The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1927-11-14
Various Results in the Elections
Chicapo Trihnnel


Detroit defeated wet mayor, Ohio defeated
a dry law and Kentucky saved its racing These
results, as indicated at this writing were the
features of the state and municipal
elections of Tuesday. New York state had a
constitutional change campaign in which the
outcome served to point Gov Smiths political
Importance and possibly even to promote it,
Philadelphia had city election which served to
bulwark u. S. Senator-elect Ware, whatever
good it may do him when the senate looks at
his qualifications for his seat.
In Detroit, in Ohio and in Kentucky the peo-
pie were voting on social reform. In Ohio the
drys endeavored to carry an act for the exist
ence OF an outrageous system of trial and con-
victiOn to be used in liquor cases and were
beaten. They had succeeded in having the
legislature submit for adoption provision re-
the authority of justices of the
peace on the fee basis to try liquor cases.
The scheme is described as one of calculated
bribery, under the law, Of justices who could in
crease their fee earnings by convcting persons
charged with violation of the dry act It was
another illustration of the extremes to which
zealots are driving. Michigan has law which
requires life Imprisonment as penalty for a
person who may have been convicted four times
for the illegal possession of liquor. The Ohio
act would have created system of terrorism
by the authority to be exercised in the in
significant little rooms Of the justices all over
the state, with the justices profiting personally
whenever they could get citizen suspected of
having liquor brought before them
The people of the state seem to have had a
clear view Of the consequences involved in the
distortion Of justice and seem to have rejected
it. 1t they had not done SO they would have
exposed the state to all manner of invasions of
personal and property rights by obscure crea-
lures OF the law trying victims for the drys
and fees for themselves.
The defeat was in the home state of the Anti
Saloon league, the place of it's origin and of its
organization and is the more significant for
that reason.
Detroit has been listed with other large
cities, as wet and probably in habit and inclina-
ton it remains so, but it defeated Mayor John
W. Smith for reelection. His administration
had been marked by ability and honesty. He
made his campaign virtually upon the single
issue OF prohibition enforcement, saying that
under him the city would have nothing to do
with it. His opponent, John C. Lodge, man
OF respected reputation, said nothing of prohi-
bition or any other issue, but he was supported
Dy the Anti-Saloon league, church organiza-
tlons' civic societies and the Klux. He seems to
have won by close VOTE
1t may be that many moderate voters whose
sympathies are not with Anti-Saloon league
methods and purposes were not prepared to 90
the full length with candidate whose platform
was for an avowed disregard of law. They
might not like the law or it's underlying prin-
ciples and yet not be able to support mayor
who proposed what they thought was the wrong
cure. Thompson had somewhat similar pro-
gram here in Chicago but he had other appeals.
Detroit, lying opposite wet Windsor in Ontario,
may have reflected that it was doing very well
and why make noise about it? Its habits
are not required to follow the election returns
but rather the trail to the ferry.
That Kentucky should have spirited cam
paign to put racing out of the state soon after
the Illinois legislature had legalized it, or the
gambling that makes it, here north Of the river,
8 political oddity. There was chance that
The Kentucky Derby might be run here, but the
Kentuckians voted pro-racing and will keep
their horses at home.