The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-05-28
MANNING, c., WEDNESDAY. MAY 28 1913
SOME PLAIN FACTS
SHOWING HOW PROHIBITION
HAS PAID KANSAS.
What 1t Has Done for That State it
Will Do for This and Other States
is Set Out in the Following Article.

is Set Out in the Following Article.
Hon. John S. Dawson, Attorney
General of Kansas, delivered an ad-
dress at Chicago, April, 1912, on
What Prohibition Has Done for
Kansas. The constitutional amend
ment prohibiting the manufacture
and sale in the State, of Intoxicating
liquor except for medical, scientific,
and mechanical purposes, was adopt
ed in November, 1880. It has, there
fore, been in operation long enough
OF afford a reasonable test of the ef-
fects of Statewide prohibition. Mr..
Dawson acknowledges that for quite
number of years the law was openly
dehed in many Of the larger towns
and cities. 1t took a long bitter fight
for the people Of Kansas to convince
the law-defying liquor interest that
they were really in earnest about
banishing the Infamous traffic from
their State. But they are convinced
at last and for some time the prohi-
bition laws of the State have been as
consistently enforced as those against
other common forms of criminal con-
duct. In estimating the results of
prohibition, however, allowance must
be made for the delay occasioned by
this protracted battle against an
archy, and yet, in spite of this, these
results, as summed up by the Attor-
ney General, are thoroughly convinc-
ing. Here are a few Of the more
important Of them:
/. Illiteracy has been reduced
from 49 per cent. to less than 2 per
cent. and this is confined almost en-
tirely to the foreign element in the
southeastern portion Of the State.
2. Eighty-seven Of the one hun
dred and five counties of the State,
have no insane, fifty-four have no
feeble-minded, and ninety-six have no
inebriates. There is only one pauper
in every three thousand population.
Thirty-eight poor farms have no in
mates. In July, 1911, ffty-three
county jails were empty, and sixty
five counties had no prisoner serv-
ing sentence some counties have not
called a jury to try criminal case
in ten years, and grand jury is so
uncommon that half the people would
not know what it is.
8. In 1880 the bank savings de-
posit in Kansas were $30,000,000;
to-day they are s200,0O0,O00. The
State is now the richest per capita in
the Union, the average wealth being
s1,7O0, whereas the average for the
nation is only $1,000. Missouri, which
adjoins Kansas and is rich in natural
resources, has an average of less than
$500. During the panic Of 1907.
Kansas sent s50,000,000 to New
York to relieve the money market,
while Missouri sent nothing.
4. In 1880 the death rate in Mich
igan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Kansas
was practically the same, seventeen
to the thousand. Since the death
rate of Kansas has gradually fallen
till 1t is now only seven and one-half,
while Of the other States has slight
ly increased.
5. The per capita cost Of intoxi-
eating liquors in Missouri is s24; in
Kansas is s1.4S.
s. 1t has demonstrated that the
saloon is not business, but par
asite on business.
Z. It has taken politics out Of the
saloons and the saloons out Of poll
tics. Every political party in Kan
sas now stands for prohibition, and
keeping joints, dives, and br@thels