DOES PROHIBITION PROHIBIT?

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2010, 18 March 1914, Page 3

DOES PROHIBITION PROHIBIT?

——~-s —-— - ■ (To the Editor.) Sir, —The cable inaa has deemed it hi-s duty to Hash round tho world the fast that Cardinal Gibbous, of New l'ork, has expressed his disapproval of Prohibition, liie Cardinal predicts that it will promote sly and that the revenue will seifer. etc. One would expect that an educated man would remain silent, or adduce something more convincing than the time-wcm tod exploded arguments attributed to the Cardinal m the cablegrams lately apI pearing in the iWv Zealand Pre Sis! As ■ a_ complete, reply to alinost every ©bj«ction that can be .illeged agai.net Prohibition, and an effective reply to the Cardinal's statements, you will be doing a real service to thousands of your readers by publishing the enclosed comprehensive statement by the well-known author, the Rev. Dr. 'Sheldon, of Topeka, the capital of Kansas. Ho is an expert, living in a Prohibition State flf thirty years' standing, and can therefore speak with an authority .no one would claim for Cardinal .—I am. etc., A READER. LEnciosure.J What Prohibition has D&no for Kansas. By Charles M. SheldoH. (The advantage/of our Federal system ot government is' that every State is an experiment station, and proposed reforms may be tried out on a small scale, say on a million or soj and the results watched-by the reit. Prohibition was such an experiment when it- was tried in Kansas • a generation ago, and the results have been such as to satisfy tho people of that State and to induce many others to adopt tho same policy. Tlie Rev. Dr. Sheldon knows his Stato, and 1-iis testimony as to conditions iii Kansas is worthy of consideration.—Editor,) So many lies have been told about Prohibition in Kansas thai many good people all'over t-he cottntrv still'believethe law is a failure. With persistent regularity the brewers , publications assert that under Prohibition m«e liquor is consumed in Ka.nsas than under high ■license, and in the next breath they say that- if the fanathal Prohibitionists continue to pass ihnk laws the liquor business will soon be doomed. The Kansas prohibitory law has been a part of our Oonstitirti-ott now for over ■thirty-two years. After nearly a third of a century of this law the' following may honestly be stated as some permanent, results: — , 1. In a threat majority of the 103 counties-of the Sia'te the prohibitory law is obeyed mid -enforced a* well ;:s ether laws. AH laws are broken more or less in all the States, Murders are committed sometimes even in New York, but no one insists o« criticising tho law against murder booaase- mttrders continue. The prohibitory law has always boeu criticised because it does trot absolutely stop every illegal f.ilft of lituor. But why shottlcl the lHegiil prohibitory law be expected to do More than any other law "does? Based on the same princinle as other laws, it is fait tft say that Prohibition does prohibit iti %nnens.' This does riot mean that you -:>annot get a drink ill Kansas, or that there are no places where drink is sold, arty more- than it is impossible for a murder to 'occur in New York, but it does mertn that tho prohibitory law is regarded cs a part of |he Constitution and accepted by the people generally, as the settled policy, of the. State. .2. After thirty-two years of Prohibition ;in Kansas, the liquor biisjnoss - ranks : with crime, and the niaji -who-e-n----gaco's in.it is regarded as &-criminal. There are no rdfipectabio brewers in. Kansas. A "jdinfet'f-lVin. the 6s.mo: class as a horse thief jg* ft feirgkr, Tiie j yoiiiiß men and wom«n of tho State would no- more plan to make Bqoor sellinp; their occupation then they would plan to make- a living of bio-wing open safes.

3. As a result- of Prnhibftion in Kan* sas, the habit, of social tfiinkins has fallen into disrepute, it is probabry safe to_ sav that anfcmg tho ] ,600,000 people in Kansas more men and women can be found wlits never touch intoxicating liquor than in Aitw other spot on the globe. The Use of liquor at receptions, banquets, and festive, oceasimk generally is very rare. Even political banquets are so closely watched that it is quite safe to say' if. any party in. power nl Kansas to-day should make a practice of putting e?cn beer on its banquet tables that fact would be an issue big enough to vote the party eufc of power.

4. Not only is the social use of Hquor infrequent and' unpopular, but the use of liquor as a medicine is fast disappearing. • I have questioned scores of young and successful doctors, and learn that a great _ majority of them, never prescribe liquor for any case whatever. Towns all over Kansas -of two or three thousand people are common where not a drop of alcohol in any form could be found in case-of sickness. The'dreg stores are not allowed to handle alcohol for any purpose, and as a result it is safe to say a healthier lot of peepf-o than the average Kansans could hard' ly be found anysvhero on earth. 5. The result of the prohibitory law has. been m educational that practically every newspaper in the State' is for tho law and its enforcemefit. Of the more.than eight hundred papers in the State, I do not know- of one that erer prints any liquor advertisement. During a recent editorial convention held in tho State, at which one hundred and fifty editors were ©resent ( a resolution (indorsing Prohibition and praising its results was passed by tire editors without a dissentiag vote. It mast be- said for the. l'rass of Kansas that it was largely responsible for the enaslroent of the law. The papers joined hands with the churches and temperance organisations to create sentiment and form public opinion. As a result of that stand taken thirty-two years ago. Kansas has :<>-<3av a newspaper constituency educated to understand the value of what was then won. 0. The economic results of Prohibition are sometimes cited first as be-ins the most, important. They are often demanded by opponent:! of Prohibition as if the whole principle depended on be* ing able to' prove a decrease in taxes or an increase in real estate valtios. Plenty of economic results of Prohibition in Kansas -fan be shown to anyone who asks for them. The largest per capital wealth is in Kansas to-day. Kansas contains snore people who own their own houses than any other State in tho Union. She has tho fewest paupers in proportion to her population— and all that—but, after all, the greatest and. most valuable result to : tho State, the greatest thing I that Prohibition has clone for j Kansas is to establish the conviction j with the youn.a generation that tho entire liquor businesss is nn iniquity viikl , an evil without one redeeming quality, | and that it is tho business of civilised j men and women to rub it off the map of j tho world.

The enactment of ttio \YcHj Bill, regulating tlio sliiptnrnt of liquor into Prohibition States, has alroacly proved the greatest help to .locnl enforcement. Tho-Jlnliin law, passpct by the Kansas Legislature and ha sod ctt tho Weba Hill, lias resulted in. cutting frciglit sliipments in sonro tocsnlStws flown to a ininimum, so that instead of tryinp to run a joint, .law-brealteM n*o new rwlacetl to going to Kfiiisns City [in the State of Missouri]. with an cmjrty suit case, and bring it back fiitl of whisky or booc. And when a saloon is reduced to the limits of a suit case by the rrg'oiu- of a law, it, will soon havd no visible means of support. If any reader of "The Jndopeadeut"

is doubtful about conditions iu Kansas, and still- thinks that I'rehibitimi does not prohibit, or that- the law is not. enforced, 1 will pay hk hotel bills in Topefea lor <i week, iS : nfttr an hcmest, investigation of conditions in Topeka, he b convinced that the law in the capital city of Kansas is a failure. Topefeaj Knnsas. , ' [Tlw abow is taken from "'flic Independent" of July 3, 1913.3 y*«™'. . ;_..' i.i.in i..; .ii.fr