The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-09-23
KANSAS COMMENT
ON PERSONAL LIBERTY.


Oklahoma has reached that stage in
the prohibition fight where personal
liberty and all the arguments against
prohibition are pleaded with apparent
good faith.
Kansas went through that process
and failing to convince the country,
the cities evaded the law and had a
semi-license system which satisfied the
personal liberty advocates for time,
although it was only the liberty to
break the law.
Eventually the idea gained ground
that 1t was better to have law1ess men
sell liquor in Joints, alleys, highways
and byways than for an entire COM
munity to participate in law violations
by accepting a price and winkirg at
law breaking.
Then came determination to en-
force the law and it has been enforced
remarkably well.
The prediction that commercial dis
aster would follow has not been real
lied.
The prediction that taxation would
be higher because of lack of revenues
has proved true in part. Taxation Is
some higher because we are spending
more on government, but there are more
taxpayers than there were. Hundreds
of men are building homes In Wich-
its with money deposited in banks and
with building and loan associations, who
used to deposit that money in saloons
and gambling houses.
And as for the comforts of home, bet
ter clothing and schooling for the chill
dren, the gffain is incalculable. The
ment, is that while the open saloon
gives a man the right to buy and drink
at his will, it somehow deprives the
E.an's family of certain comforts which
they are now getting.
While this is not universally true, and
while rorne men are able to support
both the saloon and their family. the
general trend of saloon influence Is
against family prosperity.
If personal liberty is infringed, it is
a clear case where he end jusufies the
means, and the personal liberty league
OF Oklahoma will learn in the end that
i'll cutting out too much, personal lib
erty.-Wichita Beacon.
HATS OFF.
We are sometimes inclined to won
der why 1t is that some wOmen-not
all women. by any means-refuse TO
take off their hats in church.
Women who attend theaters, or
concerts where they pay at the door,
or lecture course entertainments, DO
not hesitate about taking off their
hats They do it in SalIna almost as
readily and promptly as they do in
Chicago, and New York, and the big
towns where the managers or thea
tiers have way of enforcing their re-
quests for hats off.
But when some of these women go
to church. they seem to think that
it is an entirely different proposition, |
and that they have a right to sit
through the services, calmly obstruct- !
fortunate as to sit behind them.
Even the requests of the minis |
tiers seem to fall on dear ears in some |
instances.
However, the hope of better things |
in the future must rest largely with |
the ministers. And fortunately, the |
ministers are generally in sympathy |
with the crusade against womenS |
hats. If the ministers keep hammer
ing away, and the people in the con-
gregations endorse the actions of the !
ministers, it should not take long to /
make women understand that If they |
come to church at all, they should |
come prepared to observe the pro-
prieties.
A woman who will come to church,
and peacefully ignore the request of
the minister that all women remove
their hats is probably beyond hope !,
at home. No church will suffer If
she gets mad and refuses to attend.
1t will be blessed more abundantly by
her absence.
If women would adopt some sort of
regulations as to the size or hats there
might be some show for them to Sc
cure a modification of the decree of
hat expulsion in the churches. But L
the hats keep getting bigger, and
broader, and taller, and uglier, both
as to shape and trimming, and there
seems to be no way to predict where
it will stop. It may be like the IA
nous railroad without termini at
either end" But even without any /
further expansion, the hat problem
has reached a crucial stage, and eth
er the hats must go off in church, or
the victims of the abomination must
go out and organize a new hatless
gregation.-Salina Journal.