The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-01-30
FIVE-MINUTE TALKS. psi
BY NATIONAL LEADERS

Governor Arthur Capper, of Kan
! sas' is one of the leading opponents
OF nation wide prohibition, today a
burning topic in most sections of the
! nation. AT the request of the Inter-
national News Service Governor Cap
! per has written the following exclu-
slVe article on The Demand For a
Saioonless Nation"
by Arthur Cappcr, Governor of Kansas.
More and more insistentiy the peo-
pie are demanding that Uncle Sam
I shall dissolve his criminal partner
snip with the booze business and quit
the trade of bartender. National con-
stitutional prohibition is coming with
rush. Nothing can stop 1T. You can
travel today clear across the United
States from the Atlantic to the Pacific
and never set foot off Statewide pro-
hibition territory. The United States
will be saloonless nation not later
than the year 1920.
Tuesday. November Z, 1916, was a
Waterloo for the liquor traffic. A.
tremendous blow for human welfare
was struck. That day prohibition was
the issue in twelve States and one ter
ritory, and 1t failed to carry in only
two-Missouri and California. 1t was
only the huge booze vote of st. Louis
that kept the saloon from being
driven out of Missouri.
With S5 per cent of the United
States under prohibition, with twenty
three dry States. with So per cent OF
the population living where the saloon
has been made an outlaw, It's hour of
doom has struck. Either Congress
will be compelled to submit a consti-
tutional amendment to all the States,
or nationwide prohibition will be the
great over Swallowing popular issue in
the presidential campaign OF 1920
Then the last saloon will disappear
from the land of liberty and light. The
drink traffic now Is cornered in half
dozen great cities where it has in
trenched itself by usurping political
power. There 1t will continue to prey
| on defenseless millions until dislodged
and annihilated by a sweeping Federal
law.
This Is the age OF conservation A
conservation policy that does not con-
serve nor foster nor protect the health,
thrift and happiness Of the American
home--the source OF all our strength
and vigor as a nation--is blind folly
| and an unspeakable sham.
The saloon Is tho source Of nearly
all our human wreckage. Yet the
nation licenses and permits the insti-
tuition to exist which makes the crea-
ton of drunken fathers and the de-
hatchery of its young men and women
business, and which Is the recog-
nized source of nine-tenths of al, its
misery and wretchedness. The people
are demanding Of Congress that the
government of the United States shall
end its monstrous partnership with
this beast and shall Join with them In
its DETERMINATION
1t Is intolerable that the Federal
government should continue to over.
ride the sovereignty of the many Com
IT,
laws, that for a consideration It should
connive with bootleggers in defeating
the Will of the people by licensing
these outlaws to sell booze In this for
hidden territory.
The last defense OF the saloon ts that
liquor revenue helps pay the taxes.
The truth is that the saloon Is cur
/ greatest public debt-maker and our
greatest public burden.
After the saloons were driven out
OF Kansas City, Kansas. a city OF 1907
600 people just across the line from
the larger city of the same name in
Missouri, which recently voted dry,
that municipality for the first time
| In twenty years made no debt for cur
| rent expenses.
| When the saloon was abolished in
Wichita, Kansas a city OF more than
! $4,000 people. the weekly clearances
! increased within three years from
| sl.400.o0o to $4,000 900.
So far as l am able to discover.
Topeka, the capital city Of Kansas.
does a bigger retail business. has more
| homecoming citizens and a smaller
! polica force than any other city Of its
size in the United States.
Kansas challenges defenders of the
saloon to show twenty-five cities in
| any wet" Commonwealth in the
| Union where the percentage OF home
| owners Is greater. where business IL
more prosperous. where real estate
| values have increased more rapidly
where men. women and children are
| better educated. better clothed and