The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-12-25
KANSAS CONNENT
AS TO SMART ALECKs.

l.
Bernard Shaw, the English dramatist,
has a reputation for saying caustic
things, and he realizes that it is money
in his pocket to maintain that reputa-
ton. so he sits up late every night.
thinking up brilliant remarks which he
springs extemporaneously the next day.
Cynicism is a trade with Mr.. Shaw.
and a highly profitable one, for the
Britishers have agreed that his sayings
are brilliant, whereas they are usually
far-fetched, and often stupid. No man
can say clever things at all times, and
the individual who tries to do it is sure
to be exposed as a bore sooner or later.
Mr.. Shaw has long been recognized as
the great English cut-up, but even the
Britishers will grow weary of him in
time. if he continues to make such re-
marks as he made when invited to visit
this country, a day or two ago.
In desperate effort to be brilliant he
observed that America is two centuries
behind in the matter of civilization, and
that the people here don't know what
liberty is. He seized upon two or three
Of the glazing blemishes of American
government, and American society, as
the basis for his smartaleckisms, and
merely demonstrated how easy it is to
be cynic, if one is undetermined to be a
cynic.
An American, with some small talent
in the way of satire. might stand in
front of the postoffice and be caustic
for days at a time, after reading daily
dispatches from England The treat
ment of the suffragettes in that coun-
try, for instance, is a fruitful theme for
the satirist. If the people of this coun-
try are two centuries behind the time,
how far behind are the people of the
right little, tight little isle. who try to
force women prisoners to take nourish-
ments, with stomach pumps?
We have things pretty badly balled
up in this country, but it is a safe
proposition that every able bodied man
who wants work may find it, and may
live in comfort. In England there are
battalions of men pleading for work,
and they can't get it, and there is more
misery in London alone, because of the
lack of employment, than in the whole
United States.
The American satirist might say in.
Vulnerable cunning and cute things
about the English house of lords. an in
st1tut1on so absurd, as a part of the
government of an enlightened country,
that the thought of 1T causes unseemly
mirth. Fortunately. however, this coun-
try has no professional, official smart
aleck, and it is considered a waste of
time TO make criticisms unless there is
something to criticise.-Emporia Ga
Zette.
A JUST COMPLAINT TO WASHINGTON
While other reforms, rated as of
larger Importance, are being pressed on
the government at Washington sharp
prod may well be put behind the one
Kansas is now promoting, in reference
to the issuance of liquor licenses.
The federal revenue department has
been able to deliver great deal of con-
Versat1on to explain that it knows no
state lines in its license to dealers in
alcoholics. but if this contention is
passed as valid, the department may be
brought to account on the charge that
1t KNOWS moral line
Inc laws and the enforcement of the
laws in Kansas make it perfectly plain
whether the man who takes out a gov
eminent license is to use it legitimately
or lllegltmately The federal revenue
off1cer Will have no difficulty in de-
termlning this fact. And yet the Gus
tom of the department apparently
makes it as easy for the most confirmed
pootlegger to qualify with the nationa;
government as the most law abiding
whose business alcohol may be a legitf-
mate necessity. The state complains
that, whereas the possession of gov
eminent license is in theory a helpful
guidance to those who are handling
liquor, yet it is, in fact, so hidden thai
state officers are often unable to locata
it. -'o'e .
But should the law be fully complied
with, and the federal license kent in
PLAIN display: there would yet remain
-OS.o OiACiiSO against the moral
sentiment of the state in the issuance
OF federal approval to whoever has the
money to pay for permit to handle
intOxicants.
The least that the national govern
ment can do. if it is determined thar
state prohibition shall not prevent its
issuance of licenses in dry territory.
is to require a moral and business
rating Wit license applications.-Ot-
tawa Herald.