the men. This will be the
first time in America where two
day election has ever been held le-
gally. Polls open the first dav at 8
o'clock in the morning and close at
10 o'clock at night. The boxes are
then to be sealed, police assigned to
watch them, and both drys and vets
allowed to choose additional watchers
in each voting precinct. The second
day the polls open at 6 a. m. and close
at 8 p. m.
l FIND ORGANIZED LABOR
men on practically all the dry cam
paign committees, the carpenters,
printers and electricians being espe-
cially well represented. In most
cities Trade Union Dry Leagues have
been formed, and there is much resent
ment over the claim of the vets that
they control the labor vote. In the
shop meetings here and elsewhere l
find strong anti-saloon sentiment
among the workers, organized and un-
organized. For the number of men
employed in the industrial centers up
state, the organized labor movement
is not strong except in a few skilled
trades. There is also very large
foreign element in the shops and fac
tories. Wages in all lines have been
very considerably increased to meet
high cost of living.
:. :. :.
DURING THE PAST WEEK l
have campaigned across the state
from north to south, extending from
rWatertown near the st. Lawrence
river and Canadian line to the Penn
160 miles-with Syracuse as the cen
trail point of operations. Thousands
of people who hitherto had little or
no conception of Denver and its
scenic surroundings now know whole
lot about the Rocky mountain metropo-
lis and how it and the people there
have prospered since the liquor traf-
fic was driven out.
:. :: :.
IN WATERFOWL TUESDAY AND
Wednesday / had most interesting
experience. Had big meeting there
Tuesday night at the City Opera
house, with brass band and glee club
singers as accompanies. Senator
noI af G,n.al