Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-02-24
w. r. Waeeoner Replies to At
torney General Trickett Re-
1ardina Kansas City
WITH SALOONS ABOLISHED
Former Editor of Globe Declares City
Is in DepIorabe Condition from
Lack of Revenue.

torney General Trickett with regard
to conditions existing here as a result
OF the operation of prohibition has
been issued by W. r. Waggoner, for
mer editor of the Kansas City Globe
Mr.. Waggoner declares that state
ments which have been sent broadcast
throughout the country purporting to
show that real estate values have in
creased, that business has been inn
proved and that crime has been di-
minished since the law went into eff
feet are misleading and unfounded.
In pamphlet headed "The True
Condition of Kansas City," Mr. Wag-
goner declares that as a direct result
of the prohibition laws the city is
practically bankrupt, that its police
department has been reduced from
So to 35 men and that real estate
values have steadily declined. He
shows that during the year 1906-07
the rate of taxation per hundred, ow-
ing to the cutting off of saloon rev.
enue, rose from S1.90 to $3.1O, and
yet, with this increase. the city faces
an arrear in the general fund alone
of $139,5OO.
Firms Insure Selves.
He says further the efficiency OF the
fire department has been maintained
only because the large businss firms
of the city have agreed to make good
the annual deficit in order to secure
protection for their property. The
street and sanitary departments, he
ayers, have been decreased to prac-
tically nothing, because the city has
no funds with which to maintain them.
AS climax to his charges of mis-
representation he cites the fact that
during the period of this diminished
police force there were Is murders in
this city of little over 100000 popu-
lation. In spite of a standing injunc-
ton against the city officials incurring
expenses which the exchequer could
not meet, the-puDffc-d -dcH6BHdwas SC
insistent, he says, that the mayor and
the council took the matter in their
own hands and appointed 12 addition
al patrolmen.
AS to the business condition of the
city Mr.. Waggoner says:
Many stores Vacant.
/ Since the closing of the saloons
| there are more vacant business houses
than ever were known before in the
history of the city. Also it is an un
disputed fact that rents are muci
lower, and that there is practically
and absolutely no building going or
for business purposes. A very peril
nent instance of conditions existing
in Kansas City may be illustrated by
the fact that the Chamber of Com
merce building. costing 100000. wa
destroyed by fire soon after the sa
looms were closed and there is no pros
pect of its being rebuilt. There is n,
demand for space in a building lik,
this neither is there any use for score
of other buildings that were made va
cant by reason of the determinatio
to close the saloons.
Another thing that cannot be dc
MED is the fact that the working pee
pie of Kansas City, Kan, spend
large portion of their earnings /
Kansas City, Mo. The increase i
building, the fact of which has bee
shouted over the country by NJ
Trickett and his followers. can b
, traced almost wholly to such big e.
Establishments as Peet Brothers, Pro-
tor & Gamble, Armour, Nelson Mo
ris and the Cudahy packing compal
inc no. -
growth of foreign business and not b
/, increased local demand.
City Short of Cash.
"More deplorable. however, than tt
. fact that business is not so good is til
well known truth that the mayor an
council of the city know not whel
to turn in making proper adjustmel
of claims which now stand again
the city. 1t may be said that this
true only in the provision of the ge
eral fund, which is now approximate
$77.000 in arrears. This in additiC
:. to the fact that S62,500 in bonds a
thorized by the last state legislatur
was issued Dec Is. 1907. The issl
of these bonds was to make good
deficit in the general fund occasiont
by curtailment in the revenue whit
prior to 1905 was derived from Il
fining of saloon proprietors.
"The issuance of the s62, 500
bonds is the only one for the purpo
of making good deficit in the gener
: funds since the city was incorporat,
excepting for the year 1904 VIII
:, nearly one-fourth of the real estate
= the city was destroyed by food.
e the general fund this city is now
arrears $4,000.
still No Prohibition.
L. "And yet there is no prohibition
b. Wyandotte county, for the probs
Of judges records show that there We
e. in round numbers 5000 sales of liqr
made in the county during the MOI