Evening star., 1924-03-23
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL p. KENNEDY.

| all liquor licenses rests with Repre-
sentative Roy o. Woodruff, when he
was mayor Of Bay City, Mich.
| In 1911 he was elected mayor, al
though he had never anticipated TAX
ing an active part in politics. There
| were then 164 saloons in a city Of
$4,000 persons. The impression was
general that the liquor interests were
running the city affairs. The man
who had been mayor for four years
was part owner of a brewery.
A committee of business men asked
woodruff to consent to being their
! candidate. He had a distinct under
standing with them that if by any
chance he should be elected he would
be mayor in his own right and not
subject to dictation from any one.
He won by 180 votes.
Under the state law, which was
| fathered by Representative Louis c.
| Cramton, now dry leader in the ma
tional House of Representatives. there
| was gradual reduction clause, which
provided that if man voluntarily
| surrendered a license no other license
| could be granted to take it's place
| until the city did not have more than
one saloon for every 5000 persons.
! There was another provision that if a
license holder was convicted twice he
| could never again get license in the
| state.
Many of the saloons were suWivals
Of the old numbering days and were
the nesting places of all sorts Of vices.
! Mr.. Woodruff decided there was not
ttNs <n~ hzy,
/ and proceeded to clean them up.
I Finally he took three cases to the cir
| cult court and secured convictions,
but the offenders were never even
| sentenced.
He discovered that the city charter
| gave the mayor the power of veto
and required a thirds vote OF the
| council to override the veto.
! After trying for one year TO clean
| up the city Woodruff decided that he
| must do something radical, so just
before time for issuing licenses he
served notice on the council that if
they did not eliminate the worst dives
| he would exercise the veto. The
council submitted under one resolu
! tion approval of the bonds for all the
licenses. Woodruff had his veto al
ready in his pocket and as soon as
| the council passed the resolution he
| chief of police and instructed him
| that on and after the following day
no saloons would be licensed in Bay
City. and that he looked to him TO
enforce the law. He also served no
| tice on the saloon keepers that if any
| one of them was even suspected of
| selling a drink until his license was
granted his name would not be on the
list when the licenses were granted.
Not n drink was sold in Bay City
| the following week.
Then the council submitted list
of the saloon keepers, eliminating tEe
dives and cutting the number from
164 TO 1913. which was as far az they
could go under the gradual reduction
law.
That is the way Woodruff cleaned
up the town. and year and haIf
later, when he ran for Congress on
city by 1900. which was ton times
the majority by which he was elected
mayor
When Representative Louis c.
Cramton of Lapeer, Mich, was nomi-
mated the first time for Congress. in
1912, Representative Pat H. Kelley,
who afterward was n conspicuous fig
ure in Congress for ten years, and
who was in charge of the naval ap-
preparation bill after the federal bud
get system was set up, was can
didate at large for Congress. There
were three parties in the field. and
the fight was nip and tuck, rough and
tum BILE, between the bull moose, dem
ocratic and republican NOMINEES.
Kelley and Cramton, with some of
the county candidates, went touring
through the counties, speaking at ten
or a dozen meetings a day. In Rep
resentative Cramton's own county,
Lapeer, Kelley was the headliner and
Cramton acted as curtain-raiser.
In the course of the tour Kelley's
car broke down, and, as Cramton was
ahead of him, he didn't know of the
accident. At Inlay City, expecting
that Mr.. Kelley would be along in
few minutes, Cramton started in to
make a five-minute speech. He fin
ished, and Kelley had not as yet
showed up Cramton took new start
and spoke for another five minutes,
but still no Kelley. Cramton con-
tinued in five-minute spurts of cam
paign oratory for nearly an hour.
Then, just before Mr. Kelley appeared
voice in the crowd called out: Say,
what party are you talking for, any
how?'
Another day when Kelley and Cram
ton were to make a speech m the
town of Armada, Cramton, who had
been there the week before, and who
had forgotten on what subject he had
talked on that previous occasion, dis
cussed his predicament with Kelley.
Mr.. Kelley replied, You needn't
worry. No one will remember what
you said week ago"
Ringing a change on the charge oc-
casionally made in the House that
some members are mere rubber
stamps" Representative Frederick w.
Dallinger of Massachusetts gives
futurist picture of Congress as an
adding machine.
Representative Dallinger had just
received some sixty-odd te1egrams
He read the top one aloud: "As a voter
in Cheyenne, Wyo., / urge and de-
rnand that you vote for the bill ap-
propriating $4,000 for the deepening
of the channel of Goose creek" He
then hurriedly looked over the rest of
them, exclaiming disgustedly, "They
are all absolutely alike except for
the signatures"
Throwing the kilograms on the ta-
BILE, he gave vent to his feelings:
This system of representative gov
ernment which the founding fathers
devised in their wisdom doesn't seem
to satisfy the people back home any
longer. Because it was realized every
body couldn't go to the seat Of the
national government and everybody
couldn't spend his life in the study of
political economy; because the writer's
of the Constitution realized the i'm
practicability of every citizen giving
the study and time To IL the