The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-05
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY z. HOUSE
(From Philadsiphia Public Ledgsr.l


| its economic soul. The Great Red
Dragon of Wall street has ceased to
terrify. The voters, particularly those
in the more emotional sections are no
longer epileptic when capital is men,
| toned; they have accumulated quite a
| little capital of their town. In Novem-
Der they went to the polls and voted
almost unanimously for Mr.. Harding.
who is a standpatter closely connected
with the senate oligarchy and who was
| tacitly charged by the late Mr. Cox
with the ambition to attain a presi-
dency thru the friendly offices Il
wealth and power. The Cox stuff
didn't take" in the Middle West For
the first time in the history of politics
| it failed to stir any considerable num-
| Der of the voters to violent express
sions of emotion. Having cleaned
such intelligence from the election re-
turns, was curious to know the exact
mature OF the Middle Vests current
sorrow. 1 wonde ed what it was
writing about For in this emotional
center, situate in the heart of q
country, there is always writing and
moaning. l find that the Macedonia n
cry is for ''hooch." In the face of a
constantly diminishing supply and an
ever-tightening official net the tense
struggle of people to obtain a supply
OF lubricant for private use and festaI
occasion is the most strongly marked
social and economic DEVELOPMENT. |
round such situation in the Middle
west 8-year ago last fall. / FIND it vet
considerably intensified.
Now, it is not my purpose to engage
IN any discussion of prohibition as a
national policy or to invite contro-
Versy. Nobody can lure me into Joint
debate on any moral issue. But as a
reporter, the struggle to make this
Il
IS, IL seems to me, particularly in
teresting bit of legal procedure, as il
apples to the section most remote
from the filling stations and the re-
coupling process. If the cry for the
artificial urge can be legislated out OF
the human breast the Yicinage in
winch these observations were taken
should be to the proponents of total
abstinence the most Satisfactory of the
trying grounds. 1t is in this section OF
the Middle West that the soil of hu-
mainly has been most sedulousIy Gull
tlvated for the great day. The state
or Kansas has been theoretically arid
1or more than forty years 1t is the
birthplace of drastic anti-liauor regu-
lation. 1t is the home of the upiift.
IN the town with which I am most
Iamlllar there used to be a saying
that when strange man or woman
appeared upon the streets that an
other reformer had dropped down
upon us to teach us how to live For
forty years rising generations have
been continuously taught by precept
ana by statutory enactment that
bootlegS liquor is a mocker You'd
| think the various rising generations
would have little sense by this time,
but they haven't.
There is in the Middle West a noted
preacher-author whose real meter is
the lecture platform and whose fortis-
siino note is the one he continuously
sounds against the liquor traffic He
is, II l ma employ the term, bug
on prohib- ton. For many years he
form enunciating a certain proud
boast to the effect that in his state
many boys had grown to manhood
without having been vouehsafed the
privilege of looking upon a saloon.
Now 1 have no quarrel with the noted
preacher-author's attitude or view
point. He is a very fine and sincere
man. But just the other night / hap
pened to be in the club which is the
social center of his home town. Three
or US, a newspaper wIman, another
man and myself, were sitting in
the club and near an open door thru
which we could watch the dance that
was in progress. 1t was what, in the
terms of the community, is described
oned, -the boys and girls from the
Sprep" and finishing schools in the
east, the fresh" from a nearby uni
Yersity and a nearby freshwater col
lege and a bunch of seniors from the
local high school had gathered for
the dancing crowds of other years
engaged in the festivity, but it was a
kid party. and the great majority
OF those hidden to it were boys and
girls ranging in age from sixteen to
twenty years. And mostly they were
Ilne young people and from the best
families.
had noted the unmistakable odor
OF contraband. liquor earlier in the
evening and had observed that num-
Der of the young gentlemen seemed
until about 10 O'Clock that three of
the younger dancers came into the
room in which we were sitting and
asked if they might close the door.
The young people were the sons and a
daughter of fathers who had grown
to manhood without looking upon a
saloon, the second generation, as it
were, of those out of whom the desire
for liquor had been legislated. And
they were allsaround eighteen or nine
teen years old. Permission TO close the
1oor having been received, one of the
boys produced pint bottle filled with
brownish-looking liquid and a glass.
He proudly acknowledged the author
ship of the potation and said it was
composed of alcohol, lime Juice,
lightning" and one or two other local
lubricants. 1t was stuff that would
have inspired a rabbit to fight a bull
dog. But it was flowing like water at
dance attended by fresh" prep"
schoolbeys and high school seniors
And it had been distilled by a young
man of eighteen or nineteen in a COM
munity which for years has boosted
of the fact that its young men had
never seen a saloon. While we sat in
social converse the young man gave
us his recipe for gin. He said he could
produce good gin in ten minutes, but
that little alcohol was required, and
obtain. He was, however, working
on recipe in which no alcohol was
required The following day L CHANGED
Ito overhear a conversation between a
Il