Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-24
ISSUES IN KANSAS.
The Farmers Alliance Not MOnopO-
lizing All Attention Now.
OLD QUESTIONS TO THE FRONT.
Views on Prohibition and the Policy Of the
Republican Party.
BOTH ORGANIZATIONS ARE DIVIDED

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DrsPATCH.J
TOPEKA, Kan, Aug. 23.-For brief
period the people of Kansas have ceased
talking about The Farmers Alliance and
Peoples party and turned to discussing the
prohibition question and the future course
of the Republican party. All this agita-
tion comes from the publication of letter
recently written by Secretary of State
William Higgins to Rev. D. c. Miner.
prominent Minister of the Presbyterian
Church.
Higgins declared that the continual agita-
tion of the prohibition question by the
Republican party did not strengthen the
law, but caused members of other political
parties to antagonize it and wink at its
violation. Prohibition has been the para
mount issue of the Republican party for
the last 10 years, and at every election they
went before the people with strong prohi-
bition plank in their platform. Mr.. Hig-
gins contends that it is because of this fact
that the Democratic party has continually
fought prohibition and made its campaigns
on that line, land that it was the opposite and
radical positions of the two old parties that
caused the Peoples party to ignore the
question in its platform last year.
DIVIDED ON THE ISSUE.
The Republicans are divided on this issue,
and quite a respectable minority indorses
Mr.. Higgins position. Probably the strong
est argument in favor of removing prohibi-
tion from politics comes from Sol Miller,
editor of the Kansas Chief: He has pub
lished the paper 81 years, and has been a
supporter of the Republican ticket, no mat
ter what the platform covered. He indorses
the Higgins letter, and in an editorial says:
"Many of us think that it is time the
law was now treated as other laws in the
statute book. 1t should stand upon its own
merits, and not as political issue. When
ever it is taken out of politics it will be en-
forced as other laws; as long as 1T remains in
politics, one political party will be arrayed
in opposition to it, and pledged to break it
down. What is the sense of one party still
continuing to make it plank in their plat
form any more than any other law that is In
force?
s'There are thousands of Prohibition DEM
ocrats; but as the case now stands, there is
not Democratic voice heard demanding
the enforcement of the prohibitory law,
simply because in so doing they would be
favoring Republican issue and plank in
the Republican platform. The man or men
who object to leaving the enforcement of
the law to the people and dropping it as a
party question, are either afraid to trust
their cause with the people or are small
demagogues trying to force a measure upon
an unwilling people by tacking it onto the
platform of dominant party. If prohibi-
tion is not yet old enough to be weaned and
walk alone, it never will be.
SURE TO BE PARTIAL FAILURE.
GAS political question, prohibition will
always be partial failure. We know men,
original prohibitionists, not lately converts,
who, wearied with the difficulties and an
nOyances attendant upon enforcing the law,
even in temperance committees, have ex-
pressed the opinion that license system
would be preferable to the present law. If
original prohibitionists are driven to con-
template the license as relief, many who
are not original prohibitionists, but who
have come to accept the law in good faith,
may be pardoned for suggesting that the
question be taken out of politics, and an ex-
pertinent be made to enforce the law as
law, not as political issue"
On the other hand there are thousands of
Republicans in the State who will not sub
scribe to the above. They claim that pro-
hibition is a part of the Republican party
in Kansas and that the two can not be sew
cred without the destruction of both. The
Democratic party is unalterablv opposed to
the principle of prohibition. The Peoples
party declines to take any position on the
question, hence it is agreed that the Repub-
lican party cannot ignore it.
A recent issue of the Emporia Republican
probably covers this side of the case very
correctly and represents the views of large
majority of Republicans in Kansas. 1t saws:
'It might, indeed, be desirable thing for
prohibition to be taken out of politics, for
the reason stated in the Higgins explana-
tion. Those who assault the law are the
ones to do it. When they cease their at
tacks, then the question will naturally set
tie itself and cease to be an issue. As long
as there is an organized party making war
upon prohibition the Republican party can
do nothing less than continue to champion
it; to ignore the question while an opposi-
tion party is making a fight upon it would
be a cowardly abandonment.
CANNOT TURN BACK.
''The Republican party of Kansas must
continue to indorse prohibition until