PROHIBITION IN KANSAS.
All things considered, Kansas is one of the most successful instances of
State prohibition in the Union. The conditions of life there are very
different to those that prevail in Maine, and the liquor law has had to be
enforced under many disadvantageous conditions. Kansas is a Western State,
nearly half as large again as England and Wales, and with a population of
less than a million and a half. Like many other parts of the far West, it
was for some time the refuge of disorderly elements of Europe and the
Eastern States; and even now there is a very considerable "cowboy" class
which makes the carrying out of restrictive legislation extra difficult.
None of its cities contain over forty thousand people, and the number of
foreigners in the State (excepting English families) is comparatively
small. It has a large boundary line, and is bordered on three sides by
States in which the drink traffic is legalised.
In 1880 a prohibitory amendment to the Constitution was proposed and
carried by a very small majority; and the following year saw the passage
through the Legislature of a measure to give enforcement to the amendment.
This was only done after a very fierce fight, and for a time the
opposition was so strong that it was found practically impossible to give
effect to the law in many parts. In 1882 the friends of prohibition were
heavily defeated in the State elections, and it seemed as though the Act
would certainly be repealed. But there came a reaction in favour of
temperance; and in place of repeal, the original statutes were in 1885
considerably strengthened. Since then public feeling has been growing
stronger yearly in favour of the perpetual ostracism of the liquor
traffic.
According to the law as it at present stands, the penalty for keeping a
saloon is a fine of from one hundred to three hundred dollars and
imprisonment from thirty to ninety days. If the person who obtains the
liquor is intoxicated by it, then the seller will be held responsible for
any harm he may do while in that state; and his wife, child, parent,
guardian or employer may bring an action against the seller for injury
done to them through being deprived of means of support, etc., and obtain
exemplary damages.
The chief difference between the Kansas law and that of Maine is that the
sale of drink for purposes other than tippling is made through licensed
druggists, instead of through city agencies. The regulations to prevent
the druggists from selling drink for other than medical, manufacturing and
mechanical purposes are very strict. No druggist can trade in alcohol
without a permit; and he can then supply only on an affidavit of the
customer, declaring the kind and quantity of liquor required, the purpose
for which it is wanted, that it is not intended to be used as a beverage,
and that the purchaser is over twenty-one years old. Any person making a
false affidavit for liquor is counted guilty of perjury, and is liable to
imprisonment from six months to two years.
The affidavits have to be made on properly printed and numbered forms,
supplied by the county clerk, and have to be sent in once a month by the
druggist to the probate judge, with a sworn declaration that such liquor
as stated has been supplied in due accordance with the law. The druggist
has also to keep a daily record, in a book open for inspection, of all
drink sold. For breaking these regulations he is liable to a fine of from
100 to 500 dollars, and imprisonment from thirty to ninety days, besides
losing his permit. There are still further checks and affidavits required,
in the hope of making drug store tippling impossible. But these have by no
means succeeded in their purpose. They have led to a considerable amount
of perjury; and both druggists and customers have developed such elastic
consciences that most of them will now swear affidavits to any extent
required.
In Kansas the prohibition question has been made a partisan one. The
amendment was carried irrespective of politics; but when the Legislature
had to frame the laws the Republicans declared themselves strongly in
favour of active enforcement; and, after the usual manner of politicians,
the Democrats took up the other side. Up to a few months ago, to use the
local parlance, "in the platform of the Republican party there was always
a stout prohibition plank," and the party never met without making a
declaration in favour of thorough enforcement. Every Republican was a
defender of the law; and it was repeatedly said that much of the drinking
in cities was mainly due to the wilful slackness of the Democrats who had
control of them. But at the last State election there came a change. The
Republicans have for some time been supreme in the State, but recently
there has arisen a new party, the Populists, which has attracted great
numbers of the farmers from the older political bodies. In Kansas the
Populist movement is specially strong, and in the last election, by a
combination of Populists and Democrats, a Populist Governor was elected,
and the Republicans driven from office. The present Populist majority,
while not so pronounced on prohibition as were the Republicans, still
expresses its firm intention of maintaining the law. The Republicans now,
somewhat disheartened by their defeat, are inclined to hedge on the
question. Their leaders declare that they will no longer bring forward a
resolution in favour of enforcement at their conventions, but will instead
state in their programme that "the Republican party is, as it always has
been, the party of law, and in favour of enforcing all laws on the statute
book". They say they will do this because it is now wholly unnecessary to
specially declare in favour of one law more than another; but there is no
doubt that the real reason is the hope of being able to draw to their side
a number of hesitating pro-liquor voters, and so win back their old
position. One of the leading Republicans of the State, the Hon. John R.
