The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-02-21

our town generally. One day dele.
cation composed of two bankers and
| three merchants, who had been ap-
pointed by the business interests OF
the city came to my Office and spent
an intire morning presenting their
arguments, and begging me not to
enforce the law. | told them that |
was not responsible for the acts of
the legislature, that did not put the
prohibition law on the statute books
of Kansas, but | had taken an oath
of Office to enforce it, and intended
to do SO even if it made a desert of
Wyandotte county and turned our
fiourishing city back into field and
forest.
Woman Bartenders.
II did not know what the result
would be-" continued Mr. Trickett.
Il did not know whether the city
would be injured, but had a duty to
perform, and | performed it to the
best of my ability. For eighteen
months Kansas City, Kan, has ex-
listed without saloon or gambling
den or bawdy houses. The mayor,
who declared that saloons would run
was turned out of Office and fined a
thousand dollars; we ousted the chief
of police and the county attorney;
five hundred buildings are under per-
manent injunction not to be used
for the sale of liquor, and if thous-
and years from now any individual
opens saloon in any one of those
buildings he can be punished. Fiji
teen hundred citizens of our town
are under permanent injunction new
err again to sell liquor in that county;
more than one hundred former sa-
lOOnkeepers are under bonds to the
same effect; more than one hundred
others are out on bail with their
sentences of Imprisonment suspend
ed during good behavior and humid
red more are banished from Kansas
as undesirable citizens. Some of
those exiles are saloonkeepers who
tried to evade punishment by having
their wives and children tend bar.
We have judge who believes that
any woman who sells Intoxicating
liquors is an undesirable citizen
When the wife Of saloonkeeper is
convicted he promptly sentences her
to six months in the county jail and
fine of $500, but stays execution
provided she will leave the state, and
that's the way we have prevented
women from tending bar in our sa-
looms. We have law in Kansas
which makes the man who rents
building for saloon as guilty as
the tenant who sells liquor, and we
have a large number of exiles and
other nonresident property owners
on account of that law, who are
afraid to set foot on Kansas soil"
Business Improved.
What has been the effect on bust
ness?' | asked.
Have you heard of Kansas City,
Kan, being wiped off the map?" re-
piled Mr.. Trickett. Have you heard
that Wyandotte county has become
desert? Have you heard of any of
our banks failing, or any of our mer-
chants closing their stores? Have
you heard of anybody going bank
rupt? On the contrary, the commit
tee of two bankers and three mer-
chants, who as told you, came to
protest against the enforcement of
the law about two years ago will now
tell you or anybody that they were
and that the abolition of |
liquor selling has been of decided |
benefit instead of injury to the bust
ness interests of the city. They will |
tell you that the deposits of our
banks have increased more than two |
million dollars since the saloons were
closed, and that the merchants have
had to employ additional clerks to |
attend to their business.
II can show you letter from the |
president of the largest bank in our
city, who was member of the COM
mittee that came to protest, in which
he says that within one year after
the whisky joints and gambling dens
we're closed his deposits increased
$1,700,000. He says in his letter:
We think we have the accounts of
more than SO per cent of the bust
ness men of this city, and have talk