The Greeley tribune., 1907-08-08
KANSAS MAN
GOV. E. W. HOCH TALKS AT
GREELEY CHAUTAUQUA
Tells of Some Things That His
State Has Done That Might
Well Be Initiated By
Others

The Greeley chautauqua closed
Sunday evening after a ten days
successful run. According to those
in charge of the matter it was just
about an even break on the financial
question but there is no doubt about
the success OF the affair in the mat
ter Of interest and In the matter of
talent.
Gov. E. W. Hoch of Kansas was
the principal speaker Sunday and in
his sermon lecture, "A Message from
Kansas" gave many thoughts worthy
of serious consideration.
Kansas, he said, was a state of
superlatives and then went on and
enumerated some of the things in
which his state excelled. But his
review of the struggle there with the
liquor question was probably the
most interesting OF any. The ques-
tion, he said. was no longer one Of
morals, but one Of finances. The
morality of the matter had long ago
been determined and the financial
problem was rapidly being solved in
the interest of prohibition.
A year ago last June the governor
and his forces closed every one Of
the 200 joints in Kansas City, Kan !,
and that city is now the largest one
IN the country without saloon.
There was at first loud protests from
the business men of the town that
their business would practically be
ruined. There would be 200 vacant
store buildings that had for many
years been used for saloons. Real
estate values would be depressed and
bank deposits would fall off.
The joints were closed just the
same and six months later Gov
Hoch secured reports from the
cashiers of the several banks of that
city and these showed that deposits
had Increased anywhere from 20 to 40
per cent during the six months, "a
much greater increase than ever be-
fore in a similar period of time.
The real Importance of the case.
however, was that most Of these re-
ports came from people who had be-
fure that spent most of their savings
at the saloons.
But 1t was hard, the governor
said, to keep their state clean Of the
liquor business when all of the
states about them still encouraged
it. He compared this to the farmer
trying to keep his fields clean OF
weeds and cockleburs when all Of his
neighbors were negligent in the mat
ter. He therefore urged that Colo
RADIO, as he was urging other states,
abolish the liquor traffic as has Kan
sas. One more point that he made
in the experience of Kansas City,
KAN, was that the cost of criminal
prosecutions had fallen off to the ex-
tent offs 25, 900 year and that an ad-
ditional s25, 600 had been saved to
the city by the reduced police force,
sums far in excess OF revenues from
the licenses of the saloons.
Kansas has been having hard nights
with other evils besides the liquor
business. Some years ago 1t was the
binder twine trust that had the big
wheat producing state In Its grip.
The farmers had to pay Is and 16
cents for their twine. Then the
state put in factory of its own, the
work being done in the prisons.
The result was reduction of nearly
haf the price of twine. While the
state manufactures only one-quarter
of the twine used it is enough to |
control the price.
Next the Standard Oil monopoly
came up for consideration. When it
was discovered that there were al
most limitless oil fields there the
offered 81 80 a barrel for
crude oil until The fields had been
developed by private
capital. Then the Standard reduced
the price to 81 cents barrel, caus-
ing the financial ruin of hundreds
and thousands of people who had put
their money into oil.
The result was a special session of
the legislature at which some strin.
gent anti discrimination laws were
passed and now>Kansas is burning oil
several cents gallon cheaper than
any of its neighboring states, includ-
Lnu Cnlnradn