New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-12-30
PROHIBITION IN KANSAS.

The future of tie Temperance movement in
Kansas will be awaited with cOnsld erable IN
terest. now that GOveTnOr-elect Click IS an
nouncing so emphatcally that he finds no good
in prohibition. Elected upon an Anti-Prohi-
bition platform, although not upon that issue
alone and OWING his election partly to the
aid of the liquor interests, it is, of course, to be
expected that Mr.. Click should on every oc-
casion deuounce prohibition, of which his I'M
successful opponent, Governor ST. John, has
been the champion.
Some recently published utterances of Mr..
Click, however, appear to Indicate that his
zeal is carrying him too far. He says: " In
Z" the year preceding prohibition IN Kansas the
United States Revenue Collector issued J, I32
"permits to sell intoxicating liquors, beng one
permit to every SO persons, showing Kansas
e TO be the FIRST temperance State IN the Union
4" The first year of prohibition Colonel Gar
"penter, the United States Revenue Collector
issued |, 7SS permits, being an increase Of 90
"per cent, or ono permit to every Dol per-
"sons. which makes Kansas the seventh tenn
"perance State" Now if Mr. Click wishes US
to believe literally that an increase OF over Gne-
ha,f of the number of drinking places through
out the State followed the enactment OF the pro-
hibitory law, no asks altogether too mach.
The supposltOn is unreasonable. Nor, grant
ing that his figures are correct, does the issuing
of permits by collector justify his inference.
He would not claim that previous to prohibition
there were only 1872 places In the State where
liGuor was sold. Nor would he deny that Oh
the passage of the law, which was expected to
he stringenty enforced, most liquor sellers
- e, fIau lvgC "a fan a
slbIc. and thus those who had had no permits
before would apply for them, without any
actual increase in the number. 1t Is to be
horcd also that in his calculation OF proper
tons Mr. Chick took cOgnizdnce OF the I'M
usually rapid growth OF the population at that
time He continues :" In the first forty-hye
DAYS of the second year Of prohibition there
" we're issued 1,Ils permits, being sixteen
more than in the whole last year of license
= and local option What particular signit-
canco is there in this Z 1t would be very
strange if people who intended to apply for per
mits to run a year didn't apply for them III the
first mouth and half of that year.
Mr.. Click and his friends consider Prohlbi-
tionists fanatics. They fail TO see that the same
charge can be preferred against themselves.
The conclusion to be drawn from Mr.. Clicks
words is that prohibition set every other man
in Kansas selling liquor, but that license would
stop its sale altogether. Now it is true that
liquor has been sold in Kansas ever since the
enactment of prohibl.Ory legislation. Few are SO
sanguine as to expect such laws to suppress
entirely its sale. But it is equally true that
less liquor was sold than before the law
WAS passed. The Kansas farmers have been
steady advocates of prohibition. The senti
ment of tho large towns has favored license.
In these ,owns the traffic has never been aban-
doned, wing to the popular feeling against the
enforcement of the law. Thus, at the State
Capital, Topeka, the local authorities were
known to sympathze with the liquor sellers.
But where there were previously half q dozen
open bars, the influence of tho law has subsu-
tuted one small and carefully concealed drink
ing -placo. The election of an Anti-Prohibiuon
Governor cannot change the law. 1t ID his