The American issue. [volume] (Westerville, Ohio) 1912-19??, 1922-05-05
By State Superintendent

| First, because the VETS are hghting
hard to come back. There was not
one district in the state of Illinois
where they did not concentrate their
votes upon just the number of wet
candidates that had chance to win.
The drys could not be made to appre-
ciate the importance OF doing this,
More in this campaign than in any
other within the last ten years were
there a larger number of candidates
who insisted on staying in the field
than had a chance to win, and more
this time than ever before did they feel
it less important that any of them
should get out OF the way i'll order to
keep from dividing the dry vote. They
found out, however, on primary cleo
ton day, that the vets were concen-
trating their votes and that the division
OF the dry votes was sure to nominate
wet. No matter how clear the Anti
Saloon Leagues recommendations
made this situation the dry candidates,
many of them not endorsed, stayed in
the field and divided the vote and nom
mated wet candidate.
This was noticeably true in the 10th
and 36th districts, the 10th being the
Rockford district and the 36th the
| Quincy district If our friends will
/ look over the vote in those districts
they will find out that our refusal to
endorse more dry candidates than
were to be nominated, in one case in
the Democratic primary and the other
the Republican, was in the interest Of
these candidates themselves as well as
in the interest of the Anti Saloon
League cause.
In the Rockford district three dry
Republican candidates could have
been nominated had only three dry
candidates stayed in the field and the
drys divided their votes among these.
In the Quincy district two dry Demo
Gratis could have been nominated and
would have been nominated had not
the third dry Democrat not insisted on
staying in the field even though he
could not be endorsed. 1t is hard to
understand why these candidates can
not see that our refusal to endorse
more than the number that have a
chance to win is friendly act to-
wards them as we'll as on behalf of
the cause. Any candidate had better
drop out of the field than to go down
to certain defeat, and particularly
when his going to defeat takes with
him another dry and sends wet to
the legislature. The vets were not so
foolish in these districts. They con-
centrated their vote upon just the can
didate who had chance to win In a
number of districts we avoided this
calamity by endorsing the number that
had chance to win and the drys sup
ported them only, but these results
could not be obtained when the local
newspapers, pretending to work on
behalf of the local candidates, used
their influence against the Anti-Saloon
Leagues program and confused the
dry folks, thereby making it possible
to nominate wet candidate.
In number of other districts dry
men who had ambition to go to the
legislature sacrificed this ambition and
Withdrew from the race and made it
possible to nominate drys and defeat
the vets.
The second reason that contributed
to the defeat of some candidates was
the fact that a downpour of rain last
ing over weeks had made the roads
almost impossible and the strong dry
vote is mostly in the country. The
factional fight got the vote out in the
towns and villages and so registered a
big vote in the primary when the
farmer vote was compelled to stay at
home on account of the roads.
In one district in the state, but only
one, we tried the experiment of not