The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-07-11

thouslnd people. It = typical Kansas
community. In Enporta are thirty-one
eIoeeT1es. nve clothing stores tour dxx|
9ooos stores. three furniture utore1l
three hardware stores, two be book
stores live bakeries. 1Ive bankAI dge|
@ug stores two music store0, threo 3eW-
eEy stores and nix hotels. Ana this
spring, following year Of drought and
BAD crops. the town raised $7G.o0o for =
r Il G. A. building.
The town has nearly twenty milea Of,
paving. seventy-tWo miles OF stone or
cement sidewalks, owns its Wafer1orke
ana light plant the latter being oper-
ate0 under q lease-collects ifo own
9eroa9e and disposes Of 1t in an In
generator. sweeps it, streets, has school
property exclusive OF its high School
worth q hundred and ninety-threel
thousand dollars and q high school,
yuet connected and equipped At Z cost
OF hundred and nifty thousand doll
LerA Three public libraries are avail
able to those who deeirS to store their
minds with more or less useful know
leoee, and Twenty-Five churches re-
cetve the towns devotfons. An average
* months has just passed and the
police court record Il this for ten
thousand people and their tributary
fifteen thousand: There have been
tWenty-f0ur arrests for drunkenness
and about one hundred ana thirty-four1
TOT everything in the police court.
The taxes are low because our jails
are empty more or less Of the time,
ana the cost OF criminal trials II 10
small that the average time consumed
with criminal cases In the district
court y put one-fourth Of tho time
consumed at each quarterly session.
Last year these twenty-five thousand
people contributed eight prisoners to
the state penftentiary. We have in the
county 636 high school students: IT'S
students in higher institutions 81
learning inside the state. ANA many
outside the state that escape enumer-
alton in college catalogues OF the state
There are 4.540 taxpayers in the
county, who own approximately forty<
one million dollars worth OF property,
and who. Tor all purposes-state. city.
county and schOol-pay $4SS, 900 and
do not have any help from saloon
licenses to do it; but then the legal
machinery of the county IL not clogged
by the caprices II whisky, and it costs
courts
We seem to use our twenty dollarr
q head. saved from the nations aver
age HQ 1or bill. fairly well We seem
TO put 1t into groceries and clothing.
houses and schools and libraries and
churches and municipal Improve
ments. And then we save some of it
80 - sS<seAHA 0CkpooAG Vi tuG69 myIIl0n nVe
hundred thousand dollars, which IL
the average Lyon county deposit for
the three years last past. This IN con-
s10erably above the average depoaft in
the country. When one considers that
| the total deposit Is distributed among
seventeen thousand five hundred ac-
counts the figures do not show a pros
perity denied by the facts, as 1t would
II we had large deposits and few de-
| positors.
We have honest politics because we
nave no dealings with the saloon
crowd. In Lyon county and in EN-
poria generation has elapsed since
mere was defalcation of a penny of
pubic funds. There is no purchas-
able vote in the county. In Kansas
candidates buy printers ink instead OF
beer on election day. And. on the
whole printers ink is more whole
some and leaves fewer bad effects on
commonwealth than beer. We have
acquired q taste for printers ink and
nave lost the taste for beer. That 4
about the net result OF thirty years b
the prohtbitory law in Kansas.
what viii this taste for inb
bring us in the end? AS a state We
nave reached q stage ofseconomic and
social. adjustment much nearer the
1deal status of the dreamer than even
the most radical visionary would have
thought possible without a downright
change of the social order. Glass nov
erty and class riches are pracffca1iv
eliminated from Kansas. The door II
opportunity stands well ajar for every
one Education from the kinderxarten
to the masters degree, is free. Free
libraries, full Of books, stand open in
practically every village and town IN
Kansas. and a thoroughly organised
state travelling library covers the conn
try districta
Culture clubs for women abound The
state could be covered as with a WEDDING
garment by the local newspapers And VET
TINS popuiauon, 80 abundantly blessed has
not produced one great inventor one 4rea1
! statesman, one great poet, novelist artist
philosopher or leader whose fame IL really
| lasting and national.
We have contributed nothing IN the
world that our sister state Of Nebraska,
with her saloons, cannot duplicate exceni
happiness and prosperity. That happinees
and prosperity are worth while from the
viewpoint OF those striving to be happy
and prosperous no one can deny They an
{, very much worth WHILE But are they
worth while when the worlds progress e
considered? Are they an end in them
selves? When we are all happy and pros
porous will the world be finished and
wrapped up ready for delivery into what
ever heaven or hell to which we are
billed.
II happiness and prosperity are end,
devoutly to be desired for themselves
then Kansas is approaching solution d
the problem Of the ages; but that is ar
open question which may be honestly de.
bated.
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