Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-03-02
For the Ea2le.
I'd WRITE POETRY IF WERE YOU.
AS sit in my room this morning
And study what next to pursue.
something seems whispering In mine ear,
I'D write nOefry il were Won ~


So I'll keep that whispering voice in my mind
Though SO feeble may yet prove true
I'D write poetry If were you"
Wichita. Feb IS. 50, WICHITA KID.
ADDRESS TO THE CITIZENS OF WICHITA
To the Editor of the Eagle:
| DEAR SIR: | send you herewith a copy
Of the resolutions and address which were
adopted at the citizens meeting held OF
9th of February, and which. by a resolu-
ton of the meeting, you are requested &c
publish in the EAGLE
H. w. EVEREST,
Chairman of Committee.
At meeting of the citizens of Wichita
held at the Garfield opera house, February
q, 1889, the following resolutions were
unanimously adopted for publication:
Whereas, The spring election in this city
is at hand, when every legal voter may
have voice in determining under what
laws and rulers he shall live; and,
Whereas, There is pressing need of re-
form in our city government; therefore,
resolved.
First-That every good citizen should
see to it that he is registered and well in
formed in regard to the issues and candi-
| dates.
Second-That under the management of
the committee which arranged for this
meeting other meetings will be held every
week until the election, that all citizens
| may be fully aroused to their duty.
! Third-That the following address be
printed in the city papers and otherwise
distributed throughout the city:
| Fellow citizens of Wichita:
Believing that the contagion of vice is
more to be feared than that of the pesti-
! lence, and that if our city shall be law
| L, G. l.
| quite as serviceable in attracting good cit
liens and building up the city as palace
! blocks, wholesale establishments and COL
! lossal packing houses we citizens of Wich-
! tia, assembled in a mass meeting held
! February q, 1889, do adopt the following
address and send it forth to our fellow
! citizens:
We associate ourselves under civilians
! for mutual protection. We have rights
other than those which pertain to life
| liberty and property. We have an admit
ted right to protect ourselves against the
saloon, the gambling den, the brothel and
all those violations of law which lead to
immortality and vice. While the complete
suppression of crime is impossible, it does
not follow that we are simply to regulate
robbery murder, or any other civil wrong,
and much less does it follow that we are
to license, directly or indirectly, immoral
ity and crime. 1t should be the aim of all
law and all the eXecutioners of the law to
reduce crime and all its sources to the
smallest possible dimensions.
We call your attention to certain facts
relating to our city government-facts
against which all good citizens bear most
indignant testimony:
The tolerance of places of Sunday amuse-
ment.
The lax enforcement of the Sunday laws
for the closing of business houses.
en- csIn nf hn hl inn
houses.
The only partial suppression of the
'joints" and the consequent frequency of
drunkenness and crime.
The indirect licensing of the "social
evil" under a peculiar system of fines.
And, as result of this lawlessness and
vice, the frequent thefts, burglares, as
saults, murders, and other crimes which
disgrace our city.
We next ask your attention to the
causes of this state of things The first
cause will be found in the defects of some
of the city ordinances. Citizens who give
misinformation in regard to violations of
law are liable to pay the costs of prosecu-
ton; while fines may not be above a GER
tain amount they may, in many
cases, be as low as the notice
Judge chooses to make them: there
is no required increase of fines for
repeated otfenses; the frequency of arrest
ana punishment Is at Tue ulScrtClOn OF the
officers; the lack of an ordinance which in
sures the prompt suppress on of the haunts
of vice, Tor hog pen or slaughter house
can more easily be suppressed than d
Joint" or a brothel.
A second cause is the lax execution of the
law Besides the inherent difficulty of the
work. both the ordinances and public
opinion allow the greatest laXness without
official disgrace. In the hands of good
men, order and law will prevail; in the
hands of inefficient men, it will be quite
the reverse.
A third cause is pernicious idea of
what our city needs and the subversion of
right and justice to supposed good poll
CIV. The impossibility OF completely sup
pressing vice is urged as reason for not
lessening it as much as possible: it is said |
that a western city enjoying boom"
must not be too moral; and the success of |
party elitics requires that the city gov
eminent shall be so run as to be made self |
supporting, or nearly so. There is wide |
spread conviction that the government is |
run for the money there may be in it; |
not for the officers, but for the CITY. |
Many of the closest observers and best |
judges say that the city officials reason in |
the following manner The manufactures |
of police cases must be kept running that |
the aggregate of fines may be large. We |
must not therefore suppress the Joints"
UbuScS, UIOtueISs anu OLuSI
sources of crimes, but we must regulate |
them. Let the joints pay their regular |
dues; let gamblers do the same; let keep
ers of bawdy houses pay S25 per month for
the privilege; and each inmate her SIS per
month. Honor to the policeman who |
turns in the most paying cases, the same
to the police judge who seems to enrich
the treasury thirty or forty thousand dol
lars per year.
Under this policy our city is made to
present the degraded spectacle of govern
ment allowing crime and vice that it nay
reap the golden harvest of fines, that the
treasury may be filled with coin raked out
of the ooZe of RIGHTEOUSNESS and crime.
Now if these evils are TO be remedied,
every good citizen must come TO the
rescue. So far as our power goes we must
see to it that the right men are elected TO
the various offices. and that a better pub
lie spirit shall prevail. Let US seek to
arouse all our citizens TO a sense of re-
sponsibility till every man and woman,
every voter. shall be prompted TO do his
duty as good citizen.
II. W. EVEREST,
II. IMBoDEN,
Mrs. ANNA TAYLOR,
COLONEL 5. FOCTZ,
Z. w. OLIVER,
Wichita, Feb. q, 1889. Committee.
HYPATTA-