At the Annual Meeting of the State Temperance Union, held at Topeka,
June 12th, 1888.
I do not intend to make a speech. I so informed your Secretary when, a
few days ago, he invited me to be present. But it has seemed to me that,
on an occasion of this character—the annual meeting of the organization
which conducted the canvass for the prohibition amendment, and to whose
zeal, energy and influence the success of the temperance legislation in
Kansas is so largely due—it has seemed to me that, at this meeting, I
might appropriately present a few facts concerning the progress of the
temperance cause in Kansas.
During the past four years I have had, I think, a fair opportunity to
learn what has been accomplished in this State. I have visited nearly
every section of it, and have talked with officers or citizens from
every county. I have watched, with interest, the course of events, and
the development of public sentiment touching the temperance question. I
certainly have no reason to misrepresent the condition of affairs in
Kansas. I have never made any secret of the fact that I voted against
the prohibition amendment, and I cannot, therefore, be suspected of a
desire to vindicate my own original judgment when I declare, as I do,
that in my opinion this State is to-day the most temperate, orderly,
sober community of people in the civilized world. I realize, fully, the
force of this statement, and am prepared to sustain it, here or
anywhere.
_First_, I assert, in the most positive language, that the temperance
laws of Kansas are enforced as earnestly, as fully and as effectively as
are any other laws on our statute books, or as are the criminal laws of
any other State in the Union.
_Second_, I do not believe that there is, to-day, an open saloon within
the limits of the State of Kansas; nor do I believe that such a saloon
has existed within the borders of this State, for more than a year past.
I do not mean to say that intoxicating liquors are not sold in Kansas.
But I do assert, with earnestness and emphasis, that the open saloon, as
it existed here at the State Capital three years ago, and as it is known
to-day in all other States where the liquor traffic is legalized or
licensed, has been banished from Kansas, utterly.
_Third_, I assert that whenever or wherever liquors are sold in Kansas
at all, they are sold just as all other crimes are committed, namely, in
secret—just as houses are robbed or horses are stolen—and by men who
live in daily and hourly terror of the law.
_Fourth_, I affirm that, as a rule, arrests of those who violate our
temperance laws are as swift and certain, and their punishment, when
arrested, as sure and full, as are arrests and punishments of any other
class of law-breakers or criminals.
_Fifth_, I believe and declare that, as a result of the enforcement of
our prohibitory laws, and the banishment of the open saloon, fully
nine-tenths of the drinking and drunkenness prevalent in Kansas eight
years ago, has been abolished; that thousands of men who were then
almost constantly under the influence, more or less, of intoxicants, are
now temperate and sober; and that, in thousands of homes all over this
State where want, wretchedness and woe were then the invited guests of
drunken husbands and fathers, plenty, peace and contentment now abide.
_Sixth_, I assert that, in every town and city throughout the State,
arrests for drunkenness are annually decreasing, notwithstanding the
fact that their populations are steadily increasing.
_Seventh_, I affirm that public sentiment in nearly every section of
Kansas has been steadily strengthening in favor of rigid temperance laws
and their rigid enforcement, and that this growing sentiment is due to
the plainly-apparent and now generally-conceded fact that our temperance
laws have largely abolished drinking and drunkenness, and the poverty,
wretchedness and crime of which the open saloon is the fruitful and
certain cause.
_Eighth_, I assert that this development of public sentiment has made
drinking unfashionable. The abolition of the saloon has practically
abolished the American habit of treating. Young men in Kansas no longer
regard drinking as an assertion of manhood. They know that the use of
intoxicating liquors is more or less a bar to confidence, employment or
preferment, and especially to political preferment. The way to office
does not lead, as it did eight or ten years ago, through the open
saloon. The saloon as a potential factor has been eliminated from our
political system. Society does not make excuses for nor coddle the man
whose breath smells like a distillery. Men of confirmed drinking habits
are, as a rule, ashamed to be seen drinking, and the bad example of
their habits is thus not flaunted before the public eye, to seduce and
debauch young boys and callow youth. All these things have had their
influence, and have wrought the happiest results in making drinking not
only unfashionable, but, in large measure, unpopular and discreditable.
