Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-05-14
BUSINESS MEN KICK.
Leading Citizens of Atchison, Kan.,
Are Weary Of Prohibition.
KANSAS CITY GETS THE BENEFIT.
immigration is Checked and Population
Does Not Increase.
IT OUGHT TO Be In UNIVERSAL FORCE
In Order to Do Any Good According to the Opinion
Generally Expressed.

to bring all its leading citizens to one mind
and that is, that such an experiment is de
| cidedly disastrous to business. Thirteer
railroads enter Atchison, and from its geo
| graphical position it ought to be dis
tributing center for Kansas, Southern Ne
braska, Colorado and a portion of Missouri
as well. 1t has some large wholesale houses
but none of them report business rushing.
While Kansas has been experimenting with
prohibition, and thereby retarding the
growth of her cities, Kansas City and St.
Joseph, in Missouri, and Omaha, in Ne
braska, have been pushing ahead at an as
tonishing rate, and leaving Atchison and
Leavenworth, their old rivals, far in the
rear.
Atchison has not grown bit during the
past eight years, since prohibition went into
effect, though it has improved considerably.
Stores which formerly brought s., 900 year
rent now stand idle, awaiting tenant at
5000. The place has very quiet not to say
dead look, quite unlike what one expects to
find in a we'll established Western city.
Talks with leading men show that they are
almost to a man opposed to prohibition,
anu GndL bA0y SOASAuOL tuab ~ las uuEb
Kansas.
VIEWS OF A DEMOCRATIC PRoHIB.
B. P. Waggener, the leading lawyer Of
Atchison, and the general counsel for the
Missouri Pacific Railroad system, was one of
the few Democrats who publicly advocated
prohibition when it was adopted.
"I am now convinced that it is failure"
said he, in speaking of its effects. SIT is
impracticable in cities, and has done great
deal to retard business and immigration. I
hear that at Castle Garden the agents of
other States are quick to make known Kan
sas prohibition laws to new comers and in
duce them not to come here. Then it builds
up system of spies, of JOINTS and of gen.
eral hypocrisy, all of which are bad for the
community.
prohibition in Kansas is really what has
given such boom to Kansas City, in Mis-
souri,. 1t drove out of this State great
many wholesale dealers, and others who
went to that city and began to boom it. The
result Is that is has now gone far beyond
any place in Kansas, and no city in this
State can hope to rival it. Then, too, pro-
hibition has deprecated values here. A
good many people who don't belive in such
laws, but who are orderly and law observ-
ing, have moved away, preferring to go to
otner cities where there is no such restric-
ton on their liberty"
IT KNOCKS OUT BUSINESS.
Ex-Mayor Kelsey, Republican who has
Just retired from Office, expressed the same
views. He is large furniture dealer.
prohibition has knocked out business"
said he, tand the people of Atchison have
no confidence in its future. The business
that was here has gone to Omaha, to Kan
sas City and st. Joseph, where they don't
have such laws. There is very little now
to attract buyers to Atchison when they can
do equally well In other cities and have
much more enjoyable time. I myself
would have gone last spring if it had not
been for the lease of my store. While it has
hurt business, prohibition has not stopped
drunkenness. There is more whisky drink
ing now than ever, and think there is
more private drinking in houses If man
wants liquor he does not have to go to
joint, but he can just telephone across the
river to East Atchison, in Missouri, and it
will be brought to his house."
Mr.. Pride, a large wholesale druggist,
who has done great deal toward building
up Atehison, told the same tale of business
lost and population driven away by the op-
Grafton of prohibition.
OUGHT TO BE UNIVERSAL.
eff prohibition were universal" +" said he,
self Congress should make it law applying
to the whole country. it would be all right.
But when State has prohibition, and those
surrounding it have high license or some
other liberal system, the latter catch all the
business. 1t has been so with Kansas, and it
will be so with Pennsylvania if she adopts
that policy. Philadelphia will find that
her business will go to New York, Balti-
more and cities in other States, and that she
will gain nothing. Prohibition will kill
her dead"
Mr.. Pride is a graduate of the Philadel-
phia College of Pharmacy, and frequent
visitor to the East. He understands busi-
ness conditions thoroughly, and is well
posted as to the workings of prohibition in
Kansas. His advice to the people of Penn
sylvania is to reject prohibition entirely if
they desire to continue to prosper and to
hold their own in the neYer-ceasing compe-
tItion of business life.