The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-04-07
KANSAS COMAENT
THAT OLD ARGUMENT.

THAT OLD ARGUMENT.
A god many important towns in
Nebraska voted the saloons out of
business a year ago, and this spring
\ a desperate effort to vote them in
again will be made. The fight is
strenuous. both sides using every
resource in order to gain a victory.
Justitia and Old Subscriber and
Constant Reader and others are con-
trlbuting freely to the newspapers,
some arguing for a continued
looms are necessary. There is a
paper at Lincoln that stands up firmly
for the saloon. and prints in every is
sue, list of the DRINKS arrested from
| day to day, as showing that the clos
| ing Of the saloons doesn't stop drink
ing. Lincoln has been dry for a year,
and 1T is there that the biggest fight
I is made.
The argument that there is as much
drinking in a dry town as in a wet one.
the drinkers getting their booze CLAN
destinely, Is as old as the everlasting
hills. 1t is not true. but even if it
were true it would not amount to
The one great advantage of a sa-
loonless town is the fact that the
temptation to drink is not forced upon
boys and young men.
If the old soaks with ht-blooming
booze appetites want to ship in whisky
and kill themselves off. let them do
II If they can without violating the
law; but the absence of saloons in a
town gives the rising generation a
chance to begin life right
In Emporia there are no saloons, and
there are no boys who spend their
money for beer. The few, residents
who are picked at intervals learned
the trick of drinking when it was
easy to get ferrnented liquors.
Saloonkeepers always make especial
pets OF young men, for they are most
h Il n amy
of inebriates is always necessary to the
brewing industry. The old soaks will
drink anyhow. but the young man
must be encouraged, for they have
desire to brace I'D. The open saloon
is the preparatory school for boys. and
the majority of the old soaks now liv
ing would never have been booze
fighters had there been no open sa-
looms.
People never learn to drink in joints
or holes in the wall. They never go
to such place unless driven by thirst
sent to Kansas City or st. Joe for a
jug or key Of blue ruin to learn drink
ing on.
1t is perhaps true that a great deal
of LIQUOR Is sold In dry territory
enough to bring princely returns to
the brewers and distillers. but it is the
future that these plutocrats are worry
ing over. Unless the open saloon is
permitted 10 educate the DOVS ana
young men. drunkenness. as a parlor
game will lose its vogue, and the next
generation of brewers and distilIers
will have no market for their wares.
-Emporia Gazette.
%
THE GOOD ONES.
Possibly you noticed last week the
confession of a banker that he had
stolen a quarter of a million or there
abouts, to buck faro game, or that
q number Of Pittsburg bankers were
mixed up in a political graft expose in
Pittsburg; or that an Indiana banker
drew free transportation to Leaven-
worth. Stories of that kind are not so
rare as to shock you greatly, unless
you happen to be depositor. But
they continue to- be news. which is
something to the credit of bankers in
finance generally should the time ar
rive when the discovery of an honest
banker would be- sent out in the dis
patches OF course that time will not
come. The banks are Safeguarded in
manner to make them safer than
teapot or a stocking, even after flgur-'
ing In the percentage of absconding
cashiers and erring presidents. AS
matter of fact. most bankers are hon.
est. Honesty is essential to the sue
cess of their business, and, being in
Possibly we pay too little attention to
the army of honest bankers, and make
too much fuss over the few crooks.
And does not this permit of wider ap-
p1ication? Honesty, industry and po-
likeness are neglected a good deal to
exploit the disagreeable and the sem
sational-Atchison Globe.