The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-03-02
KANSAS AUTHOR IS
FOR PROHIBITION.
William Allen White Says Law Is
Well Enforced Except in
the Larger Towns.
FARMERS TOO BUSY TO DRINK.
Monotony of City Life, He Asserts,
Is Responsible for the Pres
ence of "Joints" and
Bad Liquor.
FARMERS TOO BUSY TO DRINK.

~ WIS AhS SaS~S
st. Louis yesterday. He is returning to
his home after a weeks absence on ousi-
ness in Chicago and Indianapolis. While IN
the latter place. he visited James Whit-
comb Riley.
Mr.. White. as the writer Of an editorial
much copied in McKinley's first preN-
Dental campaign, sought to show "Whats
the Matter With Kansas" He spoke
from a political point of view. Since the
advent of Mrs. Nation, the old quesuoh
has come up again In another form. Inc
other day at a dinner party given IN nom
or of Mr.. White. small hatchets were lis
tributed as a reminder Of the trials through
which Kansas is passing.
The prohibition statute has a warm oe-
fender In Mr.. White. In an interview yes
terday he gave the present status OF the
law from his point of view.
kansas is a farmer State" he said,
land there Is always a great deal OF tax
by people who live In the cities about the
monotony Of farm life. AS a matter OF
fact. farm life is anything but monotonous.
The man who comes down to the Office IN
the morning on a street car at noon goes
out and throws his leg over a stool at the
lunch counter. goes back to the office IN
the afternoon and goes home at night ana
to a show once a week hasn't much call
I NStp III . PAL v tHO oA'
monotonous life of the farmer. who has
something going on all the time.
Why Men Take to Drink.
And it is on account of the desire to
relieve the monotony Of existence that the
average man takes drink. He doesn't drink
or of wine or of beer. The hui
man palate is so arranged that
it naturally rejects anything but even a
small per cent OF alcohol. What a man
takes whisky for is It's effect. 1t gives him
a touch OF high life.' Because the farmer
has more to interest him. more to divert
the city. it is less difficult to enforce a
prohibitory liquor law in a farming State
than in a great city with its dull. uninter-
esting factories, its tread-mills Of offices &c
m~onotonous pavements and sidewalks.
Therefore. the prohititory law Of Kan
sas is in the main well enforced, take the
State over. In many townamaybe fifty
townsville law Is not enorrced at all. but
these towns contain only a fractional per-
cent of the population. It is a reasonably
out of ten in the State of Kansas do not
see a saloon or see liquor used as a bever-
age while they are at home and following
their usual vacations once in two years.
There are, OF course, Joints" which are
not at all synonymous with the saloons in
every central population Of more than 4,e0
They are conducted in box stalls OF livery
stables, up dark alleys. in abandoned out
buildings and amid such environments that
no reputable man or self-respecting young
man can afford to be seen freQuenting them.
"Old SOaks" Few in Kansas.
1.-THE temptation to drink. which. in
other words, means the social part OF the
saloon. is absolutely outside the experience
of the average Kansas boy or girl. The
old soak gets his liquor. and get 1t about as
regularly as he wants it. He has it shipped
In bottles. and jugs and kegs. But the crop
! of old soaks is growing smaller and smaller
l every wear. The absence of the saloon
tends to diminish the supply. OF soaks. and
so. in the average country town. there is
who has set out to achieve that local dis
t%inction. Only the old codgers. who, twenty
years ago. formed the habit Of loasenins
up pretty frequently before the prohibitory
for the children by lying covered with flies
and the slime of the alleys as result Of their
"In Emporia, a town Of 5000 Inhabitants
there was a street fair not long ago. which
was visited by at least $4,000 persons. In
the three days Of the fair not a Joint was
not an arrest wassmade for drunkenness OF
for disorderly conduct. There were nc
fights. and the only thing approaching q
Of fortune. and started the call, "Letterroll!
Letterrolll Letterroll! Before he had fin
ished the second 1etterrolf the crowd broke
money. and when they went to grab fer him
all they got was a remnant of coat-tafl and
the vision Of a disappearing figure making
for the tall timber.
'In this town the banks hold a million and
a half of money for local depositors. Tht
don't have to drown their sorrows in the
flowing bowl. Mrs. Nations rise in Kans
is the result of a desire to wipe out thu
Joints in all the. towns and enforce thu
law strictly and rIgidlv and to the letter.
ITO assume that Kansas CONSUMES a!
much liquor as Missouri. because Mrs. Ma
ton smashed a few bars belonging to Kan
sas City brewers. is absurd. The fact that
the presence of a few bars IS unusual AM
exceptional is proved by the fact that
through Mrs. Nations crusade, the pres
ence of these bars IL clearly ANNOYING to tn
people, and in violation Of public sentiment
IF the saloon were the common. thing. ]
would not be smashed. It would bs &C
cepted as the order OF things"