Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1911-12-14

II has been remarked that people
from Massachusetts,, Virginia, Ken
lucky and Kansas use nearly every
opportunity to name the state whence
they hail. AS to the first three the
evident reason is that each is a great
commonwealth. with a great history
and its citizens are the product OF
their state. But of Kansas 1t is to
be said, not that its citizens are
the product of the state, but the
state of its citizens. They found a
prairie; they have made a civiliza-
ton.
This year Kansas celebrates the
semi-centennial of its statehood. Yet
Kansas is not without antiquities.
AT Plymouth ROCK or Bunker Hill
one is oppressed BY the past. But
in Kansas there still stands a cairn
or stones piled three quarters OF a
century before the Pilgrims landed
on the "rock" marking the spot where
fell the missionary who had remain
ed with his crucifix after Coronado,
with his sword, had gone his way.
Besides this venerable monument
those of the eastern states seem
young.
Junction City, Kan, not Boston,
is the hub. There is the geographic
cal center of our country. In Kansas,
too, have centered certain revolu-
tionary movements Of the nation. In
the SOS bleeding Kansas" for free
dom's sake, began the Civil War. In
the eos at Abilene Kan, the Texas
cattle trail first met the railroad, a
fact as good as any to symbolic the
easternizing of the west and the ma
tionalizing of the continent. In the
SOS the prohibitory decree of Kan
sas was the most signal event in the
long warefare of civilization versus
the saloon. In the eos Populism,
with its far-reaEhing consequences
spread chiefly from Kansas, and the
present progressive" movement in
politics, with all its potency and
promise, has its strongest strong
holds in Wisconsin, Oregon and Kan
sas.
Folks often profess to be tired OF
hearing about prohibition in Kan
sas." But they are not tired, for
the first question they usually put
to the Kansas man is, What about
prohibition in your state?"
Ex-Governor Hoch, in a letter
hitherto unpublished, says; "Prohi-
bition has been enforced for the past
six years about as we'll as any other
penal statute in this state. There
is not saloon sign in the state.
Not one of the nine hundred news
papers carries liquor advertisements, "
It seems a reliable estimate that Chi
cago consumes more liquor in week
than Kansas in year and the coun-
try at large about twenty gallons
per capita to one in Kansas.
AS to our prosperity under pro-
hibition, the plain facts are no less
than sensational. Is 1t not sensation
al that this saloonless state has a
death rate Of only TN per 1000 in
habitants, the least mortality OF any
state or nation on earth?-that I'M
der prohibition the inmates OF the
penitentiary have decreased nearly
100 per cent?-that one third OF our
counties have no prisoners and one
half no paupers?-that lightweight
OF our counties have fewer prisoners
than the other seventeen counties,
the latter all being contiguous 70
license states?-that Illinois. with
only four times our population
spends twelve times as much for po-
lice and militia?-that prohibition
Kansas" stands second among the
states in per capita wealth, and that
one of her counties has the greatest
per capita wealth Of any county In
America?
AS to the permanency o. prohibi'
ton, the best judgment seems ex'
dressed in the letter of Governor
Hoch, quoted above, is which he
,, furtbar. "There Is nothing Il