Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-09-01
KANSAS PROHIBITION A SUCCESS
The Working Of Over Twenty Years
Of Anti.Liquor Legislation.


The recent vote on prohibition at
Asbury Park, In which the temperance
ladies took SO active q part and were
successful, has brought the question
to the front again, and the old query
is heard. Does prohibition prohibit"
When Bishop Potter made the broad
statement that prohibition Is an i'm
pudent fraud and an impudent fall
ure" he evidently spoke his piece with
out full investigation.
II prohibition does not prohih't and
more liquor is sold than In license
states, why have not the voters Of
Maine and Kansas found out that fact
and repealed the constitutional pro-
visions that so misrepresent their SEN
timents. and why does the liquor seller
constantly fight prohibition In those
states?
No one denies that some liquor is
sold in violation Of the prohibitory laws
Of those states, just as all other laws
are violated, But after more than
twenty years Of actual test that the
intelligent voters OF those two states
resist all efforts or attempts to wipe
out prohibition and return to high IL
cense certainly means something. Let
US examine 1t.
The prohibition laws Of Kansas al
low the citizen to buy and drink and
even to give liquor to his guests at
his table. There is certainly no re-
straint of personal liberty In this.
The feet that citizens Of these states
are thus allowed under the laws to
ship I'm and use liquors hinders often
the due enforcement Of prohibitory
laws. yet this right Is not curtailed In
the least
What do the official figures Of the
government show as to the amount Of
liquor sold. for instance, in Kansas, as
compared with that sold in adjoining
states?
Two years ago the total amount Of
taxes paid the government In Kansas
for liquor licenses (including druggists
permits to sell on prescriptions) was
$115.4s3; in Nebraska, adjoining on
the north with one-third less popula-
tion) the amount was $2,778,900; in
Missouri, adjoining on the east, $5,676,-
s45. OF fermsnted liquors there were
shipped into Kansas that year 9,022
barrels: into Nebraska 255, ,7s2, and in
to Missouri the same year 2,6ss,77S
barrels. These official figures show
that there Is but one dollar paid to the
national government for license tax
in Kansas to more than $40 In Nebras-
ka, and $40 In Missouri. and the
amount Of liquors, az officially report
ed, shipped into each state bears
about the same proportion.
The license laws of Nebraska and
Missouri are today, and have been each
year, more often violated than are the
prohibition laws of Kansas. Is not the
same true Of licensed New York, where
the Sunday law and the selling to
minors is openly set aside and con-
tinuously violated? The prohibitory
laws 0f Kansas and Maine araasdoing
just what the citizens Of those states
intended they should do, make the
open saloon an outlaw and the busi-
ness Of liquor selling disreputable and
unpopular. instead Of having places
alluring and attractive, where the boys
are educated to become drunkards, II
Is criminal offense, and as q result
such places do not exist under prohi-
bition.
The creation Of a healthy publ,
sentiment In favor Of temperance js
shown In Kansas. where In response
to tho wishes Of the people, out Of
7S3 papers and periodicals in the
state only sixty-one papers would
though the very attractive induce
ments for the advertisements were
offered constantly. 1t Is expected
In most states that religious and tenn
perance papers would exclude liquor
but II Is shown that
in no other state than Kansas Is
a united secular press re-
fusing this style Of patronage.
Three-fourths of the counties Of
Kansas have no place where liquor
Is sold, and many thousands Of Kan
sas boys and girls have never seen
a saloon or drunken man. In a
few of the large cities Of Kansas the
prohibition law Is openly violated,
and in some Of the smaller towns
joints are run a part Of the time,
but II Is a decidedly unsafe business.
for at any time on the complaint
of citizen the seller can be arrested
and jailed under the law and his
goods and fixtures confiscated and de-
stroyed.
When the topper has to go down
the alley into a guarded room where
no sign Of the usual fixtures Of a
bar Is in sight, be identified as safe
man, then pay two prices for bad
whisky. 1t Is certainly discouraging,
and only those who have the drink
habit fully established will long con-
tinue the disgraceful practice. What
Is recognized in Kansas as the
crowning benefit Of prohibition is
the boys Of the state ever to acquire
the drink habit. This means safety
and happiness to the heart OF the
loving Kansas mother.
In the declaring that prohibition Is a
fraud" Bishop Potter i'm
pugns the Judgment Of the people
living in more than one-flfth Of the
territory Of the United States who
have adopted prohibition or local
option, which Is local prohibition.
These citizens have experienced the
effect of liquor selling under high
license and seen the practical work
ings of prohibition. and know what
they are talking of. Bishop Potter
is developing a theory, and his
practical experience has been in his
Subway Tavern in New York, where
mild drinks are sold in the front de-
partment to women and children. and
beer and whisky in the rear OF the
tavern to the men, with semi
reading room attachment Have not
the people who have tested the work
Ings Of prohibition for a quarter OF
a century changed their laws when
required by the test Of experience,
and where resubmission Is so un-
popular that even a test vote can no
longer be ordered by the legislature
elected by the people, and where
less than one-fourth Of the liquor Is
sold than I'm license states adjoining,
a right to be heard on this all import
ant question?
They are be'r, heard and needed
all over the netion.
Missouri, where Governor Folk is
now enforcing the Sunday closing
law, has more than one-third Of her
counties under prohibition.
In the great state Of Texas now
over half Of her counties have car
ried local option.
The treating custom Is recog-
nized as the direct cause Of more
than half Of the evil Of the drink
:, O hit. this has hecOme almost entire