Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1884-08-19
ReSUBMISSION.
Kansas Must Have Another Vote on the
Prohibition Question.

In saving il the EAGLE does not de-
sire to be classed a a disscnter or as
not being in full accord with the Re
publicans of Kansas, nor would we
have any reader think that we are not
ia the fullest sympathy with every
movement that looks to the lettering
of humanity, but. resubmission i'm some
form or in some sense. is inevitable. If
the late decision Of the supreme court
had been less sweeping; if it had not
by il virtually annulled the law and
the amendment. and had been even i'm
accord with common sense and the
will of the people a. expressed at the
ballot box and by the last legislatures,
still there are other reasons why an
other direct vote must be had on this
question of prohibition. Not only
does the welfare of the Republican
party, but the welfare Of the people
aud the conservation of rights, scnti-
ments and influences, against which
there are 10 laws, demand il. The
present conflict between the authority
of the courts, their officers and large
per cent OF the people on The one side,
and other civil officers and another
large per cent of The people and still
other citizens directly'interestcd in the
liquor traffic upon the other side, is
demoralizing, subvorsiye of all
good government, and, in many
instances and in many localities
scandalous. Prohibition, if ever made
success in this state, will he made so
only after the people of the state have
settled by another vote the fact that
An unquesiioned majority are in favor
of that rule. All of our troubles Ms a
party, all of the turmoil and uncer-
tainties Of primaries, conventions and
elections; the continued and open de-
tiance of law: the failure of the courts
Ia enforce their mandates: the misun-
derstanding and want of harmony be-
tween officers Of the same courts; are |
all tracable TO the fact that very |
large percentage of the people honest
ly believe that the constitutional
amendment is noLan embodiment of
an unframmeiled expression of ma
iority of the legal voters of the state,
nor ever was. Upon no other theory
can all this open defiance and strange
anomaly he accounted for. Ii all comes
of the original fact that tweuty-odd
thousand voters having failed TO cast
their ballots. left the amendment rest
ing only upon an apparent but not
real majority expression.
SO far as the Prohibitionists are
concerned, and all those people who
believe in the enforcement of all laws,
there can or should be no opposition
10 settling this vexed question, and at
the earliest day possible. The non
enforcement of the law reacts with
damaging force and effect against the
principles not only. but against all the
good results hoped for through and
by this prohibitory liquor law No
man can tell, except theoretically.
what The legitimate effect and results ,
of this law would be. for il has never
for a single day been even half way
enforced in this state. Like a misera-
bile eruption. where it has been dried |
up in one place il has broken out in
another. When an open saloon has
been closed up in any given locality
The cellar, the garnet, and the hell-hole {
have immediately gone into full blast. 8
In towns like Wichita the shutting up {
of open saloons only transferred the
bottles, glasses and other saloon appli- {
apces 10 twenty or thirty houses of :
prostitution and TO gambling hclls.
The law-abiding citizens. of course,
may doubt this assertion but il is true. I