The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-11-23
ny WILLIAM It. ELLIS.


Rom. 14:12-23.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
There is Something doing" tenn
peranceWiSe, in the world today The
dt1ilest reader of the daily prints can
scarcely have escaped that fact. Ex-
traOrdinary and portent1ouS has been
the news concerning the progress OF
the temperance cause. During all the
years that the churches of Christendom
have been observing Worlds Temper
ance Sunday" they have never had
such reasons for self congratulation
as today.
Because it is big news. this tidal
wave of temperance sentiment has
figured largely in the news columns
and on the editorial pages of the daily
press. One does not have to be either
a Temperance crank" OF a saloon
keeper in order to be interested in this.
It in a remarkable development OF
present day public opinion which de-
serves analysis and consideration.
The feeble folk who fought long and
hard against great odds for a recogni-
moral Issue have peculiar reason for
citation in the fact that the outstanding
issue at most of this months elections
in the states has been some phase of
the temperance question The day has
passed when the temperance reformer
waited abjectly, with hat in hand, in
the outer offices of disdainful politl-
clans.
SOIuC 0urpNlSlAS EcOtSs
This article is written Just prior to
the November elections; the results of
these will be in the possession of those
who have aught to do with Worlds
Temperance Sunday. A few days ago
the industrial section of Alabama,
which centers about Birmingham, "the
Pittsburg of the South" went dry TO
the surprise OF the country. The hard
est districts to win for local option are
these congested centers of population.
But there stands Oklahoma. starting
out on a career Of statehood, commit
ted to prohibition by her new constitu-
ton. The impression that the new
west and southwest are loose Giving,
drinking regions can not too
quickly be banished from the popular
mind. Pennsylvania might well go to
school to Texas in the matter of liquor
legislation.
Georgia recently surprised the coun-
try by voting out the licensed saloon.
For one reason she knew that the race
question will never be settled so long
as the lower fires of the negro's nature
are fed by alcohol. The demons tration
of Christian sentiment made in this
connection in Tennessee and Kentucky,
as we'll as in Georgia, indicates that the
south is speedily assuming the leader
ship of the nation in matters calling
for the exercise of courageous religious
convictions.
The remarkable situation today with
respect to the civic aspects of the tenn
perance question is shown by a state
.nent OF Rev. P. A. Baker, general SUI
perintendent of the National Anti-Sa-
loon league. Mr.. Baker says that there
are at present thirty-f1ve millions of
Americans living in prohibition terri
tory. Within the past year two and a
half millions of people have abolished
local option laws. OF the thirty-four
legislatures in session last year, twenty
passed laws against the liquor traffic.
Notsone passed a favorable measure.
shared in this amazing temperance
progress. Beginning with the birth of
the new century, the nations consump-
ton of liquor began to decrease. In
these seven years 1t has gone from an
average of 1929 gallons of beer per
capita in a year to 27-S1. Spirituous
the rate OF lis gallons per head an
nua1ly; last year the average was only
OBJ of a gallon. This means a reduc-
ton of more than IA per cent in the
use of beer and % per cent in the use
of stronger drinks.
Stealing the Trades "Face.'
AN indiana Judge recently attracted
wide attention by deciding that the IL
quor business is in it's very nature un-
constitutional fellow judge made a
similar decision. In this, some epthus-
lasts saw a short cut to a complete tenn
perance victory. Alas for their Jealous
hopesl The Indiana supreme court has
reversed this decision. Before the law,
in license states, liquor selling is per-
fectly legal.
Nevertheless, it needs not the plants
of the liquor trade organs to make man
ifest to even q way faring man that
this particular business Is falling into
increasing discredit. On every side 1t
is being struck severe blows-even John
L. Sullivan, the pugilist, has entered the
arena against II. Unquestionably, the
saloonkeeper has fallen upon hard
times.
Ha hos baen made to annear in the
light of an enemy of humanity. Little
children have surrounded voting booths
bearing banners inscribed. Vote NO.
for my sake" Badges of the same sort
have played prominent part in cam
paigning. The relation of the saloon to
crime, pauperism, marital unhappiness
and other human misery has been paint
ed in glaring colors.
Even the man who patronizes the sa-
loon feels ashamed of the association.
This widespread outlawing OF the BUSH
ness,is bringing 1t into disrepute every
where. Out in Topeka last month /
saw two young men at football game
with a concealed flask Of whisky be-
tween them. They would sneak off by
turns behind the grandstand, and hiding
their faces in a corner, imbibe the
TASKS contents. They acted and looked
like criminals; certainly they made no
recruits for the trade That much, 1t
was plain. prohibition has done for Kan
sas.
Is 1t a Spasm?
The phenomenal progress made dur
ing recent months in temperance legis-
lation is making some persons rejoice
over the dawn of cold water millen-
MUM. More cautious ones, however,
are already beginning to talk anxiously
about the possibility of a reaction. Has
not 1egisla ton swept ahead faster than
deep-rooted public sentiment? Is there
not danger of a swift descent from the
high plane SO quickly attained? VIII
SI0O Reward, SIOo.