In New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the mere suggestion to keepers of saloons, hotels and other places where liquor is sold that the "dry" wave may soon put them out of business usually brings forth the reply: "Our state will never go 'dry.' The brewers have too much money. They can buy all the votes required, as well as public officials, to kill any legislation hostile to them." CHAPTER XVIII. HOW CHICAGO BREWERS HAVE TRIED TO PREVENT A "DRY" VOTE In Chicago, heretofore considered by the brewers one of their greatest strongholds, in order to enable the people to vote whether the city shall remain "wet" or become "dry," the law requires the filing of a petition with a certain number of signatures, but the brewers opposed even the right of the people to vote upon this important question and in glaring advertisements boldly advised them to withhold their signatures. Attempts were also made to intimidate the circulators of the petitions by threatening them with prosecution for perjury unless they personally knew that all the signers were registered voters. In spite of these methods, 148,802 signatures were obtained, 42,302 more than the 106,500 names required under the law. Attempts made by politicians to defer the election for a year on the plea of "economy" were also unsuccessful. In many quarters same was branded as another ruse on the part of the brewers to prevent a "dry" vote. "_The beer traffic does not recognize the sanctity of the home_" CHAPTER XIX. BREWERS FEAR WOMAN SUFFRAGE Women know that the abolition of the beer traffic will prevent their children from becoming drunkards and criminals. Women know that the abolition of the beer traffic means a full pay envelope on Saturday--a happier home--and more food and clothes for them and their children. Women know that in the states where the beer traffic has been ousted, wage earners who formerly spent the greater part of their earnings in saloons have, since the advent of the "dry" wave, invested their savings in a house and lot, and in a few years were able to pay off the entire indebtedness--and now are masters of their own home. That's the reason why brewers greatly fear the votes of women and why they consider woman suffrage the stepping stone to prohibition. CHAPTER XX. PEOPLE RESENT GOVERNMENT BY THE BREWERS It is not the beer traffic alone, but the social and political crimes of the brewers, which is leading to rapid prohibitory laws all over the country. People resent government by the brewers. People resent the election of legislators and other public officials, city, state and national, to serve ends hostile to social decency, to rule by the people, to the very life of the nation. End of Project Gutenberg's Government by the Brewers?, by Adolph Keitel