Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1914-09-11
HOW PROHIBITION
BOOSTED KANSAS
Governor Hodges Tells Graphic
Story of Progress Under the
Dry Regime

So popular has been the Prohibition
policy, after thirty years trial, tina
the Republican, Democratic and Pro
gressive parties in that state have jus
endorsed and reaffirmed the dry
policy To oppose prohibition in Kan
sas means Oblivion for any politician
Editor.
(By Governor George H. Hodges.)
What has thirty years of prohibi
ton done for us in Kansas? In book
making something. The geography
Of years ago pictured Kansas as the
Great American desert. Hardly 8
desert now, with thirty-four million
acres in cultivation. Very little indi'
gence In Kansas, with an average OF
3i32 on deposit in our banks for every
person in the state.
We have $3,0O0,000.000 worth of
property on the tax roll, assessed on
not to exceed 20 per cent of the actual
cash value OF our resources.
Our agriculturists use the best for
their own tables, and a plentiful sup
ply at that, but after using all the but
ter, eggs and poultry they needed,
they only sold $22000,000 worth of
butter, eggs and poultry last year
Just a little revenue Of 100000 more
than this government paid for about
. third of the total acreage of these
United States, the Louisiana pur-
chase.
Automobiles Galore.
We only own one automobile for
every forty-five persons in Kansas
A great many of our farmers are
complaining because they can't pay
off their mortgage until 1t becomes
due, though they have decreased their
recorded Indebtedness from So per
cent to 45 per cent in the past ten
years. Al, the same time they have
boosted the home-owned securities
from $lS,60o,OoO to $67,O0o,0OO,
The farmers have not had very
much corn to husk this fall, SO they
are spending part of their spare time
building and filling not less than 5000
one-hundred-ton silos, and occasion
ally glancing over their back fences
at eight million acres of the finest
winter wheat that ever transformed
a state into carpet of Administer green.
Small Death Rate.
The death rate in Kansas is only
ten to every 1000 inhabitants, and we
feel assured the abstinence from Ii
quor gives that low rate of mortality
Every year our state creates a new
wealth; last year wealth of $1,000
900 day was the record. Only $1.25
was spent on an average by each per-
son for intoxicating liquors during the
year, while one of our sister states
spends $2S for the same purpose.
We have an enactment that re-
quires the deliveries of liquor into
Kansas to record the shipment and
amount with our county clerk, and
the statement l make as to the per
capita consumption is authentic and
based upon the compilations of these
reports. This difference of $26.75
went into new homes, schools and
churches.
Education Makes Progress.
We spent $13,5OO,OOO last year on
415,000 scholars; that kept $4,000
teachers busy for about nine months.
The salaries of the men teachers in
our public schools have increased
from S44 to SS050 a month in the past
ten years, while the salary of the wo-
man teachers has doubled. All of the
weak school districts have state aid,
and we have no schools which have
less than a seven months term. That
little sum of $26.75 referred to a while
ago that we save ON liquor consump-
ton we spent on education, SO that
our illiterates are less than any state
in the Union.
Six thousand students attended our
State University and Agricultural
College last year, This is a remark,
able showing when compared with
Missouri, which has 100000 popula-
ton and only 1917 students in her
university and agricultural college.
We have only 724 inmates in our
state penitentiary. while Colorado,
with half our population, has 500. We
have only PA boys in our state re.
formatory, and vast majority of the
Inmates of both penal institutions
were transient in our state when they
committed their crime. In fact, in
our state reformatory we have only
eighty-four Kansas boys
They Rent Their Poor Farms.
Eighteen counties have no moor
farms, and one of our best counties
Barton, has no use for it's poor farm
but turns it into an asset by renting
it. Twenty-Five counties have no in
mates in their poor farms.