IN FAVOR OF LOCAL OPTION.
Independence Mass Meeting Calls for
a Special Election.
Citizens of Independence packed the city hall last night to debate the question of local option. The Law and Order League, which called the meeting, is advocating a special election to vote on a "wet or a dry" town, under the local option law. It was the sense of the gathering that the election should be held.
James Mack Chaney, chairman, was instructed to appoint a committee of three to formulate plans for the election. A petition will have to be circulated and presented to the mayor and council. If it passes, the election wil be called.
Among the speakers last night, in addition to Attorney Chaney, were Rev. L. J. Marshall of the Christian church, and Albert Bushnell of the Anti-Saloon League in Kansas City.
There were nine saloons in Indeependence, and they have been having hard sledding lately. Recently the city council passed an ordinance raising their city licenses from $700 a year to $1,500. The total which each saloon must pay annually now, city license, county license, governmetn tax and incidental fees for filing applications, is $2,300 a year.
Twenty years ago Independence went "dry."
