News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-09-12
PROHIBITION IN KANSAS.
A TYPICAL, PRoHIBITIoNIsT TALKS ABOUT TIL



vicinity will be glad to see it, as an
indication of what the world thinks OF
Morrisville boys, and why -
In order that the readers of the
Times may gain a fair idea of the
dominant feeling in Kansas l propose
to introduce here a typical Kansas
prohibitionist and permit him to make
argument in behalf of the institution
he favors. Mr.. j. W. Gleed has
made reputation at the state bar
and was retained by the state in the
celebrated Mugler and Walruff brew
cry cases before the United States Su-
preme Court. He has lived in Kan
sas since 1866 and is professor in
the State Law School. His views
differ from those of the average advo-
cate of prohibition only because they
are deeply tinged with philosophy, re-
inforced by extensive knowledge of
the law. But they are interesting,
even to an anti-prohbitionist
Prohibition" said he, ''is here to
stay. The people of Kansas will not
be very much affected by elections adj
verse to prohibition in other states.
They have tried prohibition and found
it good thing"
" What basis have you for claiming
that prohibition is good for the state?"
| asked.
"To begin with, those who main
tain that prohibition is wrong in prin-
ciple urge that it leads to hypocrisy
and perjury; that it is an attempt to
make men good by law that it invades
without justification the realm of pure
ethics that it is blow at the moral
dignity of man that it creates crime
out of an action which was not, before
the law was passed, crime, and
which is not mdlLm in Sc; that it does
violence to personal liberties which
ought to be sacred, and that it ignores
moral distinction.
Every section of the Criminal
Code leads to deceit, hypocrisy, per-
jury, and other offences against the
moral and civil law. All municipal
law, civil or criminal, is an attempt to
make men good by compulsion in the
same sense that prohibitory laws are
attempts to make men good by com
pulsion. All municipal laws invade
the realms of ethics and are blow at
the moral dignity of men. Nearly all
criminal laws when first enacted made
acts criminal which had not before
been looked on as such. Killing in a
duel is a crime now; it was not a
crime 200 years ago. Under certain
circumstances, to cause the death of a
fellow being by ones negligence is
now manslaughter it was not SO once. |
Criminal codes now control or attempt |
to control the sexual relations to an
extent which was not dreamed of in
Greece and Rome, nor in England 800
years ago. Gambling is a crime now
it wasn't once. 1t is crime for even
an innocent man to break Jail. Moth
ing seems more innocent in itself.
Can civil law does violence to per-
sonal liberties. No form of society is
possible without the surrender of per-
sonal liberties. People seldom follow
put the personal---very. argument.
The ravages of the liquor traffic are
errible. This is admitted. The evils
from the sale and consump-
ion ofintoxicants are beyond compu-
alton. The saloon, whether YOU look
1t it from a moral, a political or an
economic point of view, is curse.
It is the mother of all crimes. Intern
perance is peculiar danger-rinsinu-
ating, persistent. For five centuries
the English-speaking race has been
trying 20 protect itself by restrictive
Restrictive legislation
has failed. The danger has grown
greater. 1t has been demonstrated
hat the only way to do away with its
evils is to do away with the traffic.
Society must do away with the traffic
Dr. endure the evils.
Now one individual rises and
says: My personal rights must re-
main intact. l must he allowed to
sell. buy and drink as l please On
the other hand rises another individ-
lal and says: i, too, have personal
rights. Must l he taxed TO arrest,
convict, support, and punish the Grim
inals produced by the liquor traffic in
order to allow my friend his personal
right to drink? Society owes as much
to me as TO my friend. The free sale
of liquor produces from time to time
In our community a number of human
brutes and maniacs who kill, MAIN
and rob, and endanger my family and
property l and my family have a
right to the freedom of the city.
If the city contains saloons my
my wife is in danger of insult on the
public streets at any time. There are
forced upon us the sights, sounds and
smells which attend the saloon, and
which are obnoxious to us, and from
which we have the right TO be exempt.
have political rights; the saloon has
tut them off again and again.
"All municipal law ignores moral
distinctions. 1t must do so in the ma
ure Of things. 1t is the inevitable
of the lmperfectiOn of
nan. These things are true TO the
knowledge of every lawyer, aud,
therefore,, these objections to prohibit
DRY liquor laws can only consistently
1e argued by the philosophical Anar-
,hists, who ask the abrogation of all
human laws. Prohibitory liquor laws
ire right if criminal law is right. So :
ar as abstract right is concerned, they
stand or fall with our entire system of
lumanly ordained law. They are
consistent with all other human laws.
orOhibitory laws and all their conse-
iuences have been sustained by all
be courts. Courts cannot consist :
,ntly restrain any law restricting the
ale of Intoxicating liquors, without
Ilso sustaining prohihitory liquor laws,
md no philosophical objection lies
lgainst a prohibitory law that does
lot lie equally against the multiform
legislation which has in five s
appeared upon the statute
looks of England and the United
states"
"Do you deny the existence of
rounds for argument in regard to
?" asked.
"The only ground is expediency.
Prohibition is not wrOnU but if II no '