The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-10-08
DOES Constitutional
PROHIBITION PROHIBIT?
Does It Tend To Decrease
Crime?
The Tendency Of the Times Plainly Point
to the Abolition Of the Liquor
Traffic in the Very Near Future.
Read Before the Chautauqua Circle. Oct. 4. 1914
By 81. II. J.,) General Stone,oaU


Having been ssked in the last few
months by several hundred of my fell
low prisoners to present my views
through the columns of the Mirror
on the subject: Does Constitutional
Prohibition Prohibit, and Does ii
tend to decrease crime where tried?"
In giving my views base what /
say. upon reason and facts, and with
a hope that those whose views diff
fer from mine will not condemn this
article before reading it, for | have
given it much study in the last few
years, especially since my contine-
ment here. Having devoted much
of my spare moments to thoughtful
and useful research on crime and It's
causes, and | have made these studies
with as little partially as one could
with view to aiding in any way
possible to erase from our statute
books all those laws that tend to
corrupt the morality, or, are detri-
mental to humanity. By close and
careful study I have been shown by
figures eminating from penal institu-
tons that more than two-thirds of all
inmates confined behind prison walls;
were and are placed there through
constitutional Alcoholismp' Take
our own Silent City and you will
find the causes in the primary state,
to consist of more than Is per cent.
of the men here, first started on their
downward road through drink.
Thus seeing so many of my fell
low prisoners. suffering for former
misstep, because they were free to
indulge in the greatest CRIME pro-
Queer known to civilized man, for
Constitutional Alcoholism" is the
greatest curse. the greatest evil, the
greatest home destroyer, the greatest
crime against humanity, against the
weak, against the yet unborn; to
sit still is impossible and although
doing time behind prison walls, yet l
cannot keep under subsection an in
dignation that wells up in the heart
of every man when be sees the very
weakest of the weak being ground
down in misery and shame, and too
in the name of law. A criminal
producer legalized; to make crimi-
nails of the nations citizenship.
The basic portion of this article |
owe to friend of mine who has
lived all his life in Kansas, and from
his letters have sifted few crumbs
for your consideration, and to vouch
for the authenticity and correctness,
as far as it relates to Kansas,-it is
said that standing reward of one
thousand is offered to any one who
will go into Kansas court and
prove to the contrary.
Therefore | use Kansas as base to
prove my contention that "Constitu-
tional Prohibition Uoes Prohibit"
And to give you few crumbs l
must commence back when Kansas
became prohibition state years ago,
and also must view it from both
viewpoints;-i; has been pointed out
by the prohibitionists as an example,
and pointed out by the whiskey peo-
pie as a horrible example. They
claim that the state sells more whis-
key under prohibition than it did
before, but it seems that the whiskey
folks keep up the fight.
The letters or loaf from which |
gathered these crumbs is from the
pen of Mr.. VIM. A. White, one of
the best known writers Of the mid
die west. and as for the prohibition
situation in Kansas, he is in a posi-
ton to speak from knowledge at
first hand.
When I assert that Kansas has
sworn off and has made the swear
off stick; and the swearing off Is eff
fective and permanent for exactly
the same reason that it becomes in a
man. Thus the old tissue of the
state degenerated by alcohol has dis
appeared; new citizenship domi-
mates the state. No vestige of prop
erty right remains in the Kansas
liquor traffic. The brewery has been
crumbling ruin for twenty years.
The wholesale liquor house has long
since vanished.
The store owner who rented IN tho
saloon long since found another ten
ant. The craving for the business
stimulation of the saloon and the
wide-open town is unknown to the
new generation. The financial de-
cease of the saloon with its waste
and folly and crime has been cured
in Kansas. and the body of the state
knows its pangs and fortunes no