The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-04-05
GET BACK TO Law.
Retail Druggists Should Organ
ize at Once
To Demand the Rights the Law
Gives Them.
Shut Up All the Joints-The People
Prefer Responsible Druggists to
Handle the Liquor Business
as They Used to Do

AS a result of the examination before
County Attorney Jetmore Saturday, in
formation against jointists will be filed
in the district court this week They
are all small liquor merchants, GRIP
pies" as Sheriff Kepley terms them,a and
are not the class of dispensers that the
prohibitionists sought to corner by the
examination.
OF the men examined by the county
attorney Saturday afternoon, less than
half a dozen gave any information
at all, and they were not of the class
that patronize the prosperous liquor
places. The three jointists, against
whom information was secured, will be
arrested by the sheriff this week.
The law having prescribed that drug
gists alone shall have the right to sell
Intoxicating liquors, it is clearly an in
fringement of their rights and privi-
1eges for joints to be permitted to run
and to take away from them whatever
profits there may be in the sale OF IL
quor. Merely from plain business
standpoint it is to the interest of drug
gists to see to it that the sale of Ii
quors by irresponsible persons be stop
ped at once.
The drug store owners of Topeka
ought to organize a Retail Druggists
association and demand of the sheriff
and the county attorney that they close
every joint in the city. The law gives
to the druggist the sole right OF selling
liquor and every druggist ought to
stand on his rights. The public author
tiles have no right or excuse to permit
a class of persons to unlawfully injure
the business of druggists and pharna-
cists who are especially stipulated by
law as the only persons legally enu-
tied to sell liquors.
These druggists are nearly all of
them responsible business men who pay
high rents, and a good share of the
taxes, and it is an injustice to them
that dives, holes in the wall, blind
tigers, SpeakeaSieS and other diSreputa-
BILE places run by OutcaStS, eX-cOnV1ctS
| ''peglegs,'' etc, should be permitted to
injure an important branch of their
business.
If there is any set of business men
who have good reason to organize for
protection it is the druggists.
The people of Topeka prefer the drug
gists to make all the sales that are
made Druggists are as a rule careful
in the sales they make. While some of
them do not always require the filing OF
an application which the law says they
shall do, still most of them draw the
line on indiscriminate sales; which the
joints do not. Scarcely a druggist in
the city will permit a drunken man to
purchase liquor. The drug stores are
far superior to the high license saloon
which so many reSubmiSSioniStS are
clamoring for. While the drug store
plan does net realize the hopes of the
prOhibitionists it is far better than the
more or less wide open policy that now
| prevails in Topeka. What this city
needs is to get back to the condition OF
things that prevailed two or three
years ago. Shut up the joints and let
| responsible druggists make all the sales
| There may be some violation of the law
! by the druggists, but they are a rea-
sOnably safe class of men to handle the
| business, and most important of all the
! law says they shall handle it.
| Get back to law and order at once.
The first step in this direction, ought
| to be the organization of the Retail
Druggists association.