The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-01-16
A WOODY DEMAND.

The Topeka Capital is out with the
editorial demand, or suggestion, or both,
| that the state take a year or two off
and do nothing but enforce the prohibit
tory law. That paper declares that
| the state can we'll afford 10 do just
that thing. We suppose it means that
| the people of the state at large could
| afford 10 abandon everything in the
interest of such an extreme insane
racket. Where the pay is to come from
| or what it would be like, is not men
toned Dick Wakes salary would
be more sure among other things. and
the paper making the suggestion might
in such a row reap reward by round
ing up a few delinquent subscribers.
OF course il is meant that the Repub-
lican administration should shoulder
such a scheme without reference TO
its bearings upon business. it's effect
upon the party, or the cost TO the tax
payer Such an idea, embodied in
sober demand, will fail Of being under
stood, much less appreciated, by the
average conservative citizen. Still it
is a fair reflex of the sentiment of an
element in this state which has dOmi-
mated the Republican party for years,
and which has, in distracting the pres
ent state administration, made it ride
ulOus. They would go farther in in
Tba mil RI rr
ers of the state in the repression of a
traffic, to which the whole civilized
world is more or less addicted, than
they would to suppress an invasion of
horse thieves and murderers. In fact
il is not an uncommon thing for their
speakers to put the violatOrs of the
liquor law upon the same footing as
horse thieves and murderers. Such
expression is indeed rather a favorite
one. The prOprietors and editors Of
the Capital are, presumably, no better
or more strictly temperate than the
average respectable citizen, and do not
appreciate more keenly the wrongs
and woes which come to humanity
through intemperance, than the rest
of us, and may be they care less. But
the successful support of any hobby,
where a good principle lies at the base,
calls for fanaticism in leadership. Fol |
lowing this demand for the abandon |
ment of everything in the interest of |
an attempted strict enforcement of a |
sumptuary law, which IS Systematically |
violated, an innumerable times every |
day in this state, comes the president |
of the State Temperance union with |
a call for a state convention at Topeka, |
of course, which shall number at least |
two thousand delegates. That the Cap |
itars suggestion and this subsequent |
call means not less drinking, but more |
boiling Of the Republican party, is on
ly too painfully evident Many of the |
members of the union managed by |
Rev. Wake, claim tc be Republicans,
as does the Capital. but they evidently
care very little for the party as such,
only as it can be forced to follow their
lead. The Republican party, embrac-
ing as it does, men of many different
religious creedS, and of varying con-
victions touching the best temperance
methods, and still many others who are
totally averse to all sumptuary legis-
lation, the demand of the Capital and
the response of the State Teperance
union becomes a menace TO the supre-
macy of the party, which party aside
from the distractions arising from this
law, constitutes not only an overwhel-
ming majority of the state, but party |
being sui generiS. has done more and
would do more for the material and
political advancement of the state than
Will the mOngrel combination which
threatens to succeed it, and only threa-
tens because of the same bone of con-
tention ever being thrust in the midst
of its counsels by the assumed leader
ship mentioned.