The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-05-12
CAN 1T BE TRUE2

The seat of government for Kansas
is at Topeka, where all Of the laws OF
the state are passed, and from whence
they are published. All state legisia-
ton is largely Influenced by Topeka,
tbe trend and scope Of the states penal
enactments are measured to a great
extent by Topeka influence and the
reach and binding force of the states
corporation acts are limited and pre-
scribed by interests centered there.
Consequently Topeka sentiment and
Topeka example is felt to the remotest
bounds of the commonwealth
Public decentralization does not come
so much from an open disregard of law
rs from it's surreptitious, deceptive and
furtive violation The public con-
science would not be so irreparabiy
harmed by fifty wheelmen paradlng
the highways on Sunday, as If those
same wheelmen should slip away be-
hind some wood or within some high
enclosure to do their pedal perform
ance. That which is innocent in itself
may be rendered highly harmful by
resorting to the secretiyeness OF the
criminal.
So when it comes to the observance
and enforcement of all laws Topeka
should ever prove the exemplar and
the bright prototype for the rest of the
state. In the enforcement of quasi
moral and sumptuary laws especially,
such as the laws against RIGHTEOUSNESS,
gambling, drinking and so on. Topeka
should ever prove the shining example
for the other municipalities Of the
state. No suspicion should ever go out
TO the inhabitants of the other cities
of the state that the capital is either
a moral or social charnel house, fair
without but within full Of dead men's
bones. With Wichita, begotten of the
free and unbridled life of the frontier,
with Leavenworth and Atchison ever
subjected to the demoraliZing and IN
restrained influences of the border Of a
state whose lawlessnesS was its proud
est boast, and Of Kansas City, linked
by strands and spans of steel, by the
tentacles of commercial octupus, to
its rum-soaked twin across the line,
failures and Emergencies are TO be eX-
pected. But for Topeka, that light set
upon a hill, far removed from all the
sins which so easily beset the other
communities named, out upon the fair
prairies, for Topeka, sun-kissed and
wind-caressed, to go behind the screen
10 commit sin, behind joint-dOOrs to
violate the prohibition law is, well
words simply fail US for any adequate
expression of the reprehensible enor-
nifty Of such a lapse from plain and
simple duty. When in the past, under
the pressure of an outraged public con-
science we have been forced TO call
attention to Topeka'S seemingly end
less list of drugstore permits it has
always been done with our eyes closed
and the hope that after all our inform
ing complainants were prejudiced and
that after all the capital of our state
was being at least to some extent mis-
represented. But now comes the To
peka Daily Journal, a paper so one
sided as to know no law save the one
which public sentiment can alone
strictly enforce, comes in its issue of
Saturday evening under fiaring head
lines on its front page, declaring that
Glow down" and high up joints are
running in all parts Of the capital city,
running openly, by the consent of the
police commissioners and connivance
Of the city marshal; run night and day.
right under the shadow of Attorney
General Dawes office and in plain view
of the governors headquarters and in
spite of the adjutant general and the
entire militia force. This is unaccOunt-
able, passing belief and simply awful,
with but one possible chance or hope,
and that is, coming as it does from a
paper which has so persistenuy and
eternaIly lied about Wichita, it may not
be true after all.