Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1883-06-14
HlsH LICENSE TAX.

As rigid enforcement OF the prohibitory
law leads directly and unvaryingly to anil
licit and covert traffic In intoxicating II.
quors, and as failure to enforce such law
tends to disregard OF the will Of the peo-
pie and Of peoples government, which
assertions need no arguments, as expert
ence has shown them to be true, why then
would 1t not be the best thing for the ultra
Temperance people Of Kansas, ~ well as for
all who desire to zee the crying evil Of In
temperance abated, to favor high tax on
the dealers! 1t does seem to rs that q bur.
thensome tax would come more nearly pro-
scribing the trafhc than prohibition. This
kind OF talk, we know, will not do for that
class Of individuals who are making money
out Of the agitation of prohibition, or for
others who are gaining notoriety or Office
from the eternal discussion OF this question !;
but we care not for that. Take away the
privilege OF stirring up this matter, and
these men would sink from sight never to
be heard OF again, at least not until they
had invented some other hobby upon which
to ride into notoriety or office. But the
question 10 to those who at heart really de.
plore the train OF woes that follow in the
wake of traffic as old rs civilization it.
self, and older; TO people who desire to pro-
tect aud save the unfortunate and misguid.
ed everywhere. There is hardly any one
20 simple minded as not to know that the
prohibitory laws Of Massachusetts, and 9TH
err States have been laws of straw and con-
tempt, and that for twenty-five years Maine
has been the laughing-stock for the world
In this matter. Ohio's people may not be
30 intelligent and progressive as the people
Of Kansas, but we think her people have
shown good sense In that as soon as they
found prohibitory and proscriptive enact
ments failures they resolved to drop them
and try something else. Illinois, prOfting
by the failures Of Iowa, Kansas and other
States to prohibit the use Of liquors as
beverage, now acts upon the idea suggest
ed In our question by making the license SO
high a. to curtail its use. The Inter Ocean,
temperance paper, declares that the high
license law will wipe out from one TO two
thousand low holes Of rum and perdition in
that one city. Who will deny, for instance,
that Wichita would be more temperate and
better OF, morally, with two or three high
license saloons, than with twenty-nine open
yiolatOrs OF the law, or an hundred holes in
the wall, or as many back alley dens. And
there is one feature about the enforcement
Of restrictive or high tax law that is well
worth considering, and that Is Il: there is q
large class of respectable, influential men
In every community who will never endorse
probibitory measures, but who would lend
all their influence to the enforcement of
any tax-law that might be enacted, even to
the extent OF prescription. This class Of
men consists of traders, manufacturers,
merchants and others whose daily business
brings them IN contact with all classes Of
people.
This is not written because the EAGLE
declared al the time of the submission Of
the prohibitory amendment that all such
moves must necessarily prove abortive, but
simply from desire to set good, conscien-
tious temperance people to thinking and
observing for themselves instead OF taking
the highly-wrought assertions OF interested
parties as law and gospel.