The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-02-13
WHAT Do THEY MEAN?
The House Committee on Tenn
perance Seems Bent
To Play Into the Hands Of the
Whisky Crowd.
TO AMEND THE LAW
So That Saloons May Be Regu-
larly Licensed,
Appears to Be the Committees
Determination.
A COLOR Is GIVEN
To the Charges That the Kansas
Liquor Element
Were Given Promises Before
the Election,
By This Inexplicable Action of
the Committee.
To the Charges That the Kansas
Liquor Element
By This Inexplicable Action OF
the Committee.

This is pretty spectacle, the way the
house committee on temperance Is try
ing to betray the cause it is supposed to
represent, into the hands of its enc
mics.
= The members of this now famous or
infamous committee are Representatives
S.romquist OF Mcpherson, chairman;
Baker of Franklin, Dickson of jackson,
Mathews of Ellsworth, Mccarthy of JET
ferson, Glenn of Greeley and Moss of
Lyon All are Republicans except Mr..
Moss, who is Populist
The liquor men and enemies of prOhi-
bition have got stronger hold on the
Republican end of the present legisla-
ture than WAS thought possible by the
thousands of Republican prohibitionists
who voted the ticket straight for the ''re-
demption" of Kansas at the last election.
The STATE JOURNAL few days ago
exposed the attempt Of the house commit
tee on temperance to play into the hands
of the enemies of prohibition by recon-
mending that the present law be amend
ed so that violators of the prohibitory
law shall be subject to ''tine OR impris-
orment' instead of fine AND imprison-
mem" as provided by the law now on the
statute book which has run hundreds of
saloon keepers out of the state.
The members of the house committee
ON temperance seem determined to, in
sumo way, amend the prohibitory law in
the interest of the liquor men, and the
committee not being able to pull the
wool over the eyes of the public with the
Hack busch bill has introduced d bill of
its own, which contains the very same
loophole in the interest of the whisky
sellers
The latest effort of the house COM
mittee on temperance or intemperance
as this committee might more appro-
priately be called in view of it's record, is
known as house bill No. 743
This bill was introduced by the COM
mittee on temperance and was ordered
printed by the house in the committee of
the whole.
The bill pretends to seek to give the
county attorney better opportunity to
get evidence relative to violations of the
prohlbitory law than the present act on
that subject but the same fatal defect
purposely placed there by the members
of the committee is shown in Section 9
of the bill and in lines % and %, as in
the Hackbu5ch bill.
This part of section which prescribes
the penalty to be meted out to violators
of the law, who are convicted under its
"If found guilty shall be fined not less
than one hundred dollars nor more than
tive hundred dollars, OR be imprisoned
In the county jail not less than thirty
days nor more than ninety days, OR both
such fine and imprisonment, in the dis
cretion of the court"
II there was any doubt as to the intent
of the members of the committee on
temperance In regard to this matter. il
any one imagined that they did not in
tend by recommending the Hackbusch
Dill to make loop hole for violators OF
the prohlbitOry law to escape a iail sen.
tence, which is the only sentence 5
saloon keeper or jointist fears, that doub
Will surely be dispelled by this latest &C
of the committee,
II the house committee on temper
ance Is to be allowed to have its wa,
there VIII be no necessity for the resub
mission of the prohibitory amendment
If this committee is allowed to have it
way 1t will make the business of a sa
loon Keeper and jointist in Kansas re
spectaOle once more and simply regu
late the liquor traffic by license svsteu
called fines.
Make the imprisonment of a violate
OF the prohibitory law optional with tn
Judge before whom he is tried and no
one 1olntlst In. a Thousand will ever se
the inside of Jail
Chairman StromQuist and his commi,
tee on intemperance are doing som
very fine work for the liquor interest,
but it is doubtful if their efforts will
wholly appreciated by the good peopl
of Kansas. The people of Kansas wan
the prohibitory law let alone.
Mr.. Moss, the only Populist member G
the committee, disclaimed having am
thing to do with the Recommendation {
tne Hackbu bill, putting the entir
responsibility on the Republicans. It no,
remains remains: to be seen how many of the R,
p1oIcans n will disclaim knowledge {
TINS latest attempted outrage.
was openly charged before the Ial
election that certain of the Republica
managers had promised to protect the il
terests OF the liquor men if they wer
successful. and that the assistance oive
the Republicans in the campaip5 h
David Overmyes and other whisky Den
ocrats was in response to that promis
Ahis action of the temperance committe