The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-28

many residences. But the fire was
attended by incidents of moro SIMS
ter significance than the destruction
of property. For the occasion lifted
the lid off an ugly phase of contem
pOrary life to which we are usually
blind. During the cODflagration, and
immediately following 1t, when the
noblest sentiments of neighborliness
should have ruled there was wide
spread looting of salvaged goods.
This was no sudden outbreak of
-lawlessn ess by aliens; the men caught
were of the old British breed, who
settled the Maritime Provinces in the
long ago. They typify a fact of the
times; namely, that the spirit of dis
regard for law and right has eaten
like a canker into the very heart Of
oak of our civilization. Dark and
hidden forces of anarchy and crime
burst out with alarming frequency in
all sorts of unexpected places. What
happened in staid old Annapolis Royal
is close kin to what happened in Chi
cago and New York and San Franz
cisco. The papers talk of a "crime
wave" whereas they really mean
something more than a wave-a rising
tide of lawlessness which is menacing
the whole world. Russia and Great
Britain, Germany and the United
States, Japan and France, are all be-
ing Inundated by this perilous spirit.
Civilizations Present Peril.
So short-sighted and inconsistent
are we that the very men who are
Mortified at the deadly orgy of motion
picture people in a san Francisco
hotel, proceed straightway to talk
complacently of the trade in contra
band liquor. and to defy the prohibit
ton laws. They do not perceive that
law is law, and that obedience TO law
cannot become eclectic. If everybody
is free to choose the laws which he
will obey or disobey, then the whole
structure of a civilization built upon
law colIapses The man who breaks
the laws against theft, as at Annapolis
Royal, is no more an enemy of the
commonwealth than the man who
breaks the laws against blSamy or
against gambling or against the sale
of intoXicants. Lawlessness is law
| lessness-and the greatest present
| peril of the world.
This is the phase of the temperance
question that is uppermost for consid-
| Grafton as Worlds Temperance sun
day is once more observed in the Sun
day schools. 1t is an occasion. for a
broad and fearless outlook upon the
attitude of the world. There is COM
mon sweep of thought, from the crude
| laWbreaking at Annapolis Royal to the
| lack of respect for men and institu-
tons sucn ; we see in the latest popI-
liar books. The Mirrors of Downing
| Street" the Mirrors of Washington,
| Strachey's Life of. Queen Victoria,
| Lord Esher's Life of Kitchener" and
the g-suppressed but now pub
Hshed third volume of Bismarcks
| Memoirs are recent startling evidences
! of the iconoclastic mood of the hour
Tho Bolshevik is not the only one
busy at attempting to destroy ancient
SATELLITES. The trend of the times is
that way. 1t looks as if things In
| general were being prepared for some
poem, cause and Effect" comes 70
| mind as we see the prevalence of TINS
attitude of disregard and disdai2 Tor
constituted law and authority:
THE powder lay in Heaps threat IL
OF death-where powder should not lie
Some fool threw down cigarette
And flaming ruin rent the sky.
.Wbereat. a solemn jury met
| And laid the blame in wisdom rare,
| On him that threw the cigarette,
Not them that left the powder there
Upon the heaps of Want and Shame,
Whereupon men build, one evil DAY
Some fool will sling a word of flame
And what will follow, who SHAH say
But should all earth be overset,
Wen lay the blame, in dull despair,
On him that threw the cigarette, >,
Not them that put the powder there"
Making a WOrld-Issue.
Twenty years asp the liquor ques-
ton, of which law-obserVance mas To-
day become the paramount phase, was
a theme for Sunday School Lessons
1t had little place in editorials or or
front pages. 1t was the hobby oil
fanatics" and piOus Impractical
people. Today it has become lead
ing world issue, absorbing more at
tention in the press of the United
States and Canada than foreign af-
fairs. 1t has moved from obscure
Sunday School classes to the highest
councils of politics. Europe is appar'
: entity more interested in the effects
= of prohibition in the United States anC
? Canada than in the Armament Con
> ference itself; for in its deepest con
: seriousness the public knows that the
5 world cannot continue half dry and
half wet.
AS one who regularly reads foreign
publications, and occasionally the
5 daily newspapers of many cities,
: confess that am amazed at the reck
lessness of much that is written abou
the continuance of drink under pro
> hibition. Disregard for laws seems t
D be accompanied by disregard for facts
1t is true that in cities law-breaker
= seeking liquor and willing to pay
high price for it, may usually secure
\ contra band intoXicants- But to sa:
that the cities are "Wetter than ever,
r and that there is more booze drunl
:, today than before prohibition cam
in" is simply to talk bosh.
For the greater part of two month
S I have been travelling continuously II
Canada the Atlantic States and tn
: Middle west. and 1 have looked il
I vain for anything like the outwar'
t evidences of the bad old days of tn
open saloon. There are rich and reck
. less men who buy bootleg" whlsk
l and who risk "home-brew." Their
: lare also immature minds who wan
: what is denied them simply hecaus
it is denied. But all honest men WI
j. are able to form their judgments upo
n a wide collection of facts know tina
:. in this period of labor unrest an
!. unemployment, it is boon beyon
; words to society that the saloon
q closed and that Intoxicating liquor
- are generally inaccessible. The ne
, result of the drastic legislation agalns
strong drink has unquestionably bee
'e beneficial.
IS The PenduIum's Present Swing.
T The worlds after-the-war slump