The Hays free press., 1921-09-29
Booze and the World War and How 1t
Affected Hays
tBy Matthew Henry Jameson)

AHS ASa"y ndnu OF Lne amenQeQ
Constitution of the United States
the most enlightened organic law ever
framed by man-has been laid upon
that iniquitous custom, in slang, call
ed Booze
The Attorney General of the State
and an aid visited Hays, the other
day, to admonish our people as to the
observance of the law. How they
squirm; those fellows who resent hav-
ing their personal liberty" interfered
with!
Yesterday We were in the throes of
a mighty struggle to defeat the mod
ern Grecian phalanx called Force,
which claimed the right of way over
scraps Of paper" and all that. Be
fore the stars and stripes entered the
struggle the allies were fighting with
their backs to the wall. You know it :;
they escaped by bare margin. Why
was the cause so desperate before
America entered the fight? We will
name it here-Booze. We do not
write for the ignorant; but for those
thoughtful souls who follow the trend
of international events At the
moment when England and France,
looking for a way of escape, joined
hands, and with a despairing voice,
cried to America, Save or we per-
ish;" at that frightful hour, what was
going on in England? Labor was on
the verge of letting the war go by de-
fault. The foremost men of Great
Britain declared. 1--WE are the most
drunken nation on the earth A
gigantic effort was being put forth in
her munition factories to provide
powder and ball as fast as the hungry
guns Of France could belch them
forth.
Labor. debauched by strong drink,
refused to work; some would put in
two or three hours of the twelve to
sixteen necessary; others would work
half a day; few, anxious to prevent
a great disaster, put in full time. With
this dreadful lesson from which we
have not yet ceased to breathe heav-
lily, our beloved America took warning
and passed the 18th Amendment, and,
at once, all the forces of hell rose up
TO defeat the laval the devices of
which the criminal mind is capable
has been put forth to outrage and dis
grace us before the world; men cloth
ed and apparently in their right mind
classed as good citizens, and, in truth
are such, are apologizing for infrac-
tives of the law. Hold! keep your
bodies in comfort and your souls at
ease; this mighty Yankee nation, al
ways in the van of civilization, viii
take no step backward; the 18th
Amendment viii stand till the crack
of doom, and the smart Alecks will
be set apart with the goats where they
viii have leisure to look through bar
red windows upon the freedom they
once enjoyed but no longer have.
The groundlings are offended be
cause the majority of the clergy of
Hays stand openly for the enforce
ment of the law; could a teacher of
the christian religion do other than
that? Do they look for our preach
ers to stand with Booze-do they in
deed?
What l have said is not to be taken
in any sense as a defense of OuI
preachers; they need no defense from
me or from any other man. They are
the underpaid, conservative force ir
every community without which
society would be irreparably crippled
The men who talk against them DON
90 to church, and the VOWS they have
taken-if any-sit lightly upon them
Those who can refer back to oul
local condition under the State law
when trespassers dispensed booze
under their nose, in their homes
which was winked at more D.
less BY those whose duty 1t wa
to enforce the law-what wa
the slogan then by the abettor
of those who violated the law
s.You can't enforce prohibition II
Kansas" they cried; verify, W.
have a sober community, nevertheless
have we not; and this in Ellis count!
distinguished with few other coun
ties in the state for obvious reasons
1t is common knowledge tina
strong drink has been the curse O
Europe for ages, bodka in Russia aD
sinthe in France; no lack of booze Il
any of those lands since Noah went ol
a spree to celebrate a successful voy
age: and his boys walked backward
with a grin and threw an Overeoa
over the old man till he could sobe