The national prohibitionist. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1907-1911, 1908-03-12

spondence) Some days ago the temperance peO-
pie and the Prohibitionsts of the country were
startled by the publication in the Chicago Record
Herald, of an attack upon the Prohibition system
in Kansas City and upon the veracity of Attorney
General c. w. Trickett in the representations
which he has made about the success of the
Prohibition policy here. The article at
tributed to w. R. Waggoner, who used to be
editorially employed upon the Globe in this city,
and purported to be detailed denial of the state
ments which Mr.. Trickett has been making up
and down the country.
Naturally, the liquor people welcomed the ap-
pearance of this article, and in form and an
other it has been copied in almost all parts of the
country
Upon the day of the publication of the article,
Mr.. Trickett, speaking in small Illinois city,
made somewhat general reply to its statements,
but his absence from home, filling engagements at
scattered points all over the country, has made it
impossible, up to the present time, to obtain de
tailed statement from him. The facts, however,
are sufficiently we'll known to every intelligent
resident of Kansas City, that the matter can
readily be examined and discussed.
In part the Record Herald'S article said
'In pamphlet headed The True Condition of
Kansas City, Mr. Waggoner declares that as
direct result of the Prohibition laws the city is
practically bankrupt, that its police department has
been reduced from eighty-five to thrty-five men
and that real estate values have steadily declined
He shows that during the year 19O6-07 the rate
of taxation per hundred, owing to the cutting off
of the saloon revenue, rose from $19O to $50,
and yet, with this increase the city faces arrear
in the general fund alone of $139,500.
He says further the efficiency of the fire de
partment has been maintained only because the
large business firms of the city have agreed to
make good the annual deficit in order to secure
protection for their property. The street and san
itary departments, he avers have been decreased
to practically nothing, because the city has no
funds with which to maintain them
CAS- climax to his charges of misrepresenta-
ton he cites the fact that during the period of
this diminished police force there thirteen
murders in this city of little over 100000 popu-
lation
A detailed reply to these misrepresentation is
in preparation and it need only be said here that
they of falsehoods. The tax rate has
not been raised; the police and fire departments
have not been impaired; all public service is as
good as it ever in the citys history, better
The statement regarding murders is twice too
great, and practically every murder committed
has been the result of liquor brought from Kan
City, Mo.
Perhaps the best commentary upon the subject
is the well known character of w. r. Waggoner.
Put in plain, blunt speech, w. r. Waggoner is a
miserable, bankrupt drunkard At time con
nected with the editorial department of the Globe
of this city, he conducted himself that his
resignation was demanded by the business men
of the city and forced upon the management of
tba he doUc he be-