Burton, frankly explained the state of affairs when he said: "It is high
time the Republican party of Kansas quits its foolishness, and if it
expects to succeed it must go before the people on strictly political
issues. It is time to quit riding a hobby, and next year we must make up
our platform without any relation to the isms."
But while the party leaders, sore after their defeat at the polls, may
talk like this, there is very little likelihood of their proposing or
supporting any retrograde movement; for to do so would be to court certain
disaster at the elections. The great body of the people are
enthusiastically in favour of the law, and even many of those who grumble
at it would join together to prevent the re-enactment of licence in the
State. Religious and temperance organisations abound, and are active in
compelling the officials to resolutely enforce the law.
Prohibition is now fairly carried out in the whole of the State, with the
exception of Wichita, Leavenworth, Atchison, Kansas City, and Fort Scott.
In these places the law is almost a dead letter, and drink can easily be
obtained, though the saloons do not openly advertise their business. Yet,
even after allowing for them, it cannot be denied that the law has led to
a very considerable diminution in the consumption of liquor, and, with it,
a decrease in the rowdyism which was once rampant. The number of persons
paying the Inland Revenue tax has, it is true, increased within the last
few years, but this is no test of the amount of the intoxicants used. The
returns, prepared by the United States brewers themselves for trade
purposes, of the number of barrels of beer consumed within the State in
six recent years are as follows:--
1887 16,488
1888 15,285
1889 9,700
1890 2,700
1891 2,050
1892 1,643
The amount derived by the central Government from Inland Revenue taxes has
also shown a considerable decrease, though not nearly so great as the
above.
Innumerable statistics have been brought forward by those favourable to
the law, to prove that it has had a most beneficial effect on the social
and moral condition of the people. But it is an open question how far the
small amount of poverty in the State and the reduction of crime are due to
prohibition. I have no wish to minimise the actual good accomplished by
the law, but it can serve no useful end to claim for it benefits that are
produced by other causes. Kansas is a new settlement, and its surroundings
and circumstances are such that we might naturally expect its people to be
comparatively free from poverty and its allied evils. The problems that
menace the older civilisation of the East, over-crowding, starvation
wages, and lack of employment, are hardly felt there, and it is not fair
to claim as the outcome of one law the results that are due to many
causes. The greatest benefits of prohibition in Kansas are of another
kind, impossible to show by arrays of figures, but none the less real for
that. The rising generation is free from those temptations which wreck so
many of our own youth. The man who is a wilful drunkard can, no doubt,
find out where to obtain liquor; but he who is weak rather than wicked
does not have alcohol flaunted in his face wherever he goes. A strong
public sentiment against excess is created; and those who are doing battle
with the liquor traffic naturally find themselves opposed to the allied
evils of gambling and impurity. Hence, in the greater part of Kansas, the
social evil is kept under, gambling dens are unknown, and the whisky ring
is banished from politics.
One charge has repeatedly been brought against the law in this State--that
it has checked the inflow of population. "The hour that ushered in
prohibition," said the Hon. David Overmyer, Democratic candidate for the
Governorship, in a speech at Salina last December, "closed our gates to
the hardy immigrant, the home-seeker, the strong and sturdy class that
develops a country.... It has driven law-abiding and enterprising citizens
from the State." Statistics certainly show a decrease in the population
within the last few years. There was a great inflow of immigrants from
1870 to 1880, and from 1880 to 1888 there was a further increase of the
population of from less than a million to over a million and a half. But
from 1888 to 1890 there was a decrease of about ninety thousand, thus
reducing the increase in the ten years to about 43 per cent. Since 1890
the number of inhabitants has probably been stationary. The decrease in
recent years, however, has been due, not to any State law, but principally
to the fact that great tracts of Indian territory immediately below Kansas
have been opened up to white men, and there has been a rush to them. When
the reduction is allowed for, Kansas showed a greater increase in
population from 1880 to 1890 than many of the principal Western States in
which drinking is licensed.