The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1915-07-09
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH
KANSAS?


Kansas has been a prohibition state
since 1881. 1t is a fair state to cite
as an example of the effect Of pro-
hibition on business interests and pro-
perty and financial prosperity. Some
time ago when the whole country was
worrying about the unprecedented
heat and drouth in the West, the Gov
ernor Of Kansas issued a public state
ment saying he hoped no one would
waste pity on the people of his state.
"With more than $20,O00,0O0 on de-
posit in our state and national banks,
we could weather worse storm than
this without hardship" he said.
AS matter of fact, Kansas, which
last year produced 1926, 100000 worth
of farm products, can better afford
such a roasting and drying up than
any other state in the union, for her
per capita wealth is larger than that
of any other state.
She can better afford this or any
brand of calamity, for her people are
not constantly paying out huge sums
for the care and keep of criminals,
paupers, insane and feeble minded.
In 81 of the 105 counties there are
no insane. In 81 of this number are
no feeble minded. SO counties have
no inebriates, and in the other nine
they are as scarce as hens teeth. 38
county poorhouses are as empty as
last years locust shell, and most of
these have been for the best part of
a decade.
The pauper population of the state
falls a little short of 600. That is
one pauper for each 5000 of the kind
making living, and good one-the
kind that now own 1856, 100000 worth
of live stock and in the last twelve
months have added more than $45,-
100000 to their taxable personal prep
erty.
She hasn't as many people as some
of the other states, but man for man
she creates wealth faster than any
other; she keeps her own healthier
and richer, and offers for the worlds
consideration record of moral and
material progress the like of which
has not been seen since civilization
dawned in the valleys of the Nile and
the Euphrates.
Though forced to acknowledge this,
we cannot help thinking it strange.
The people who settled Kansas were
not different, on the whole, from those
who pioneered Illinois, Iowa and Ne
braska. Nor are the soil and climat-
ic conditions greatly unlike. Indeed,
the odds are unfavorable to Kansas,
so far as natural conditions are con-
oerned. Yet many of the facts ar
rayed could not be spoken to these
states.
SO something would seem to be the
matter with Kansas.
Something is the matter with her.
That something, we believe, can be
boiled down into these first fourteen
words constituting an amendment
made to her constitution in 1891:
"The manufacture and sale of in
toxicating liquor shall be forever pro
hibited in this state"
1t is this fundamental provision,
fought and evaded in some localities
as it was for a quarter of a century,
and strictly enforced in all parts of
the state only within the last five
years, that helped Kansas to faunt
5000, 100000 in the face of partial
crop failure; that relieves her of
spending much time, strength and
money on paupers, criminals, insane
and feeble minded; and gives her peo-
pie the best of chances for living and
the fewest excuses for dying.
1t is this defiance of what other
states have legalized as a necessary"
IL u 1. 4 L -