The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-07-28
@allts - Ea9le
n. NJ. MURDOCH. Editor
EMPORIA's PERPLEXITY.

EMPoRIA's PERPLEXITY.
Emporia having gone aweary OF ny
pocrisy and concluding that a licensed
saloon smells no worse than a Tree
soint. and being, withal, short On rev.
enues. proceeded TO make the fellows
who are licensed by the general govern
nent to deal out cold teas" ana the
ike. divide profits. Neither the average
tax-payer nor the consumer of the lea
injected 10 this. The dispenser Of bey-
erages. conserving that .he town that
furnished the customers and provided
the protection was entitled TO a curren-
rv consideration, the authorities with
nlacrity dropped into the new scheme
and the revenues dropped into the CITY
treasury. But there was another drop
The preachers dropped on the mayor
and city government, dropped rom
away up high, and dropped hard, just
as the Wichita preachers dropped on
the Eagle before they dropped down
ana OUT. ONe VI Tic Iii olith PANttN1S
being a woman availed herself OF
woman's prerogative, and denounced
the mayor as "a Scoundrel and per-
surer." The male ministers didn't go
Mute so far but put the case in about
rs strong phrases as the law permits
The result is that that once circum-
spect and pattern community Is fear
fully stirred up and libel suits are i'm
pending. An astonishing amount OF
'.old Adam has been unearthed in
community suspected Of containing an
undue proportion Of saints, and what
the end Will be is hard to guess, in the
absence Of any information as 10 the
convictions of a majority of its people,
touching free-jointS versus licensed sa-
looms The majority Will settle it in the
end. In the mean time it would be wise
not 10 bear down too hard on the
preachers They have their calling and
their convictions. Being neither respon-
Bible for municipal expenses or annoy
ed by the perpleXities of officials In
met ting current expenses; with no
dread of the delinquent taX-list, or of
the Sheri1's sale, and knowing little or
II thing of the drugstore traffic in Ii
quorS. or the decentralization TO youth
Df the quasi-secret joint. they naturally
raise their voices with more or less We
hemence against the open reputation
of a law which they, in considering
more sacred, to be just as binding as
any other statutory enactment
Every town in Kansas in which the
public sentiment is not so unanimous
against the traffic as to render illicit
traffic impossible viii sooner or later be
confronted with Emporia's problem
and resulting bad blood Prohibition
must prohibi: or otherwise go to the
wall. Where it fails of its purpose the
average man of affairs will demand
that the traffic pay its proportion of
public expenses. The stock in trade of
the wet goods man not being listed
for taxation, the dry goods man, the
hardware man and every other who
pays will insist that the liquor seller IS
a. best nc better than anybody else, and
that therefore. in all justice, a license
TAX is preferable 10 a free and insup-
press:ble illicit tarffic. In short if the
prohibition sentiment in Emporia is not
unanimous enough to suppress the lille
gal traffic, then The next best thing is
30 cap a tax upon it, and just as strong
rs It will bear without driving it back
into cellars and garrets out of reach Of
the authorities, except for an occasional
inconmensIrate fine, which costs more
in the collection than il amounts TO,
after official aid court fees have been
paid