The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-02-09
Prohibition in Kansas.

The future of the Temperance move
ment in Kansas will be awaited with
considerable interest, now that Gov
ernor Click is announcing SO en-
phatically that he finds no good in Pro-
hibition. 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 occasion de-
nounce Prohibition, Of which his unsuc-
cessful opponent Governor st. John,
has been the champion.
Some recently published utterances
of Mr. Click, however, appear to indi-
cate that his zeal is carrying him too
far. He says: g In the year preceding
Prohibition in Kansas the United States
Revenue Collector issued 1882 permits
to sell intoxicating liquors, being one
permit to every S79 persons, showing
Kansas to be the first Temperance State
IN the Union. The first year of Prohi-
blhon Colonel Carpenter, the United
States Revenue Collector, issued l,7SS
permits, being an increase of 5S per
cent, or one permit to every 551 per
sons. which makes Kansas the seventh
Temperan State" Now it Mr.. Click
wishes us to believe literally that an in
crease of over one-half of the number
of drinking places throughout the State
followed the enactment OF the Prohibit
tory law, he asks altogether too much.
The supposition is unreasonable. Nor,
granting that his figures are correct,
does the issuing of permits by collec-
tor Justify his inference. He would not
claim that previous to Prohibition there
were only lisp places in the State
where liquor was sold. Nor would he
deny that on the passage of the law,
which was expected to be stringently
enforced, most hquor-sellers would de-
sire to screen themselves as far as pos
slble, and thus those who had had no
permits before would apply for them,
| without any actual increase in the num-
Der 1t is to be hoped also that in his
calculation of proportions Mr.. Click
took cognizance of the unusually rapid
growth of the population at that time.
He continues: g In the first fortv-five
days OF the second year of Prohibition
there were issued 1,14S permits, being
sixteen more than in the whole last
year of license and Local Option"
What particular significance is there in
thisp 1t would be very strange if people
who intended to apply for permits to
run year didn't apply for them in the
first month and half of that year.
Mr.. Gl ok and his friends consider
Pr, hibitionists fanatics. They fail to
see that the same charge can be pre-
| nctf hn
sion to be drawn from Mr.. Glick's words
is that Prohibition set every other man
in Kansas t. selling liquor, but that
licen would stop its sa altogether.
Now it is true that liquor has been sold
in Kansas ever since the enactment of
Prohibitory legislation. Few are 50
sanguine as to expect such laws to sup
press entirely its sale. But it is equally
true that less liquor was sold than be-
fore the law was passed. The Kansas
farmers have been steady advocates of
Prohibition. The sentiment of the large
towns has favored license. In these
towns the traffic has never been aban-
doned, owilg to the popular feeling
against the enforcement of the law
Thus, at the State Capital, Topeka, the
/
thiZe with the liquor-sellers. But where
there were previously half dozen open
bars, the influence of the law has substi-
tuted one small and carefully concealed
drinking place. The election of an
AUTHORIZATION Governor can not
change the law 1t is his duty to see to
its enforcement, but his utterances give
little reason to expect that he will do so.
If he fai s, he sets the people of the
State the dangerous example of their
Chief Executives neglecting and tramp
ling upon their laws, and reaction will
ensue which will bring representative
of Prohibition to the front. Governor
Click should cease his denuncia-
tons O. Prohibition, and prepare to sus-
tain the law which he has sworn to en-
| force. N y Tribune.