Albuquerque morning journal., 1922-10-23
PROHIBITION IS
BENEF ICIAL To
STATE, ASSERTS
Kansas Has Had a Dry Law
for Forty Years; Attorney
General Points Out the
Benefits Accrued

Topeka, Kans., oct. 21.--Forty
years, or q generation OF pro
hibition in Kansas reveals its full
advantages. This state. dry forty
years, suffers comparatively little
from lawlessness incident to in
dustrial upheavals. These are the
statements made by Attorney
General Richard j. Hopkins in a
lengthy article on the many bene-
fits accrued to this state by pro-
,hibition, made public here today
Absence OF Violence.
The attorney general went TO
great length in pointing out the
.'notable absence" Of violence in
the recent coal and rail strikes
lin Kansas. He attributes this
lack of lawlessness 10 prohibition.
ut might SEEM" he said, that
the Kansas industrial court law
was the controlling factor in the
recent rail strike. But would the
the industrial court law have
been attainabe or practicable as
an experiment except in a COM
monwealth fully sober and fully
accustomed to sober regard for
law"
"No claim IS made that the
liquor laws are cordially OBJ
served by 1o0 per cent Of our
population, our transients and our
tourists" Mr.. Hopkins said. Not
all these have had the advantages
of forty years in Kansas. Num-
bers make short sojourns In the
state, as do auto thieves. high
way robbers and bank bandits.
Their migrating season is fire.
quently hastened by uncongenial
social atmosphere and alertness
of the law.
"a generation whose parents
have practiced prohibition-a race
of neutrality-suspicious. human
material for educational and civic
experiments impossible immediate
ly upon the adoption of prohibi-
tion. The Kansas exhibit was
often and early cited to refute the
logic of the prophets of dire dis
aster in case of national prohi-
bition. These predictions ranged
from industrial idleness and busi-
srtess stagnation TO destruction OF
glocal state government and wide
spread revolution. None of these
.things have happened to Kansas
in two score years nor to the
country in two years, because OF
prohibition.
"On the contrary, those who are
in position to know. with expert
sence and training to judge, are
generally agreed that matters OF
ethe nature predicted would have
been decidedly less favorable dur
lng the past two years except for
federal and state liquor laws.
From the nature of the case the
Fextent of this preventive bene-
fit can never be even approXi-
lmately estimated, Indeed, some
of these afflictions-lieht in com
parison with those OF Europe
are charged by the anti -prohibi-
lionists to the working of these
prohibition laws. The advocates
sof more liquor, however, fail to
account for the much more SER
ious conditions in European states.
exhaustive statistical analysis
would probably show that states
and communities that have long
est and best enforced prohibition
feel least the pinch of these con-
sditions. Kansas again provides
IAN exhibit
Economic Benefits.
Economic benefits and financial
Preserves from years of prohibi-
1ion, the attorney general contin-
1ued, have sufficed to obviate gem
,cral business failures. "This, not
{withstanding that farmers and
cattle men were among the
lheaviest losers in all the country,
from price slumps in readjust-
lnent, and Kansas is primarily a
farming and stock producing
state"
Probably no equal area. 10000
square miles, and no equal popu-
glation, 100000 people, expert
senced less jar than Kansas, with
the shifting into high gear of
federal liquor control" Hopkins
points out that because of
-'smooth and harmonious" COM
pliance with the prohibitory act
r'Washlngton has seen fit and
necessary to supply only a small
staff Of federal men to our state
e---1Ipil 1OuE " eight BlCIl w llO
cover Kansas los counties"
Kansas, with federal co-opera-
,tion." the statement concludes.
'will doubtless advance with more
definite and more rapid stride
toward the goal of perfect pro-
ihibition in years coming than in
years past. She will naturally
hold her lead in the enjoyment
sof the slower maturing fruits of
Temperance and continue to be
something of an experiment sta
stion and an exhibit to other states
and nations. To this accomplish
,ment loyal Kansans are united
with a degree of unanimity per-
,haps exceeding that attained on
other matters Of discussion or ac-
aion."