The Somerset reporter., 1901-04-25
For the REPORTER.
The Situation in Kansas.


tremely well.trained pen at the com-
mand of writer who appears to have a
purpose, and that purpose the search for
truth, cannot fail to produce something
worth the reading.
Mr. Whites latest sketch appeared In
the Saturday Evening Post and like the
others its subject is timely. "Carrie
Nation and Kansas" have truly been
much in the public eye. Newspapers
have had columns regarding the one, but
the two must be considered together.
In some degree, mankind is ever the
creature of environment, and never is
this more true than when a reformer
appears. Mrs. Nations first husband
died drunkard so that she had suffered
through an evil that is unfortunately not
local in its distribution. But disregard
of local law on the part Of those who
stood behind that evil fostered lawless-
ness on the part of Mrs. Nation.
1t is difficult to select what is best in
Mr.. Whites article, for ii is all very
good. A few extracts may serve to
throw some light upon the situation in
Kansas, which Is not much unlike that in
our own State. No one is better fitted
to speak concerning Kansas than Mr.
White, and his words may be taken
without any discount.
"In certain of the larger towns the
law is absolutely disregarded, and a
system of monthly fines is imposed
amounting, In effect, to a license-upon
the liquor dealers. On the other hand,
again, this is the fact, that less liquor is
consumed in Kansas, reckoning by the
old "per capita method, than in any
non-prohibton State. There are, of
course, joints of kind in every Kansas
town; but they are sporadic; they move
from one livery stable box-stall to an
other, from one abandoned building 10
another, from one shack to another, as
the town officers discover them. No
business man frequents them; no young
man can afford to be seen in their
vicinity. Save in a half dozen of the
larger Kansas towns the "gilded palace
of SIM which used to agitate the tenn.
perance orator in the blue ribbon days,
is extinct, and hundreds Of young men
have grown to manhood in Kansas with.
out ever seeing Kansas saloon"
The dragon which "St. Georgiana
Nation" as Mr.. White calls her, went
forth to Stay is the rum dragon.
Commonly he is known as the Rum
Fiend, Familiarity as the Saloon. The
saloon Is an evil. 1t may be deemed a
necessary evil by those who feel bound
to apologize for it; but it can have no de-
tenders. Even where it is licensed, pro-
tected BY law, under restrictions which
narrow its iniquities to moderate and
expedient vice, the saloon, personfied by
its devotees, may be characterized by no
adjective more fiattering than miscreant.
At its highest estate it is an outlaw, and
the greatest legal distinction the saloon
has achieved after a century of fighting
for statutory recognition is to be brand
ed generically by the United States Su-
preme Court as nuisance. Its purposes
are all venal. 1t is in business to pro-
mote violence and crime; to injure the
public health; to dissipate the public
wealth in taxes that support the criminal
court; to burden our charities to cor
rupt the civic morals. The saloon is in
carnate calamity. Because its work is
slow and indirect, people often fail to
see how it kills and mains men and tor
lures women like malicious spirit.
Now the Kansas statutes, as aforemen-
toned, recognize the saloon for what il
Is. The State Constitution forbids the
saloon to enter the State, under penalty
of the law. The saloon-keeper who
enters Kansas to ply his trade does sc
upon terms of exact equality with the
| pickpocket and the chicken thief In his
traffic he has no rights, and by no ordi.
nance or intrigue or sentiment or under.
standing can he have any traffic rights
however meagre or limited, in Kansas
that the law-abiding citizen is bound tC
respect. And in the face of this lega
prescription, when the saloon-keepel
does hang out his sign in Kansas he mus
arrange a liaison with the officers of the
law, who are supported by local public
sentiment which the saloon-keeper has
corrupted.
He pays monthly fine in police cour
and is not moested. Citizens who con
Germ themselves to maintain law anC
order complain in vain to the prosecut
| IA
struggled into the jury room from saloon
corrupted community who regards hii
oath in a PickWickian sense. Legal re
dress is almost impossible-or was, be
fore Mrs. Nation came to town.
| In the Kansas towns where the saloor
dominated, the citizen who stood for law
enforcement stood as powerless as
wooden Indian. And the joint wa:
growing holder and holder. 1t was NOV.
ing from the little towns, where foreigl
colonies controlled the public sentiment
to the suburbs of the county seat, and il
was coming nearer and nearer to thu
main street. A sort of locomotor ataxiA
was creeping over the morals Of the
State. Last spring dozen towns thai
had been ''dry" for generation elected
''wet" city administrations. The saloon
infection was spreading Saloon-keeper:
became more and more insolent. Brew
ers from Kansas City and st. Louis be.
gan to take an interest in the situation
They slipped in elaborate bar fixtures
where they dared. The Joint became
saloon and the devil was having merry
time withal. The whole growth of the
evil was incendiary, lawless, riotous
The lawlessness of the Kansas Joint bred
Mrs. Nations mob. Kansas planted the
joint and reaped the Ratchet. When the
glass-breaking, liquor-spilling, frantic
mob laughed at law, the laughter was
an echo. The brewers who started the
lawless Kansas saloons laughed first al
law-always dangerous and generally
an expensive experiment. Between the
two outlaws there is little choice. The