The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-07-26

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some of them violated by church mem
bers. Their proposition was simply
| claw" as a catch. Not TO mention the
| Sunday law there is law on the statute
books of Kansas violated every day in
every town in the state and that is the
law against profane and obscene Ian
guage in public places and upon the
streets. That law, like the prohibit
tory law, is an attempt to make men
better by legal penalties and proceed
ings. All such laws are blue and
majority public sentiment ignores
! them, and when they are appealed to
by a preacher or a moral teacher it
is a confession by such teacher or
preacher that their religion is insult
ficient, or their wisdom and oratory a
failure.
The Capitals talk about leading citi-
ZenS and majOrities is pure drivel. 1t
is the clap-trap and buncomb of a
demagogue. What is a majority. and
where does majority principle prevail
or how apply? Is Kansas bigger than
the United States. and if so wherein:
Is Wichita bigger than the state of
Kansas, and if it is wherein? The
United States not only legaliZeS the
manufacture of alcoholic liquors but
sells permits to the citizens of Kansas
for its sale and for its use in Kansas.
Kansas says mo-" and legally and con-
stitutionally Kansas has the right to
fall back on her police-regulatiOn
rights and in face of the general gov
ernments guaranty and permit, veto
and prohibit its sale. Wichita as a
still smaller subdivision boasts her
majorities, and claims like rights. But
whether she claims them or not they
exist, and there is no way to ride down
4 majority except by force of arms,
where such majority has the right to
elect its own officers. If the Capital
doesn't know that, it should go out of
the business of a public instructor.
The Capital asserts that the Eagle
does not represent the majority senti-
ment Of this community. If the Cap
ital is honest in its assertion let its
friends here put UP prohibition ticket
or a single candidate, nominated by
any, or all parties combined, and let
the Capital mark the result. Every
political party in this county COM
bined with the prohibition element Of
the Republican party, which is rails
ing the present row in this city, to beat
the regular nominee for county attor-
ney last fall because he would not sign
pledge TO enforce the prOhibitory law
in the event Of his election. The COM
bination candidate was overwhelming
ly defeated.
The Capital talks like an idiot or
scoundrel when it asserts that should
ever the proposition come to a square
issue in this city that prohibition
would triumph, and talks like the
father Of falsehoOd himself when in
the face of all the Eagles indorse-
ments Of late, it says that this paper
does not represent the sentiments Of
this community. Such a paper as the
Eagle is not published in any city of
the size Of Wichita in the world, and
couldn't be in the absence Of a Won
derfully merited support. The Cap
ital itself would have been dead, a
thousand times dead, but for contin-
uous party and state patronage.
The Capitals editor never saw a
town of $4,000 Inhabitants in his life
where the prohibitory law was in
reality enforced, much less great city
of Importance where any effort was
made to enforce it. The Capital knows
that with the prohibitory law strictly
enforced and all the isms with ref
erence to immortality, gambling and
the like made effective, in Wichita, and
Topeka would remain the biggest town
in KanSaS-the political and conven-
ton center-per force of state invest
ments and interests, and that is just
what Topeka hopes for-what the Cap
ital is working for.
The Capital in proof of its declara-
ton that the Eagle misrepresents
Wichita sentiment cites the fact that
the vast congregation at the NJ. f.
church on Sunday night rose as one
man in favor of enforcing the prohibi-
tory law. We don't believe that the
word ''prohibitory" was used. Any
how its lone man" is suggestive, for
the congregation was made up of
women and children, there being less
than one hundred men present. One
counter returned the number at as.
1t was so in all the churches, the great
majority in each being made UP of
women and young girls. The men of
these congregations are being driven
away. Why?
Its all politics, as we have before
and often stated. The influences which
has set these preachers on was started
by politicians and office hunters, as
sisted by Il Doodle contingent. The
leading instigator of the war against
the decent and orderly rule of our
board of police commissioners votes
only by the right of . governors par
doning power. And the men who have
responded 10 his effort would not trust
their purses or honor with his princi-
pal coadjutor.
But none of these worry the Eagle,
no more than does the miSrepresenta-
tons Of the Capital We are only
sorry TO see the pulpit pulled into
political fight, not so much for the men
who are driven or kept away from the
church because their ministers become