Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-07-31

evil llldl has lelpeu W ihahc hSi Wv
iZens the richest per capita in the
country and the richest Of any agricul-
tural folk in the world; that has given
her a permanent school fund Of $1O,-
100000 and has reduced her illiteracy
to an almost negligible quantity.
1t is in this instance upon what
slaves of custom have sneered at as
'impracticable," If not impossible, that
has helped to give her a balance OF
more than a million and a quarter IN
her state treasury and no bonded debt
save $4,000 held by the permanent
school fund.- this alone that makes
! possible the statement that 9S per
cent of her 100000 school children
have never seen a saloon.
For even while the liquor interests
succeeded in evading the law in many
instances and boasted that prohibition
was a failure in Kansas, government
statistics showed that the average an
nual consumption of intoxicating
liouors in that state was $1.4S per
capita, while in the neighboring state
of Missouri, where the whisky ring
ruled, it was $24 per capita.
In other words, the average kansan
had Just s2252 more to spend on food,
clothing, education and entertainment
than his average neighbor across the
Kaw. And just about that much more
to save on doctors, nurses, fines, 1alls'
poorhouses and insane asylums. And
now that the United States supreme
court has upheld the Webb law pro-
hibiting liquor shipments into legally
dry territory, Kansas is enabled to en-
force legislation that will virtually
eliminate intoxicants from her borders.
Again and again it has been said
that prohibition is failure in Kansas;
that when the older generation re-
sponsible for its adoption passed over
the reins of government to its sons
and daughters, for Kansas has rec
ognized woman's right as full citizens
Kansas would "come back to her
senses"
That this prophecy was without
foundation is best evidenced by the
following statement from Attorney
General Dawson:
The last two sessions Of the legisla-
ture answered these false prophets by
passing the most drastic prohibition
law in the world, killing the drug store
saloon, making it impossible even to
cure snake bites by the liquor treat
ment and absolutely clapping down
the "lid' and riveting 1t on.
They were not satisfied by going
this far, but showed their apprecia-
ton of the benefits Of statewide pro-
hibition by making it a felony for
the fellow who violated the law sec
ond time. And I have just lately re-
ceived from the warden at the peni-
tentiary a receipt for one Red Mer-
cer," who was sent up from Barber
county as a first consignment to serve
nine years for violating the new pro-
hibitory law.
The law that sent him there was
made by those tow-headed, one-gallus-
ed boys who grew to manhood on the
Kansas prairies without ever having
seen a saloon.
Yes; something's the matter with
Kansas. Of what it is there can be
no doubt in the mind of any unpreju-
diced observer. And in view Of the
effect in the Sunfiower State, there is
little wonder than an increasing num-
ber of persons believe that this nation
will be past the most dangerous rocks
in it's course when the thing that is
the matter with every square mile of
territory from Eastport to San Diego
and from Walla Walla to Key West
is remedied.-North American Maya
zine.