Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1884-05-22

bottle to his neighbours lips" During
the three years of prohibition our
State has moved forward as never before
In growth and population, increase of
wealth, and a purer and better public
conscience. In this gratifying advance,
1t Is true, the places yet under the con-
troll of the open saloon element show q
like improvement, for the region tribu-
tary to these towns, at least unhindered
If not, as beiieve-blessed by prohi-
bition, has marvelo sly increased its
wants and power to consume. Moreover,
it is idle to deny that prohibition is more
widely enforced, more completely under
the protecting wings of ever vigilant
law to-day, than in any day in the past
Nay, more, there is not town in the
State where the pulpit and the press and
the leaders Of public opinion, the brave
and benevolent men of the place, have
earnestly stood together On behalf Of
Law and its enforcement. where prohibi-
ton has failed of its benign mission
Wherever these influences have failed to
unite, there alone the law is pronounced
dead letter, and We are told public
opinion is SO divided On the question it
is not safe to consider it in the light of
our duty as citizens of the State
Coults are created by these poten. fac
tors. Prosecuting officers are placed in
power by their voice. A fearless Judge
and an hone t, competent County Attor-
ney can drive out Of existence every
dram-shop in the State of Kansas Al
ready has this result been reached in
most of the counties Of the State. The
business has been driven into secret dens
and hiding places. 1t seeks conceal
ment and darkness just as do other
crimes. In the large portions of the
State, prohibition does prohibit, just
as the law against theft, arson or murder
prohibits
The truth is, logically there are only
two sides to the liquor question-free
liquor or prohibition. All effort looking
towards any restraint upon the traffic
irresistibly turns its eyes towards its
final extinction. The business is either
good or bad. If good, we have no right
to restrain or cripple it; if bad, we are
bound to throttle it. For myself, l con-
cede the strenuousness of the restraint,
the extent of the prohibition must de-
pend on the public opinion ruling the
State whose duty it is to act; but no such
reflection touches State whose flnda-
mental law says, Thou shalt not Here pub
lie opinion, as it upward rolls in thunder
tone from the solid globe Of the Consti-
tuition, and is echoed back from the
arched vault of the statute, and is borne
along in glorious refrain through the
church aisles, out upon the wide prairies,
where are the homes of sober, law
obeying people, proclaim Kansas now
and forever shall be free from the pollu-
ton of the dram-shop. Or this question
the settled and irrevocable policy of the
State is prohibition.
Here, then, are two propositions with
. minor one as a corollary, which must
enter into the formula of all temperance
men, and of all political parties which
purpose to represent the infexible re-
solve Of the State:
l. Prohibitlon the unalterable law and
policy of Kansas.
2 No step looking towards surrender
Of this cardinal principle.
3. A more efficient law enforcing the
Constitutional mandate.
The consummation of all temperance
agitation, so far as the State is concerned,
is prohibition. Sooner or later all civil
ization will reach this result. The half
way houses of license, high taxation,
local option, limitation of number of
places of dramshops, and inhibitions
upon times of sale or persons buying will
al in time be passed as the tribes Of men
move on towards the Celest al City, Pro-
hibition. That is the goal All the rest
are mere hating places for wearied feet,
and none of them lie at the end of the
race.
May we not fervently hope that all the
political parties of the State will embody
these two principles in their platforms,
namely, Prohibition, the settled convic-
ton of the State, and no step to be taken
seeking to reverse or disturb this faith,
and with these there should come that
other affirmation-the modification of
the present statute so that while its I'M
necessary friction as to druggists and
physicians may be removed, its SEVERE
ty and certainty as to the dram shops
and all violators of the statute may be
enhanced and intensified? These are
the fundamental questions for good men
to assert and demand from every organi-
xation asking their suffrage. No party
should fear to take these positions for
they are first of all right. Beyond this
it may be set down as fact that any
platform wanting these features will
never merit the regard of the true men
of the State. Equivocation or silence
will be token of disaster. So far as
Kansas is concerned, this temperance
question is by far the most conspicuous
and important one presented for its con-
sideration.
The same inherent heroism and ex-
allied conservation TO human welfare that
made Kansas the cynosure Of ali eyes in
the great events that forever chases away
the darkness and chains of human bond
age, hath in these last days drawn hither
the eyes of the civilized world as first
among the sisterhood of the States Kansas
has written, in letters of heavens own.