The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1914-05-14
what's MATTER
With NEVADA?

published at Los Angeles, devotes
practically the entire isue to the
state. Following is the introduction:
Several years ago the whole conn
try was electrified by a well-known
journalist asking and answering the
question: whats the matter with
Kansasf'
/ would that William Allen White Is
lightning-shod pen might ask and an
swer the same question about Neva-
da. For years the Sagebrush state
has suffered the sneers, the censure,
the obloquy, the contempt of many,
some of whom at least had intelligence
enough previously to awaken their
senses that they might the better
Judge"
It's entrance into the Union attack
ed as a purely political scheme; ac-
cused of using its suddenly-revealed
wealth for corrupting legislatures and
judges, even to the highest, its lead
ers denounced as debauchers of the
public press; its chief industry-min-
ing-declared to be grating, gambl-
ing, swindling game, deliberately de-
vised for the purpose of separating
the unwary from their money; its
claims of agricultural resources de-
nounced as insane fgments, for its
alkali soil ESQ its detractors said)
could produce nothing but sagebrush;
its rivers declared to be frauds and
pretenses, all Of them-save one
emptying into vast sinks from which
they disappeared through mysterious
passages to the interior of the earth,
or were evaporated by the intense
heat of the sun; her steady population
mainly of the baser sort, with a large
percentage of gamblers and rowdies,
attracted by the easy money to be
made from the "suckers allured by
her wildcat mining schemes; her
every city, town and mining camp a
rendezvous for the gambling and
demi monde elements; state born of
fraud and lies, Graded in pollution
and corruption, nurtured by graft
and swindling, the Stunned of good
men and women, the paradise of the
eorruptionist, the gambler, the pimp,
the abandoned and the degraded, a
menace to the progress of civiliza-
tion, the despair of the church, the
anguish of the angels and the anath-
ema of Ged-what good could posi-
bly, come out of Nevadas
Then. in late years, it has been
held up by the press Of the country as
bidding for the worst elements of the
"prize ring and as passing especial
laws for the encouragement of gambl-
ing and of those whose vagrant and
unholy passions led them to seek the
easiest release from matrimonial
Au hak ah +s, ri nc
shackles and fetters.
Nevada has been held up to the
world as the Mecca of the Wild West Is
willy, wilful, producing, worldly,
weak, wretehed and wicked wander.
ers. A common expression has come
into vogue in other states: eff you
can't do it at home, go to Nevada. -
AS gamblers were detected in Los
Angeles, Chicago and other cities all
over the Union, doing their illegal
business behind curtained windows
and barred doors, were arrested, i'm
prisoned and their paraphernalia de-
stroyed, they fled to a milder cline
as soon as they were released The
result was Nevada soon had far more
than her share of such parasites. AS
soon as this condition confronted her
she arose and to my mind it is a mar
velous triumph of conscience and NOR
al influence that in so comparatively
short a time Nevada has controlled
enough votes to render gambling IL
legal, to ostracise followers of it as
profession and to close every open
gambling resort in the state. The law
against gambling is as rigidly enforc-
ed in Nevada today as it is in Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Bal
timore, Philadelphia or New York.
Now we come to the last change.
Nevada as state, and Reno especial
ly as a city, have been charged with
making bid for, planning for, and
passing laws for, the easy obtaining of
divorce. and then openly soliciting
the patronage of those people who
were unable to secure easy divorce in
their own states. What are the facts
in the casef The Nevada divorce
laws were framed while it was still a
territory. Her own population praeti-
cally had nothing to do with them.
They were practically the same as the
laws of other territories. The terri
tory also had law granting citizen
ship and the right to vote after six
months residence. When the terri
tory became a state neither of these
laws were changed, but no one seemed
either to know or care anything about
the matter for many years. Other
states had equally easy divorce laws,
and equally short periods for estab-
fishing residence, but suddenly clev-
er lawyer, seeking a divorce for his
client in a case in the east that had
been continuously exploited in the
newspapers for many weeks, found
that he could establish residence and
secure divorce in Nevada. The ma
tion at large took great interest in
this case, for it profoundly sympa-
thized with the wronged wife and
was glad to learn there was a posi-
'bility of a speedy divorce.
With its genius for advertising the
abnormal, the uncovered, the vile,
suggestive and nasty, the yellow jour.
mails at once heralded this as "news" !"
throughout the country, urged on by
the craftiness of the dsreputable law
vars who Qaw in thasa decisions q