PROHIBITION RUINING THE STATE.
By John St. John
THEY tell us prohibition is ruining our State; that is the position taken by the towns and cities of this State, where they bid defiance to the law. Leavenworth says it is infamous; that it is an outrage like the fugitive slave law. Let us see just a moment. The fugitive slave law was in the interest of human slavery; it was in the interest of all that was infamous and outrageous, while the prohibitory law is in the interest of human freedom; in the interest of the fireside; in the interest of the homes of the people, and in the interest of sobriety and good government. They are as different as midnight and noonday. But Leavenworth says that saloons are necessary for the prosperity of the city. Leavenworth twenty years ago was the commercial metropolis of the Missouri valley and held the key to the situation in this western country. It was the political power in this State. You could not get any man named for any office without first making peace with Leavenworth. There have been from fifty to one hundred and fifty saloons in that city during the past ten or fifteen years; the temperance people plead with Leavenworth; showed her citizens that these saloons were as a cancer eating into the vitals of her prosperity. They replied: "You are fanatics; we know our business; no town can prosper without them; it brings trade to the city, and business is livelier for their presence." Let us see. In 1871 Leavenworth had 20,000 population and about one hundred saloons, and she has clung to the saloons ever since. In 1881 her population has declined from 20,000 to less than 17,000, notwithstanding the fact that she has had saloons enough to have given her a population of 100,000, if they are necessary for the prosperity of a city. In 1871,—I wish to give the official figures so that it cannot be said that I misrepresent the facts,—the assessed valuation of the property of Leavenworth was $5,991,027. In 1881, after she had hugged her saloons for ten years in spite of the advice of her true friends to do otherwise, the assessed value of her property had declined to $3,281,863.66. A falling off in ten years, of $2,710,163.34. The only city in Kansas which has lost in population or wealth during that time; all the others have grown, but Leavenworth has clung to her saloons until they have nearly killed her.—From a Speech by Gov. St. John.