And the effects are plainly seen in the marked sobriety of a Kansas
assemblage of any character, civil, military, or political. Public
sentiment is often more powerful than statutes, and in Kansas, law and
public opinion unite in regarding sobriety as the highest virtue of
manhood.
The enemies of all temperance laws are constantly asserting that
prohibition is a failure; that more liquor is used in Kansas than was
used when the saloons were open; and that drinking and drunkenness have
not been reduced. And it is a mournful and shameful fact that such
statements are often reiterated, indorsed or applauded by a class of
so-called prohibitionists who seem to be determined that prohibition
must be a failure if they are not the direct agents employed to make it
a success. So far as the speech and actions of this class of persons
indicate their views and purposes, they would prefer to see a saloon on
every hill-top and in every valley, rather than see the Republican party
continued in power. During the civil war, the Copperheads of the North,
professing to be better-Union-men-than-you-are, kept up a fire in the
rear that was as discouraging to the men at the front, and often as
dangerous, as was the fire of the armed Confederates. The prototypes of
these Northern peace-sneaks, the Copperheads of the war for the
suppression of the liquor traffic, are those prohibitionists who work,
or talk, or vote in such a way as to encourage or elevate to power the
party that is, here and everywhere and always, the opponent and enemy of
any and all laws intended to either regulate, restrict or abolish the
liquor traffic. A third-party vote is half a vote for free whisky,
whether it is cast in Kansas or any other State of this Union, and the
man who does not know this fact is either stupidly or maliciously blind.
I avail myself of this occasion, also, to make some suggestions which,
it seems to me, are worthy of consideration by your organization, and by
all sincere friends of temperance in Kansas.
Whenever or wherever the laws are not honestly enforced, the local
judicial officers—that is, the county attorneys and sheriffs—are the
responsible parties. It is practically impossible for any one to sell
intoxicating liquors as a beverage, in any town or city in Kansas, if
the county attorney and sheriff of the county do their duty. These
officers, coöperating together, can make the illegal sale of liquor
impossible. A sheriff who is indifferent or hostile to the laws, can
largely nullify any efforts of a county attorney to enforce them, and
_vice versa_. These are the two officers who, above all others, have the
absolute power, if they have also the will, to abolish liquor-selling.
Both should be in harmony with the spirit of our laws, and resolved to
see that they are obeyed, or liquor-selling cannot be wholly prevented.
Of course the police force of any city can do a great deal to suppress
the liquor traffic, but even a police force earnestly endeavoring to
accomplish this result, can be thwarted in its endeavors by a county
attorney and sheriff who will wink at or encourage violations of the
law.
In nearly every county of Kansas, I am glad to say, the local judicial
officers are in sympathy with the spirit of our laws, and prosecute,
with vigor and sincerity, all who violate them. In only a few counties
are the sheriffs or county attorneys opposed to the prohibition law, and
do little or nothing to enforce its provisions.
What is needed in Kansas is not more laws on this subject, nor more
rigorous laws, but simply a sincere and vigorous enforcement of the laws
we have. It is a mistake to change or modify laws at every session of
the Legislature, and the friends of temperance should not make such a
mistake.
In conclusion, I want to thank the officers and members of your
organization for the generous and helpful support they have given me, as
the Executive of this State. It is natural, I know, that men and women
devoted, as you have been and are, to a great cause, should at times
imagine that everything was not being done that could be done to promote
its success. Great reforms move slowly. Great results are never
accomplished in a brief time. In Kansas we are attempting to abolish a
business that has been legalized or licensed for centuries; a business
whose large pecuniary profits tempt thousands of men; a business that
has, to sustain it, the appetites, hereditary or cultivated, of tens of
thousands; a business that custom, sentiment, and even law, have
regarded as a necessary evil. The wonder is, therefore, not that so
little has been accomplished, but that so much has been done to banish
from this great Commonwealth this monstrous evil. I have endeavored to
state the accomplished results, as briefly and as clearly as is
possible, and I feel confident that the facts I have summarized—and they
are facts beyond dispute—will be a source of joy and pride to every
honest, sensible, practical friend of temperance in this State.