The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-07-13

WilIiam Allen white IN Satar-
day Evening Post.
BOARDED The WATER WAeoN''
State Won Permanent Place ON
Prohibition Wheels.

Better Homes, Schools and Citl-
zenship as = Result.
William Allen White Of Emporia this
week told the story Of the effective
fight against liquor in Kansas In q two
page story In the Saturday Evening
Post under the caption. How Kansas
Boarded the Water Wagon
For 80 years, White says, the state
las fought the battle for q permanent
place on the water wagon-and now
she has won. Instead Of the nation =
per capita of more than 81 for liquor.
the booze per capita cost in Kansas
is ?1.z1 and the balance is spent for
better homes. better schools and the
OF q better citizenship.
Telling Of the result of the 80 years
war against booze in Kansas, White
says in part:
It viii pay us, therefore. to look at
the physical effects OF this abstinence.
And naturally one must go at It back
ward to get the perspective on it. The
effects Of alcohol ON person produce
q loosening Of the restraints which hold
him to conventions. A few drinks
make a man talk more, sing more.
dance more. swagger more. laugh more.
swear more: spend more, fiirt more
and generally deport himself on q
moral plane rather lower than the av-
erage. He Is q little crazy, q little lazy,
a little weak-willed, a little vicious, q
little prodigal. a little thriftless, lit
tie devilish under the influence Of
liquor. And If he IL adequately stewed
as to his nerve cells and brain areas
most of the time, there are wide areas
Of his mind that act abnormally more
or less of the time. So he loses his
Judgment, his money. his good name.
his talents. his general poise and bal
ance.
And here, also, a state il like a man.
Given the excessive use of liquor in a
state, and the state insane asylums MI
up. That state Is losing something of
its fundamental sanity: the poorhouses
fill up. indicating a lack of thrift; the
jails become crowded, Indicating q NOR
al decay; and the citizens Of the state.
who are as cells Of a human body, die
rather earlier and oftener than they
should. A brief survey of the Kansas
situation, since she has won her long.
hard fight for state sobriety. seems to
show that the effects Of swearing on
seen in a sobered man.
There is not great difference In
population between Cook county, Ill
nois. and the state of Kansas, yet there
are more Chicago insane in the Cook
county asylum than the insane, the
criminals. the boys and girls at the
reformatOry, the feeble-minded. and
the prisoners in Kansas jafls and PEN
itentiaries.
Here is another curious and illumi-
mating fact: Kansas has fewer MUIR
ders, fewer homtcides and fewer acct
dental deaths than any other state, and
this is one OF the lowest rates in the
world-45 for each hundred thousand
annually.
The effect Of the saloon. with its
commercialization Of drinking, on
murders, suicides and accidents 10 too
obvious to need deliberations; but It il
interesting to note that when the M
loon goes these causes of.death are re-
duced. The vital statistics of the va
rious states show that Kansas has
fewer deaths from kidney diseases
than any other state, and the relation
of whisky to kidney trouble Is so well
known that this fact alone proves a
low per capita consumption OF LIQUOR
Remember there are one hundred and
five counties in Kansas. ,Forty-eight
of these counties did not send q pris-
oner to the penitentiary last year and
81 counties did not send an insane pa
tient to the asylum. In II counties
no jury has been called in ten years
to try criminal case. Fifty-three
counties have empty jails. Thirty
eight counties have empty poorhouses
and the second lowest death rate in
America is the Kansas death rate OF
seven and half a thousand.
Moreover. the bank deposits In Kan
sas have increased in ten years from
one hundred million to two hundred
and twenty million dollars. And 1t
should be remembered that these bank
deposits are in the hands Of the many
and not of the few: for the financial
agency reports-Dun's and Brad
street's-list less than score OF mil
lionaires in Kansas and not one over
five millions. The average holding of
taxable property, taking the number
of people in the state and dividing 1t
state. IL $1,666.92. which the wall
Street Journal recently declared to be
the largest in America. Also, . re-
port from Director Harris, of the CEN
sus bureau. shows that We have de-
creased our state debt faster than any
other state.
The parallel between the sober man
and the sober state IL startling. Here
we have q small insane area: n low
criminal area: q small area Of shift
lessness. And we Lave thrift and good
health highly accented, far above nor
mind: Kansas y among the first six OF
the states with a low percentage OF
illiteracy. In population Of a million
and thrce-quarters. or thereabouts, We
have over eight thousand students I'M
our state educational institutions OF
higher learning above high school
grade, and in these higher educational
institutions and other colleges Kansas
has more students In college according
to population than any other state In
the Union
Moreover. we have ss.4ss students in
high schools and the increase has more
than exceeded the growth In population
during the last five years. Thus. We
find that the state having the LARGEST
number Of students in colleges, accord