The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1920-09-10


In Illinois the liquor interests we're
the chief and practically the only OPP
ponents of woman suffrage.
In 1911 during the Forty-Seventh
General Assembly, the United Socie-
ties sent a personal letter to each
member of the Legislature asking
them to defeat certain bills. The very
first bill listed in their letter was
House Bill No. 90 THIS WAS
THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE BILL.
In 1918 sthe Forty-Eighth General
Assembly passed the woman suffrage
law. 1t received the vote OF but two
pronounced wet members of the
House. Only four who voted for
county option in this session voted
against woman suffrage.
The Chicago American on June L,
1913, in reporting the attempt OF anti
suffragists to reconsider the vote by
which suffrage was passed in the
House, said:
THE wet lobby in the Legislature
was primarily responsible for the he
roic attempts made to force a recon-
sheraton"
The Chicago Daily News on June
u, 1918, said: 1T is interesting to
observe that the fight on woman SUI
frage at Springfield was merely fight
by the friends OF the liquor interests"
Following the passage OF the Hi
nois woman suffrage law the vets
contested the law in several courts in
southern Illinois after the women had
voted several towns, dry. They also
brought a contest in the Superior
Court of Cook county seeking an IN
junction to prevent women from vot-
ing in Cook county.
In Ohio, Nebraska, Indiana, Mich
igan, Wisconsin, New Jersey, and
other states, the chief opposition to
woman suffrage was by the liquor in
terests.
In Congress the leading vets fought
the hardest against submitting the
woman suffrage amendment.
The Nineteenth Amendment was
not submitted until after the Eight
eenth had been adopted. When the
liquor interests saw the possibility of
restoring the liquor traffic through the
election of wet Congressman and
other officials they resumed their OPP
position to woman suffrage.
The history of woman suffrage
proves absolutely that the Prohibition
movement did more than anything
else to make woman suffrage possible.
Women of Illinois Helped Win
Prohibition
Under limited suffrage granted by
state law in 1913, Illinois women
were permitted to vote in local OPP
ton elections. In November, 1918,
with the women voting on the saloon
question for the first time in twenty
eight southern Illinois precincts, the
average vote of the women was dry
by more than four to one. In Nir-
GINA, the county seat of Cass county,
the women voted dry unanimously,
the vote being 394 to nothing against
the saloons. In April 1914, dry ma
iorities by women overcame wet ma
jorities by men in over SO cities, vii
lagos and townships. In 1910 in AZ
municipalities in which majority OF
the men had voted wet the women
voted dry by majorities large enough
1 to overcome the wet vote of the men.
/ In subsequent elections many other
Illinois cities in which the men failed
to cast dry majorites were voted dry
by the women.
In addition to closing thousands of
saloons Illinois women helped elect
law enforcement officials i'll many
cities formerly controlled by the law
less elements. This had a remarkable
influence in favor of Prohibition en-
forcement-