Arizona republican., 1915-01-03
KANSAS BANKER
 ON THE VALLEY
C. Q. Chandler Writes His Impression of What He Saw Here and Speaks of the Effect of Prohibition Generally

The following encouraging letter has | been received from President C. Q. ! Chandler of the Kansas National bank of Wichita kans Mr Chandler was among the bankers who were here from different parts of the country, follow 1 ing the suspension of the Valley bank and he was among those who were ne sotatins for it's purchase. Mir. Chand- i Ter made q stuGy of the valley while he was here so that his impressions arc l those of man who knows whereof he speaks:
 Wichita. Kans., Dec. 29. 1914. Dwight E Heard. Esq
 1 Phoenix. Ariz:
 My dear Mr. Heard:
 1 l rejoice with you in the opening of
 the Valley bank. l hope the coming 1 year will be q prosperous one for the | Salt River valley. You have q great
 country down there and l have been l wonderfully attracted to it. l also notice the United States court 1 has upheld the constitutionality of the
 prohibition law. l want to compliment ! the people of Arizona on having had 1 the good judgment to put Arizona in 1 the dry column.
 l have been in the banking business | in this state for g years. and as a | business man l have seen a thorough | test of the prohibitory law The law
 was enacted something like g. years 1 ago. In a great many localities 1t was 1 Immediately available, but for 70 years l the larger cities in the state lived as
 outlaws and allowed the law to be vio- lated.
 l About s years ago the citizens of our 1 town awoke to the fact that We were doing ourselves q great injustice in al- | lowing saloons to run in open violation ! of the law. and in allowing d great l state like ours, with it's great wealth. | to be prostituted to the use of the 1 saloon man, the brewery and the dis l tillery. The result was that we elected
 q mayor who put out of business in one night 32 saloons-that many places
 were actually made empty and put upon the market
 l
 that grass would grow in our streets. Fortunately for us, their predictions did not come true in any way. The 1 empty buildings were occupied in q short time by legitimate business | houses. Instead of grass growing in our streets, in these years our city | mas had d great growth; our bank de- posits nave increased: our manufactur- ing interests have increased: we have had built two fine ten story buildings, | and three large Touring mills. In fact.
 all along the line We have had the greatest prosperity.
 1 We have the matter so well settled
 now in the state of Kansas thar no thinking, successful business man would return to the saloon and the domination of the brewery and the dis tillery under any circumstances. At the election this fall a former mayor of Topeka-a man named Bill lard-ran as an independent candidate on d strictly re-submission platform. The total vote for the whole state of Kansas in this last election. for gov l ernor for which office he was running. was about 600.0 MT Billiard re
 ceived 50,000 votes. l have not the figures to show the amount spent for liquor per capita during the time We were letting the saloons run. but re liable statistics show that Kansas is spending now about S200 per capita for liquor; while our neighbors in Mis-
 souri are spending about $22.00. In other words, we have about 5000 per capita, which on 1,500,000 people, amounts to $30,000 000 This We have to put in our banks, buy automobiles 1 with, and help build up our great state, instead of sending it out to build up 1 outslde interests.
 If the state of Arizona will give the prolhbitOry law fair test-say for q period of ten years--you will get the same results. You have a great state and a great opportunity and I congrat-
 ulate you once more on the great step you have taken.
 With kind personal regards. l am
 Yours verX truly,