PROHIBITION IN KANSAS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2269, 1 October 1914, Page 9

PROHIBITION IN KANSAS

LECTURE BY DR. 0. M. SHELDON

In the Town Hall Concert Chamber last night, tho Rov. Chas. M. Slieldon, D.D., of Kansas, U.S.A., the wellknown author, delivered a lecture, entitled "What Has Prohibition Done for Kansas?" Dr. Sheldon is assisting in the Prohibition campaign in New Zealand. The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) presided, and tho Concert Hall was nearly full. In welcoming the lecturer Mr. Luke said that he was sure the city would bo tlie better for tho visit of Dr. Sheldon. He' was very welcome to Wellington. He 'had always been a temperance man. (Applause.) Dr. Sheldon jras heartily applauded When rising to speak. It was a wonderful story, what Prohibition had done for Kansas. ' There were .in America about 50 million people living under Prohibition, out of 100,000,000 in the 'United States. Kansas, until recently, was surrounded by liquor States, but for the Inst 33 years the people of Kansas had lived .under a prohibitory law. Kansas had been one ot the battlefields for human freedom; first against human slavery and then against liquor slavery. Kansas people saw the ugliness of the liquor trade 50 years ago, and their campaign, assisted by the Church, tho newspapers, tho political party, and the \\ omen s Christian Temperance Union, resulted in the prohibition law coming into force in 1881. Men and women were prejpared to make sacrifices to gam their desired ends. The newspapers had given great assistance, arid there was not a newspaper printed in linglish m Kansas, which published liquor advertisements I and there was no law against it. In Kansas he could take one into a county ,where only German was spoken; in another county there were only Swedes. Why. in ono county the children had to luiderstarid three languages to. get along. TJiey liatl to educate he people up to the laws, but tho conditions now were undoubtedly better than when they had the open saloon. Their battle to keep the saloon closed had resulted in their having tho largest per capita capital of any estate in the Union. Their bank deposits had increased in & e , n , «„ years frora £22,000.000 to £44,000,000. Crime had decreased, despite the efforts of the liquor peopio to prove to the contrary. The liquor people had given the impression that the prisoners in tho Kansas gaols were Kansas criminals, whereas most wore boarded from the neighbouring State of Oklahoma. In Kansas they also had the largest percentage of children attending the schools of any State in America. The farmers had money to' send their boys to colleges. Forty thousand were attending the high schools alone; They were decreasing their State debt more rapidly than any other State. Fewer people died of murder, disease, and accident in Kansas than in the other States. Thousands of young men and women had reached their majority in Kansas without even tasting alcohol or knowing what a saloon was. They had found that they did not need alcohol for any purpose whatever, so they did liot even allow drug stores to stock whisky. The people .of America now wanted national prohibition. Prohibition did prohibit in Kansas. He quoted from the letter of the editor of. the. largest newspaper in tho State to that effect. In tlioir asylums only one out of twenty was there through over-indulgence in liquor, while in New York State it was one in three.

The liquor people were exaggerating the littlo defects, but tlio main facts were: that there were nine prohibition States in tho United States; 60 million people had 'oted' against tlio saloon; Kansas was the, most rigid in. its enforcement 'of the prohibition law, and had _ reaped the largest benefits, economically and otherwise; business in the United States was setting its head against liquor, great corporations were offering their employees 10 per cent, increase in their salaries jf they would sign the pledge; Liquor itself was beginning to seo>the end coming to it; and over and above all, . the country was beginning to demand national prohibition. Answering questions, Dr. Sheldon said that .the-statistics apparently bore out the fact that while the licensed districts were decreasing, the liquor consumption was increasing. They accounted for this by several means: that 'the-people, in tho liquor States were drinking more,' and the immense number of foreign people poured into the ports in the last few yedrs accounted for it to an extent. He believed in tho majority vote; every State that adopted prohibition in the Union came hi by the majority vote. A vote of thanks by acclamation was extended to the speaker