Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1884-08-22

1
settled by another vote the fact that
an unques,ioned majority are in favor
of that rule. All of our troubles NJ a
party, all Of tho turmoil and uucer-
taintics of primaries, conventions and
elections; the continued and open de-
fiance of law: the failure Of the courts
10 enforce their mandates; the misun-
Outstanding and want Of harmony be-
tween officers of the same courts: are
all tracable 10 the fact that very
large percentage of the people honest
" believe that the constitutional
amendment is not an embodiment of
an untrammelled expression Of ma
iority of the legal voters of the state,
nor ever was. Upon no other theory
can sll this open defiance and strange
anomaly be accounted for. Ii all comes
IF the original fact that twenty-odd
thousand voters having failed 10 cast
their ballots, left the amendment rest
ing only upon an apparent but not
real majority expression.
So far rs the Prohibitionists are
concerned, and all those people who |
believe in the enforcement of all laws, |
there can or should be no opposition
TO setting this vexed question, and at
the earliest day possible. The non
.,f 90, 81
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 it has never
for single day been even half way
enforced in this state. Like a misera-
BILE eruption, where il has been dried
up in one place it 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
In towns like Wichita the shutting up
of open saloons only transferred the
bottles, glasses and other saloon appli-
ances TO twenty or thirty houses of
prostitution and to gambling hells.
The law-abiding citizens, of course,
may doubt this assertion but il is true,
nevertheless. If another vote was had
by this state and this doubt eliminated
If an unmistakable majority should
pronounce in favor of prohibit
lion. thousands of men who have
been non-committal and thousands
of others who have leaned to the side
of "the boys" as they term it, would
be found standing by the courts and
the civil officers.-standing with the
law-abidihg people and against the
law breakers. If upon the other hand
a majority of the legal voters of this
state are against prohibition. no man
who believes in free government and
its underlying principles would pre-
tend that the will of the minority
should be the governing voice.
Let us settle this matter and do
away with an uncertainty which has
been productive of so much harm.
with an uncertainty which has not on
ly lowered the moral sense, but which
has elected fossilized Bourbon to
rule over free, progressive Kansas and
who, since his election, has directed
his power and influence to trampling {
under foot an enactment of the people
only because the spirit of that enact
ment sprung from the party which
had made Kansas, her name, and her
history enyiable. ,
For one we care not how this test
shall come; whether as simply joint
resolution of resubmission. as a new
as an independent and /.
separate article TO a new constitution, ,
Or in the election of delegates TO frame
a new constitution: but. that ii viii /;
come is inevitable. 1t ought, bowev-
er. to be Invested of every other is
sue SO that there could be no mistakes !,
DR. confusion ia the minds of the vo- !.
Iers The objects and aims of prohi-
oition, the question 10 all its bearings, ;.
s now understood by every man in :
Kansas, and its resubmission would {
neither embsrrass parties or politi-
.ians, preachers or editors, but would
Ne discussed by the people in their in
lividual capacities, and by them set :
led al the polls. =
In fine, the present law has been de-
Jared Intellectual or rendered almost :,
old by decision of the supreme >,
curt; the legality, SO far as the will of r
he people is concerned, of the amend
nent, seriously qeesiioued; both are >,
penly violated and defiel by the sa-
Don keepers; governor elected be- ;,
ause of the attempted enforcement of :
hem has annulled the solemn DEGREES =,
f the courts and insulted and degrad-
d the judges; demagogues have by il i
zen fioated into national prominence:
and their municipal
have been set by the ears
yer its enforcement; neighbors have
uarreled and business interests have =
een unsettled because of its uncer- y
Antics, and the Republican party has u
cen rent aud distracted over its var =
ous interpretations, and il seems 10
S high time that the whole question :,
1as substantially and definitely SET
led, not by the courts, not by the leg r
stature. not by the political parties, :
ut by the people. "
As a Republican party measure, "
therefore,, and in the interest of good Y
good morals and :
he well-being of society, we adj ',
ere to the opinion expressed BY us =
ew days since, that the quickest, most .
aud altogether the most :
onest way to determine the true stat :, y
s of this whole question is by anoth- ,
r vote of the people, taken not as !.
oliticsl or party question, bat as "
Moral factor purely. =
IA
~..e ~un nnuurS~aanc