The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-12
Oh, GIVE Us A REST.

1
/! The Topeka CapitaI makes us tired.
| No that isn't the word. Its narrow
hess stirs our pity. OF all the thou
sands who read the Eagle not one can
| be found who would characterize our
criticism of the Wichita minister as be-
| ing harsh, the editor Of the Capital
alone excepted. The Eagle was IN
no sense on the rampage" nor did It
Nothing could be farther from the
truth. But for full half column, or
more, the Capital goes on with this
kind Of misrepresentation. We often
wonder if the readers of the Capital,
or even a majority OF them, believe
what it asserts; or, have they become
used TO its ways, and learned how to
interpret II. We had hoped that the
election of Major Hudson TO the best
paying position in the state would in
relieving his belly-ache render him
more fair and charitable. tend 70
broaden his views, cOnservatiZe-nOw
watch him kick at that word-hiS
bumptious radicalism, and above all
render him more conscientious and
truthful. We We're disappointed. Why
didn't the Capital reproduce the roast
which proved such q sensation as TO
call out a half column of things that
the Eagle did not say nor ever think?
And then wind it up with the silly
suggestion that the Eagle believes that
whiskey pays peoples taxes. How it
would shock the goody-good readers of
the Capital did they but know that
the editor Of their Capital has Il good
deal more use for whiskey than the
editor of the Eagle.
The editor Of the Capital knows well
enough that the Eagle is not advocat-
ing either the sale or the drinking of
liquors. If the enforcement Of the
prohibitory law curtailed the drinking
or liquors even to the smallest per-
ceptble degree it would be commend
able law just by SO. much. If it fur
nished the helpless little children of a
poor family so much as a single extra
beef-steak, or added so much but
calico dress or pair Of shoes for their
comfort, the Eagle would be the last
paper to say may" What the Eagle
protests against, however, is not SO
much the failure of the law, as the
cost Of its enforcement, with no end
gained Sedgwick county has paid
out enough OF the peoples money IN
single year in useless prosecutions of
liquor sellers to buy thousands of beef
steaks, thousands of dresses and thou
sands of pairs of shoes. For one year
the records show that there was more
money expended in prohibition prose-
cuions than is paid IN salaries to all
the ministers Of this city, with no less
OF selling and Of drinking.
As for the other attempted point Of
the Capital, enough money goes to
Kansas City from Topeka, every day,
to fill telephone orders for liquors, to
pay TOpeka's entire police force, to say
Of the amount spent in Topeka
drug stores. Wichita doesn't take to
that kind Of policy-that kind of n.y.
pocrisy. 1t is not the revenues of the
joints for which the Wichita man is
at all, but against useless ex-
penditure of hardly paid taxes which
the finding and prosecution of violators
Of the law involves. If the prohibitory
law is intended solely and only to
strike down the saloon and not for cur
failing liquor drinking and the crimes |
which whiskey entails, then the To-
peka policy is right, but not other
wise.