The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-11-14
SALOON QUESTION LOOMING UP
Anti-saiOon League Organizing in
Oklahoma Opinions Upon It.

Guthrie, o. T., Nov. 13.-There is little
doubt that an anti-saloon sentiment is
going to cut a leading figure IN the next
campaign in Oklahoma The multiplicity
of anti-saloon leagues which have been
organized in Oklahoma in the last four
weeks, hardly town excepted. makese
this certain.
Utterances are lacking mostly on the
matter. but this week the WatOnga Re-
publican says: 1.-THE prohibition question
is being agitated in Oklahoma politics and
an effort is being made to force it as an
issue in a future Republican platform.
We are opposed to saloons and the sale
of liquors 1t is a cure to humanity, a
blight upon civilization, and the greatest
evil of the nineteenth century. The world
would be better off if every drop OF that
accursed poison called whisky was thrown
into the sea and it manufacture forever
prohibited. However, it is a matters that
no political party can safely deal with.
In Kansas the Republican party adopted
a prohibition plank and carried 1t safely
against all opposition. In return for this,
some Prohibitionists organized party
and sought the destruction of the Repub-
lican party-the only party that ever en-
acted prohibition sentiment into law.
John P. ST. John, the leader of the Pro-
hibitionists of Kansas, went to New,
York in 1854 and assisted in the defeat
of James G. Blaine, the Republican can
didate for president. Prohibition will win
where the public is educated up to it, but
no political party can make 1t a success
at this time, and especially in Okla
homa where four out of every five men
you meet are whisky drinkers"
The Ell Reno News, while not naming
the antf-saloon league movement directly,
touches on the matter in this way: "Quite
a strong movement is on foot in Okla
homa, the object of which is the enforce
ment of law and especially those laws
relating to the sale of liquor, of gambling
land of other immoral practices which our
statutes either prohibit or attempt to
regulate. And the movement is in the
right direction. 1t should be popular and
receive the hearty support of all law
abiding citizens. In the first place, and
without discussing the merits of the laws
in question, we desire to approve the
movement on the general and unassail-
able ground that all laws should be en-
that breeds lawlessness like that public
opinion which winks at the violation OF
law There is altogether too much of
this kind of winking done in FL Reno and
in fact, nothing else can be expected
when, as is the case here, officers openly
and avowedly permit such violations fer
consideration. We do not mean per-
sonal consideration but. what Is equally
as culpable, a consideration In the ma
ture of a stipulated fine. Gambling and
prostitution are licensed in Ell Reno. con-
trary to the law and to recognized prin-
ciples of moral integrity. There is no
justification of this which does not entail
the admission of a law, a degraded stan
dard of public morals and there is Ger
tainly nothing that will so rapidly de-
moralize a community as the making of
it a Mecca to draw the eye Of slugs, lib
ertines and gamblers. AS we said in the
beginning, the movement in favor of law.
and order should receive encouragement
of all law-abiding citizens"