Our opponents assert, however, that prohibition has damaged the material
prosperity of the State.
Where are the evidences to establish this fact? What is the truth? The
prohibition amendment was adopted in 1880, and the first law to enforce
it went into effect in May, 1881. We have had, therefore, more than five
years of actual experience, and I appeal to the facts of the census to
answer the assertion that prohibition has done injury to the material
interests of Kansas.
In 1880 the population of the State was 996,096. We had been twenty-five
years in attaining that population. To-day Kansas has not less than
1,500,000 inhabitants. In five years we have gained half a million. In
1880 only 55 towns and cities had a population exceeding 1,000, and six
had each over 5,000. In 1885, 91 towns and cities each had over 1,000,
and twelve had each over 5,000. In 1880 we had only 8,868,884 acres
under cultivation; in 1885 we had 14,252,815 acres. In 1880 the farms of
Kansas were valued at only $235,178,936, and the farm products for that
year aggregated only $84,521,486; in 1885 the farms of the State were
valued at $408,073,454, and the farm products of that year aggregated
$143,577,018. In 1880 the live stock of Kansas was worth only
$61,563,950; in 1885 it was worth $117,881,699. In 1880 the assessed
valuation of the property of Kansas, real, personal and railroad,
aggregated $160,891,689; in 1885 it aggregated $248,845,276. In 1880 we
had only 3,104 miles of railway; we have now 5,117 miles. In 1880 we had
5,315 school houses; in 1885 we had 6,673. In 1880 we expended
$1,818,336 for the support of our common schools; in 1885 we expended
$2,977,763. In 1880 we had only 357 newspapers and 2,514 churches; in
1885 we had 581 newspapers and 3,976 churches.
Do these figures prove the assertion of those “weeping Jeremiahs” who
believed, or affected to believe, that the prosperity and growth of
Kansas depended upon the saloons? Do they not, on the contrary,
establish the fact that the growth of Kansas during the past six
years—the six years of prohibition—has far exceeded any other period of
the State’s marvelous development?