p. 561 | PROHIBITION IN KANSAS

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 15, 1881

PROHIBITION IN KANSAS.

THE following is a part of a letter written October 11, by Governor St. John, of Kansas. It speaks for itself:-

I have the honor to state that in addition to what has already been published in relation to the success of prohibition in Kansas it is gratifying to me, from official statistics in my possession, to be able to report that the population in our penitentiary still continues to decrease, having fallen off from seven hundred and twenty-five, last December, to six hundred and thirty-one on the 1st inst. So long as we were under the old system of licensing dram-shops, the population of our penitentiary continued to increase. We are having no trouble in enforcing the law except in Atchison, Leavenworth, Topeka, Lawrence, and Dodge City, but even in these places prohibition has had a good effect. The city of Leavenworth during the last four months of license had one hundred and two cases of drunkenness in the police court, against seventy-eight cases during the first four months under prohibition. Topeka, during the same period, had one hundred and fifty-nine cases under the license system against ninety-two cases during the first four months of prohibition, while Lawrence had, of all grades, two hundred and fourteen cases during the last five months of license against one hundred and nine during the first five months of prohibition. Fort Scott has not had the one-tenth part of drunkenness since prohibition took effect that prevailed there under the old license system. Parsons, with five thousand population, had forty-seven cases of drunkenness in the police courts during the last five months of the license system against ten cases during the first five months under prohibition. Winfield, with about three thousand population, had twenty-one convictions for drunkenness in the police court during the last five months of the license system, against three the first five months of prohibition. Newton, with about three thousand population, has not had a case of drunkenness in the police court since the prohibitory law took effect the first of last May, and the district court that convened there last week, for the first time in the history of the county had not a single criminal case upon the docket.

I have before me a written statement signed by every city officer of the city of Olathe, and endorsed by all the ministers and a large majority of the business men, to the effect that there have been no saloons in that city since the first day of January, 1878; that the financial condition of the city has greatly improved, the streets and sidewalks are in a better condition, and instead of prohibition killing the city, that trade has greatly increased until to-day it is better than ever before; that the city is enjoying a healthy growth and the people were never so prosperous; this city contains over two thousand five hundred population, has no policemen, and rarely ever has a case in the police court; it is further averred that any proposition to return to the old system of licensing dram-shops would be defeated by a vote of two to one at least. The same kind of reports come from the city of Ottawa, which contains between four and five thousand population.

I simply mention these facts to illustrate the benefits that any community may derive from a prohibition of the traffic in intoxicating liquors. What is said of the foregoing towns is equally true of a hundred other towns in the State of Kansas. With the exception of the cities first above mentioned, we are having no trouble in convicting parties guilty of a violation of the law, and it is only a question of time when these cities will be brought to a realization that they cannot defiantly trample the constitution and laws of a State under foot. Prohibition in Kansas, as a whole, is a success, and the rum-power knows it, hence the great struggle that is being made to defeat it.