The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-10-08
Concluded From Column Two)

Concluded From Column Two)
population between, Cook County.
Illinois. 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 jails and
penitentiaries.
Here is another curious and illu-
minating fact; Kansas has fewer
murders, fewer homiciles and fewer
accidental deaths than any oeher state
and this is one of the lowest in the
world : 4.5 for each hundred thou
sand annually.
The effect of the saloon, with its
commerciallzation Of drinking, MUIR
ders, suicides and accidents is too
obvious to need elaboration: but il
is interesting TO note that when the
saloon goes these causes are reduced. The
vital statistics of the various states show Kan
sas has fewer deaths from kidney diseases
than any other state, and the relation OF
whiskeY to kidney trouble is so we'll known
that this fact alone proves low per capita
consumption of liquor. Remember there
are one hundred and FIVE u05) counties in
Kansas. Forty-eight of these counties did
not send prisoner to the penitentiary last
year and eighty-seven counties did not send
an insane patient to the asylum. In four
teen 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 a half pei
thousand.
Moreover, the bank deposits in Kansas
have increased in ten years from $1OO, OOO,-
900 to $225, zoo, 900. And it should be re-
membered tina. these bank deposits are in
the hands of the many and not the few; fol
the financial agency reports-Dun's and
Bradstreet 's-list less than score of million
aires in Kansas and not Que over SIS, 900, 600.
The average holding of-taxable property,
taking the number of people in the state and
dividing it by the total assessed valuation of
the state, is 81, 600, 80; which the Wall Street
Journal recently declared the largest in Amer
lea. Also, a report from Director Harris
of the Census Bureau shows that Kansas
has decreased her state debt faster than any
other state.
Thus the parallel between the sober man
and the sober state is startling. In Kansas
they have small insane area; low criminal
area; small area of shiftlessness. And they
have thrift and good health highly accented,
far above normal and Just such social body
as one should expect from a state that lived
normal, wholesome life. Now as to the
mind:-kansas is among the first six of the
states with low per centage of illiteracy.
In population of l, $50, 900, or Whereabouts,
educational institutions of higher learning
above high school grade, and in those high
er educational institutions and other colleges
Kansas has more students according to pop
ulation in college than any other state in
the Union.
Moreover, they have 80, 468 students in
high schools and the increase has more than
exceeded the growth in population during
the last five years. Thus, we find that Kan
sas the Constitutional Prohibition State
has the largest number of students in COL
leges, according to population, has the
largest assessed valuation, has next to the
lowest death rate, and has the smallest state
debt in proportion to its population, and
besides is the state in which the smallest av-
erage expenditure is made for liquor. They
save about twenty dollars head annually
from their liquor bill to spend for the things
worth while.
Where This Twenty Dollars Head Goes
How do they spend their money! What
do they do with that $40, head which rep
resents the difference between the average
10
Kansas expenditure? Let us take an example
in small but representative unit. Emporia
is town of 10, 900 people, the county seat
a county of Is, 900 people. 1t is typical
Kansas Community In Emporia there are
thirty one grocery stores, five clothing stores,
four drygoods stores, three furniture stores,
three hardware stores, two big book stores,
five bakeries, two music stores, five banks,
FIVE drug stores, three jewelry stores, and
six hotels. And last spring, following
year of drouth and bad crops, the town
raised $751; 900 for Y. M. c. A. building.
They have honest politics because they
have no dealings with the saloon crowd. In
Lyon county and in Emporia generation
has elapsed since there was a defalcation of
penny of public funds. There is no pur-
chasable vote in the county. In kansas
candidates buy printers ink instead of beer
on election day. On the whole printers
ink is more wholesome and leaves fewer bad
effects on commonwealth than beer. They
have acquired taste for printers ink and
have lost the taste for beer. That is about
the net result of thirty years of the prohibi-
tory law in Kansas.
Shall we stand idly by and see the boys
of the nation fall before the demon ruml
Or shall we heed the cry of mother who
tells show her boy went DOWN. To the
editor we are indebted for these lines:
How My Boy Went Down
1t was not on the field of battle,
1t was not with ship at sea,
But fate far worse than either
That stole him away from me
Twas the death in the tempting wine-cup
That the reason and senses drown;
He drank the alluring poison
And thus my boy went down.
Down from the heights of manhood
To the depths of disgrace and sin;
Down to a worthless being