The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-20
Law and Public Sentiment.

Governor Morrill, bravely declared the
truth in saying that a law opposed to
public sentiment couldn't be enforced,
and as cowardly backed down and eat
his own words at the threat of a lot OF
Third Party Prohibitionists and other
enemies of the party which elected him.
The stream can't rise above its head.
And so again at that Topeka meeting he
asserted that the prohibitory law of Kan
sas could not be enforced in those local
tiles where public sentiment is against
ii. His assertion is combated vigor-
ously by delusionists, who do not seem to
comprehend how public sentiment can
have any bearing on the enforcement of
the law. The Chicago Record, which on
this subject is as daft as a March hare.
INDUCES in the following comment;
docs the public sentiment of any por-
ton of Kansas regulate or prevent such
bigamy, or is it the determination of the
law officers of the locality that makes
them terror TO evil-doers and criminals :?
If reports are true Kansas has some To-
kept in check solely by the vigilance Of
the local officers. An equal activity
would close every saloon In any district
In the state, although 1t might not pre-
trary to the law. Poultry will be occa-
sionally stolen in portions of the state
where crime Is practically unknown, but
these are the exceptions.
When a Chicago editor writes such rot.
while thousands of saloons are running in
full blast seven days in the Week, within a
stones throw of his Office door, he proves
that he has no conception of the practical
administration of law. He might as We'll
assert that the prohibitory law in Maine.
Iowa and Kansas is just as we'll enforced
as are the laws against arson, murder,
burglary and forgery. Nobody pretends
to deny that the state law against liquor
selling IS Systematically violated by from
one TO two thousand drug stores, saloons
and bootleggers in Kansas. The records
of the internal revenue collector of Kan
sas show that more than 200 dealers IN
liquor pay federal tax. Now suppose
that 900 dealers in liquor make but ten
sales a day. That means 1000 violations
of the law every twenty-four hours, and
emitting Sunday, $4,000 violations in
each year Conceive. If you please, any
state IN which over $4,000 murders We're
committed a year or where 100000 bur-
glares We're perpetrated or for that mat
ter 100000 pullets were annually evicted
from the hen coops. Such a condition
would presuppose a state of anarchy ten
times as violent as the French revolution.
Talk about enforcing the prohibitory
liquor laws as easily as you can enforce
the laws against murder. arson and bur-
glary. The idea is preposter0us. Great
crimes are comparatively very rare. Pub
lie sentiment exacts the rigid enforcemtn
of the laws against felonles and counten-
ances the imposition Of the severest pen
altieS. But an offense committed thou
sands and thousands of times daily in all
the larger towns of Kansas, Iowa and
Maine is in the very nature OF things
winked at by law officers as tolerated
evil because upheld by public sentiment.
This is only a striking proof that the
stream never rises above its course. The
officers OF the law. under popular form
of government, derive their positions from
the people. To be sustained by public
sentiment is their constant aim, unless
they wish TO cast away ambition. That
the enforcement Of law depends upon the
public sentiment was demonstrated years
ago in the acknowledgements OF the fugitive
slave law in the north Public sentiment
was in sympathy with the fugitive law
breaker. The same Il true for all time
with regard TO the enforcement OF any
law in communities where the masses are
adverse 10 its execution