Mexico weekly ledger., 1905-08-17
FOLKS HOLD IN MISSOURI.

Editor Journal:-The following is
an address that was made by a st.
Louisla lad, Guilford Morley, before a
Sunday school gathering OF boys and
girls. 1t is rather a remarkable
speech for a young boy, full Of inter
esting criminal statistics, and shows
what a stronghold Joseph W. Folk
has obtained on both young and old
in Missouri. The speech is as follows;
Ladies and Gentlemen: At the last
open session of the Legion, in Deem
Der, 1904, 1t was my privilege to call
your attention to the twenty-six hun
dred law breakers in the city OF st.
Louis, who were then conducting their
open Sunday saloons / also read an
article from one of our daily papers,
showing sixteen shootings in the Sun
day saloons in the year 1904, resulting
in nine deaths from ARRAYS in drinking
places kept open in violation Of law,
causing nine men to be placed In
"%murderers' row"-the criminal trials
adding thousands Of dollars to the
heavy burden already borne by the
taxpayers.
also read you the apology of Chief
Kiely Tor his failure to enforce the
law. The chief saying: ut is I'M
necessary for me to say why the police
department does not try to enforce the
Sunday closing law. This department
has tried time and time again to con-
Wet s~aloon-keepers for violating this
section OF the statute but each time
we have failed. through the refusal OF
a Jury to find the defendant guilty.
So long as IL Is impossible to get a
Jury to convict, 1t is useless for the
police to arrest the offenders"
This interview was given, however,
under the "old dispensation." The
man who was then governor OF Mis-
souri,, was a very different n from
the present executive.
The big chief does not talk that way
now. Since the 10th day Of April Sun
day saloons in the city Of st. Louis
have been closed: What is the result'
Let me hurriedly give you a few fig
ures. Not a murder In a Sunday
saloon. More than fifty thousand dol
lars being saved to the taxpayers. In
1904, between April and July, there
were one hundred and eighty arrests
for drunkenness on Sundays. In 1905
there were SO only. In 1904 there
were 9 arrests for assault to kill. In
1905 only 3.
In Kansas City, Mo, with the open
Sunday saloons, on Monday mornings,
the docket in the police court aver
aged about 100 cases; now. with the
saloons closed, the docket shows only
4 or s cases on Monday morning.
In st. Louis, at the City hospital,
DIR. John Young Brown, the superin-
tendent, says: "We virtually have
nothing to do on Sunday and Monday,
since the Lid was put on and prior to
the Sunday closing order, these DAYS
were always the busiest of the week.
With the Lid off my lnternes always
got plenty Of practice, but now, the
boys are worrying for something TO
do" 8
A distinguished gentleman from
New York City, on a recent visit to
the west, with the odor Of Wall street
and Tammany Hall thick about him,
has seen fit to sheer at our governor,
stating that SUNDAY closing was the
moral yearnings Of a rural commun-
ity."
MI. Jerome may be right. There
probably may not be any moral senti-
ment in New York City, from whence
he comes, but / can tell him q
thing, that, IL 1t were not for the
rural communities which supplies
New York City with men, this mod
ern Sodom and Gomorrah would disap-