The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-01-14

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Up at Junction city the idea has
long existed that saloons are a neees-
sity for the town in order to get the
soldiers to come over from Fort Riley
and spend their money. Accordingly
saloons have been allowed to run al
most uninterruptedly in Junction City
for years. Junction City people are
naturally no worse than those Of other
towns. yet the criminal records of the
town are much more crowded than
those of similar Kansas towns in
which the saloons are suppressed.
Junction City whisky has been the
cause Of innumerable crimes. Scarcely
a month goes by without its record of
whisky crimes, and in the course of o
year several murders usually stand out
black on the list.
And in return for it the city gov
eminent receives six or eight thou
sand dollars in revenue from the sa-
looms, but it is doubtful if the legiti-
mate business interests of the town
gain a dollar by reason of increased
trade attracted by the saloons; for the
saloons take in many thousands of
dollars that would otherwise go to
legitimate stores.
But the question of dollars and cents
is only a small one compared with the
ruin and misery the saloons bring.
Does it pay to license saloons and reap
a harvest of crime. ruined manhood
and lost souls as a consequence?
One of the usual whisky crimes
was committed in Junction City a few
nights ago, which the Manhattan Re
public makes the subject for a few
observations which are so pertinent
that they are reproduced here:
What is the price to put on a man
What is he worth? This question
comes to mind in connection with the
shooting scrape at Junction City, Sat
urday night. Junction City finds
the saloons profitable; the revenue
amounts to $4,000 or $4,000 or more
perhaps each year from its licensed
law breakers.
Does it pay? Well what is a man
worth? If a railroad company kills
most any sort of a man. the custom
has been in a measure established to
give approximately $4,000 as his
money value.
rs the average man worth 10000?
pay for all the terrible suffering, for
the care, the sleepless nights, the
agony of. sickness and the daily
thought lavished upon him, necessary
to bring him to manhood's estate. to
say nothing of the actual monetary
outlay Would any ordinary woman
agree to undertake the same suffering
care. thought, work and worry, with
the attendant actual expense necessary
to bring a boy to manhood for just
the sum of s10,0GO-$500 per year,
about $40 per month"; Would she?
But say that man is worth only
$4,000, how many men must be de-
stroyed in Junction City each year
before the cost in men exceeds the
revenue to the city, and all other
profit if any, derived from their sa-
looms? How many murders does june
ton City average each year2 One,
two, three-how many? No. they
were not all toughs. some mighty
good men have been killed in Junction
City in the past ten years.
And then the murders are but a
fraction of the cost. Men stupefed
with whisky have frozen to death:
men stupehed with liquor have de-
stroyed property, been guilty of rob
berry, have assaulted and tried to kill
others.
and this is but a fraction of the
cost. Mems souls have been destroy
ed. their ambitions and ideals killed
and their wrecked bodies left valueless
aye, worse, an expense to society.
"And this is not all the cost. The
souls-yes, bodies, minds and souls
of women must be entered in the
ledger.
And this is not all the cost. There
| is the cost in dollars and cents at first
hand, the only kind of costs that seem
to count with some people. There is
the cost of courts and police that go
/ long ways. There is the cost of dead
beat accounts; there is the inevitable
cost that follows liquor that of gam
bling. Merchants have lost money
from the drawer, they have lost ac-
counts that ought to have been good,
all on account of gambling.
What is a man worth anyway?
His money, his ideals, his ambitions,
his usefulness as a worker, his mind.
his body. his life. and at the bitter end,
mis- soul-what is it all worth?
''Wil the revenue from liquor pay
for the men it destroys in Junction or
/ anywhere else2
Junction City is not a bad town
1t is live town. It has thousands of
/ splendid people. They are intellect
ual, progressive; they appreciate and
seek for the good things, the ethical
/ things, of life. The average of the
/ people is probably above that of most
towns and it has a large circle of dis
tinctly superior people. It makes the
wonder all the greater that they
| should sell a portion of their social
/ life for such a miserable mess of com
mercial pottage. They have become
near sighted. do not recognize true
values as they should and they never
/ stop to inquire what is the worth of a
man. Some day they will know