New-York tribune., 1918-05-17
Thousands in That State
Have Never Seen a Saloon,
Says Writer
Middle West States
Safe and Healthful
Bcnighted People Can Only
Work, Make Money and
Enjoy Themselves

utional prohibition in 1881 and that
,bere are thousands of persons in
the state who have never seen a
.sloon. Moreover, due to the per
o;cious propaganda conducted by
brewers, public opinion favoring pro
h;b;tion caused the enactment by the
I.c;slature last year of a very
Stringent bone-dry law which is now
effective, according to the Kansas
contributor, who writes:
TO the Editor Of The Tribune
Sir: The mos appalling ignorance
prevails in prohibition Kansas. There
are actually thousands of children and
syen young people in college there who
..ro mover seen a saloon. Unless they
ssye travelled into Missouri - that
s.ronghold of Observation-Disclosures
sducation in intoxicants has been neg
iec.ed.
,;on growing up without the refining
influence OF booze. And pity that mill.
,on and half kansans marooned
there in the centre of these United
states on rectangle 200 by 400 miles
in area-dry as Sahara.
They can find no relief to the north.
south' or west, for Nebraska. Okla
boma and Colorado have banished llq-
Nor from their confines. Indeed they
eould 60 north IN search for llquor
az far as the Canadian border with
out being able to gaze across q ber
into into the face of an affable barkeep.
aBut prohibition doesn', prohibit
comes the battle cry from those who
home it won't. No indeed; with LUCK
and money some bootlegger may be
found with a pint OF miserable whlskey
hidden away in the inner tube OF a
snsre motor car tire. For five dollars
some unassimilated German farmer
nav be willing to defy the Sheriff
and mart with a few bottles of beer
smuppled fhto the state at the risk
Of 4 prison sentence. But the odds
are ali against the man who Graves
alcohol. Those Middle West states are
wretched places to live in-for the
wcakling who must cater to his soul
hunger.
But for the true American, removed
from the excesses of Europe, they are
safe and healthy states in which to
rear a generation of sturdy children:
Their population differs from that OF
New York. They have no unassimilated
foreign colonies clinging to the ira
ditions of the European homes they
have abandoned. Their problem is not
complicated by polyglot crew refus-
Ing to accept American ideals. You
must 90 to those states to find doml-
nant the pure American strain that
has been submerged by immigration
along the Atlantic Coast.
The Wettest Block
In the World
But Just across the state line tha'
divides the two Kansas Cities is ar
object lesson that should be seen by
every one who presumes to SPEAK
either for or against liquor. In the
wet block" just across In MAssour'
there are about twenty-five saloons
Excepting less than half dozen
structures, every building in the block
is dedicated to the cause OF catering
to thirsty Kansans.
A "bone- dry" law efFectually prevents
the carrying Of liquor Except inter
nally) into Kansas But a large part
Of the Kansas City, Kan. police force
is assigned to permanent duty at the
state line. where most of it's police
court business originates, thanks to
wet" Missouri.
"The Kansas City Star" published
in Missouri. was among the first news
papers in the country to bar liquor
advertising 1t has for years espoused
vigorously the cause of prohibition.
The notorious wet block" has made
such an impress upon respectable Mis-
sourians that at the last vote on state
vide prohibition, in 1916, Kansas City
joined with go per cent OF Missouri in
rolling up a majority of 5000 FOR state
vide prohibition outside Of the st.
Louis district. A wet majority in st.
Louis Of 100000 saved the state tenn
porarily for liquor.
Kansas is an ideal argument for
liquor propagandists to avoid. After
thirty-seyen years Of constitutional
prohibition no one, from Governor to
village justice of the peace, will toll
crate serious mention of booze.
Prohibition can hardly be called an
untned experiment when S1,774 square
miles have been dry almost since the
Civil War. for partial prohibition was
provided for in 1867.
A Kansas Editor
Bacchant Vail
What a miserable spot Kansas must
De Is described by Henry J. Allen, who
aas recently returned from a Red
1ross % mission to Europe. in his
Wichita Beacon" as follows:
;. Prohibition has left very little Of
Kansas except the growing crops in
ner fields. the stock in her stock pens,
sae dreary round of work. work. work III
aer factories, stores and other indus
,ries. II has left us little to do in hours
o' leisure except just to fall in love. to
sst married, send our children to
scnooi. go abroad occasionally. join the
church when we feel like it. run into
ssaeh other with expensive automo-
plies and store our money away in
austy bank vaults. instead of giving il
~ cheerful gentlemen with white
aprons who used to stand in front OF
srt sra, glass bars and say infrequently
ms one is on the house.
here once you saw long lines OF
;aen on Saturday night going joyfully
'suso rooms where the doors always
sHung in, never out, whore there was
sAwdast on the floor and a merry
Saowd standing around the mahogany
ss', where they were treating all
sssound q and man could get his salary
eneek cashed and spend it right there
sr,t - ms boon companions, and then go
ssantnusiastically home and break up
sae furniture and give his wife black
tin'nstead ~ of all those manifesto
s.yns OF q care-free people which char
rrsssssf.ixed the saloon day, we now have
soassnlng but gloom.