The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-04-24
CHICAGO WET SENTIMENT
WAS OVER REPRESENTED

The revised figures on the COM
plete returns of the recent Chicago
local option election show that the
vets polled S91 $50 ballots out of a
total registered vote of SO6as4:
415,724 registered Chicago voters
either voted dry or did not vote at
all on the saloon question. I5s.069
voters who cast their ballots for
mayoralty candidates did not vote on
the saloon question. 1t can safely
be said that the great majority of
those who either were registered and
did not vote Mt ali or who voted for
mayor and did not vote on the saloon
question are drys. This is true be-
cause the well organized and well
financed wet campaign resulted In the
maximum number OF vets coming to
the polls and casting their ballots in
favor of the saloon. There can be
no doubt that If the saloon question
mad still been Gn issue Il great num-
Der OF registered voters who did not
cast their votes on the saloon cues
ton would have voted dry. Further
mora, great many unregistered drys
would have registered and added
their votes TO the dry total
Future as Protest TO Congress.
from the standpoint of registering
6" pipANS 20 tbilSTSSS the wet eipC-
ton was a, complete failure. 1t not
only failed TO prove that Chicago S
sentiment was more wet than it had
been considered by congress but
very conclustvely proved the oppo-
site.
The figures given out as a result
OF the Chicago election. even IL they
are ktaen to fairly express Chicago's
wet and dry sentiment show that the
Illinois legislature and the national
congress regarded Chicago more wet
than il really Is.
The figures on the election show
, that Chicago voted wet by about
three to one. In the state legisla-
ture the Chicago representatives
voted four to one wet on the ratif
cation resolution. Thus 1t will be
seen that the Legislative vote was 25
per cent mora wet than the popular
viii was supposed to represent.
In congress the vote on national
prohibition by representatives from
chicago was also much wetter than
indicated by the face of the election
returns OF the seven Illinois con-
gressmen who voted wet on national
prohibition six came from Chicago.
Not Chicago congressman whose
district is entirely within Chicago
voted dry on the national prohibition
amendment. The only representa-
tiveS of Chicago voters who voted for
national prohibition were Wilson. Foss
and Mccormick. Wilson's district in
eluded the Southern part OF Cook
county outside OF Chicago, Foss repre-
sented Evanston and Lake county with
only small part Of Chicago included
in his district. ard Mccormick only
partially represented Chicago as con-
gresham at-large. Accordingly, TAX
ing the Chicago returns at their face
value, at (eas. 144 032 Chicago voters
who favor prohibition did not have
their wishes fairly expressed in con-
gress. To these must be added thou
sands OF others who would have voted
dry had the election been a real test
of wet and dry sentiment. 1t must
be said that the three to one results
shown by the face OF the returns in
Guided the votes of women and that
the male vote was wet by a greater
proportion. While this is true II Is
also true that the women should have
their wishes represented In the legis-
latures and by congress whether or
not they are legally entitled to vote
directly for such representation.
In no way that the election figures
can be fairly considered Ia 1t possible
to base upon them the claim that
these figures represent a valid protest
on prohibition legislation passed by
congress and 1t cannot Q denied that
the figures under the circumstances do
not even approximately reflect the
real wet and dry sentiment Of Chi
cago.