The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-01-12

ton of things can have no other effect than
to weaken those feelings of respect and ven-
the chief guaranty of free institutions. and
tAe reflex influences Upon the people will be
OF the most Dernicious character.
The people of Kansas are temperance
people, and will favor and. Loyalty support
and enforce any proper law that will advance
the cause of temperance and morality, but
they are opposed to shams or systems OF law
that annoy them land defeat their own exc
| cution by their own Incorporate provisions
and penalties. During the last year of local
option and license. the United States revenue
office of Kansas issued eleven hundred and
thirty two Q,ls2) permits to sell intoxicating
liquors, or one permit to si9 persons, placing
Kansas as the first temperance State in the
Union; while in the first year of prohibition
there were issued, l,I5s permits, an increase
OF 636, and also an increase of fifty eight per
cent. or one permit to sol persons and taking
Kansas from the first and ranking her tho
seventh temper ate State, while in the first
! forty-fve days OF the second year of prohi-
| bitiOn, Is permits were issued sixteen more
| than in the whole year of local option and
| license. If we consider these facts IN connec-
| ton with the clandestine sales of Intoxicating
| liquors. and consider the vast amount that is
| daily delivered to individuals in concealed
| packages, by express companies, we are
forced to the conclusion that the cause Of
true temperance reform has not progressed
| very rapidly under our present coercive sys-
! tenn. These facts forcibiy remind us that we
are living under a Republican form of Gov
ernment OF and by the people, and they make
| thelaws as well as enforce them, and no
| community will enforce a law upon itself dis
tasteful to it.
| The people as a whole make the laws, but
each separate locality and community, for
themselves, enforce them, If they are put in
operation at all. Hence a due application of
these simple principles show the necessity OF
wise and considerable action in the passage OF
laws, with the inquiry whether they can be
enforced. or whether people will obey them.
| 1t is undoubtedly true that the liquor traffic
has tendency to stimulate discords in the
| community; to cause drunkenness; to in
crease pauperism and crime; to bring dis
| treSs to many families, and cause individual
| degradation. But the remedy for these evils
is not in abortive attempts mt prohibition that
| have always failed, butin a wise and judicious
| in this stage, and has been demonstrated in
other states to be the only practicable solu-
ton for these evils. There is herein double
| responsibility, resting alike upon the person
who ministers to, and the individual who is
| guilty of, such excess, and society can not be
| too swift in fixing responsibility, nor too
anxious in visiting punishment both of which
a license system secures, as the people have
always enforced that system, and the license
is made to aid in the punishment of those
who violate the law. In q popular govern
ment where the administration of the laws
devolves primarily upon the people, through
juriesand the choice of offcersvested with civil
functions, laws repugnant to the political
sense OF large part of the community fail to
receive that support which il necessary to
impart to them the efficacy OF laws.
Such u condition of things, long continuing,
degrales the popular sense in respect to the
binding force of legal obligations, and gem
orally impairs the efficiency of that function
OF the law that Is concerned in imDreSsin9 tho
moral sense, and preserving the spirit of 10y
atty and obedience among the people. In
deed, laws that like our present liquor law,
exist in the teeth of traditional habits and
customs, contravene the conviction of the
larger part of the community; that seek to
destroy property in the name of the public
good without compensation; that will not
allow the farmer to use the fruits of his own
labor without denouncing him rs n criminal;
that compels the physician to become the in
voluntary betrayer of the secrets of the sick
room; that offers brides for conviction; that
makes the obtaining ofmedicine oppressively
expensive; that creates penalties so oppres-
sve that fjurieS refuse to convict,
and witnesses refuse to testify; this
has shut out the stream of
immigration that flowing by the
thousands to our borders and settling up our
prarics and giving employment to our ar
tisans and business to our tradesmen, are q
few of the reasons why the present liquor law
can never find u secure and prosperous lOd ye-
ment among free institutions. 1t estranges
and drives away from the temperance cause
that large, influential, and respectable cas-
of our citizens who use wine and beer in
moderation. who vet are practically temper
ance men, do not and never will believe that
the simple use OF the Leverage Is a crime, or
is so disreputable that it should subject them
or those who believe as they do to the con-
demnation of the law or to public criticism.
Without the support of this large class of
voters, who may be denominated the conserv.
alive balance of power in our political sys-
tenn, and who constitute a large Majority of
the voters of the state, no system of
prohibition can be successful, or made
u permanent part of our political sys-
TEN. This large class of people look
with disfavor upon any attempt to force the
question of temperance or morality rs {; dis
turning element into the partisan politics of
the day, but believe it should remain Il part
of our social policy that should find safe
and permanent Judgement in the affections of
all persons. The law lacks the essential -ele-
ments of adaptation,is not, and can not be en-
forced even in the smallest degree without
the employment of despotic and tyrranical
power odiOIs to every lover of freedom, the
employment of which is debasing to both
people and government and imperils what
ever is vital and valuable in the principle of
liberty Whatever of advance there haa