The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-08-25
WILL WICHITA WIN?

preachers of Great Britain, at time
| when it was sought by an organized
| movement to save men from them
selves by the enactment of prohibitory
penal laws. What the great divine
meant was that the despotism of the
! impractical. that the rule of the fan
attic, was more to be dreaded than
drunkenness.
The red-hOt distemper that is found
| in red liquor; the Oftimes crime; the
poverty and the woe; the turbulent
mirth that leads to murder; the flame
| that withers the soul and scorches
memory, while Fastening age, and
death. like other ills to which human-
| ity seems to have been the innocent
| heir. are to be deplored. The vocif-
| erous talk begotten Of the swim of a
| mutual swill, that leads from home
and the church to horses, hounds and
| a mistress; the conviviality that ends
| in debauch; the frantic laughter that
leads TO delirium, and not unfreQuent
" ends in crime, is all intemperance,
| whose record is REDEEMED with the
blood of broken hearts Of mothers and
| wives, and blurred with the tears Of
hungry children.
These have been the misfortunes of
the individuals Of all ages, but with
each succeeding century have been de-
creased and minimiZed through en-
lightenment, and not by force of either
church or state The hope for tenn
perance is in temperate methods, in
persuasive peace, and religious en-
lightenment; not in the sword, or the
Jail, or in tyranny which humiliates
the individual, antagonizes the sense
of freedom, denies personal liberty and
ignores individual and personal re-
sponsibility. The time is past when
priests can dictate statutory laws or
the preacher answer for the conscience
of the citizen. Through the power
they have inherited from the ages Of
superstition and by virtue of being re-
ligious instructors and moral leaders,
when combined, they may, because Of
such recognized leadership, through
political channels, force municipalities
and even states in some instances, to
enact laws to compel men to do and
to be that which their ministrationS
failed of persuading or making them.
But that was not Christ'S rule, there
fore is failing one. Besides the day
for making men and women better by
the terrors Of punishment are nearly
gone. Even very many of the preach
ers of the Protestant churches Of to-
day, themselves, no longer believe or
hold to an unending hell of unquench-
able fires. Humanity can only be
saved from itself, from the sins which
beset, by appeals to an enlightened
conscience, not by the terros Of 1.-The
law"
The tyranny which imprisons a
brother because of 4 difference Of
opinion involving matter Of con-
science cannot survive in a country
whose magma charta declares all men
to be not only equal, but every in
dividual free TO be his own moral and
religious mentor. The preachers of
Kansas as self-constituted guardians
Of their congregations may brighten
politicians in conventions and repre- |
sentatiVes in legislatures to resolve and !
to enact, but in the end and at the last, !
the body Of the people, ever jealous
of their rights, when once they IN
derstand, will hurl from their places |
both the politicians and the representa-
tiveS. If the tyranny of neither priest |
or king could avail in England, how
much less can intolerance be brooked
by the men Of a state that was begot- |
ten of the love of personal freedom |
and born hating slavery?
But when in addition to the personal |
ignominy Of the rule Of tyrannical in |
tolerance is added the destruction Of |
business the ruin of values and threat |
ened poverty, as is the case in Wichita; |
when good men become goaded beyond |
endurance with the 1nterIneddling Of |
claquers from the outside and the per- !
sistent obstinacy and prejudiced in |
science of q lot of fellows who do not !
care whether the town goes up or down !
so that their power is recognized; who, |
living off of donated salaries and fees /
and the like. hold secret meetings to |
plot against the very men but for |
whose money they could not exist here. |
and to resolve against and to incite |
boycOtts upon enterprising Individuals |
whom they cannot dominate; who get !
together in knots 10 congra tulate each |
other upon the fact that Wichita. be-
ing reduced to n few thousand people |
they will be then able to control her |
people and run her affairs TO suit them /
selves: smirk with satisfaction as they /
point to this man and the other whom |
they are driving away, and naming |
others who are arranging their affairs |
to escape with what little they have 1
left: gloating over the depression in /
business which their grand move |
ment' has enforced. and rejoicing over |
tie expensive turmoil everyday Wit /
messed in the courts, and the greater /
fnf, =. L.;