Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1908 — SHALL THE BREWERS RULE? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SHALL THE BREWERS RULE?

The Indiana Brewery Combine, for the purpose of creating a prejudice against the county option law that a Republican legislature has placed on the statute books, and in hope of electing a Democratic legislature which will repeal the law, are spreading over the state glaring white posters, printed In red, declaring that the county option law will destroy business. With these posters are a lot of alleged pictures of business houses in Kansas City, Kansas, that the posters claim remain unoccupied because of the excluding of the saloon from that state. Governor Hoch of Kansas was asked about the situation in that state with -respect to the excluding of the saloon, knd here is what he saya on the subject: Topeka, Kansas, October 16, 1908. I have your letter of the 13th inst., enclosing pos- > ter which you say is being displayed all over Indiana by the breweries in an effort to prove that the enforcement of prohibition in Kansas City, Kansas, has worked a great injury to the interests of the city. I have received many copies of this poster and find that it is being used all over the country. As a matter of fact, the enforcement of prohibition in Kansas City, Kansas, has proven of untold value to the city, not only morally and educationally, but financially as well. I am enclosing you a copy of a circular gotten out by the Commercial Club of Kansas City, Kansas, j refuting the statements made by this circular issued by the brewers. This circular shows that the city is ! • prospering as it has never prospered before. lam also sending you a copy of a speech made by Assistant Attorney General C. W. Trickett, giving facts to ■ show that the enforcement of the law has greatly benefited the city in every way. I call your especial ‘ attention to a statement made by Mr. C. L. Brokaw, cashier of the Commercial National Bank of Kansas , City, Kansas. Mr. Brokaw’s bank is the largest in tbe city, and be is one of the prominent bankers of .'—2— tbe West, being formerly president of the Kansas Bankers’ Association. Mr. Brokaw says that during the time since the saloons were closed they have bad the largest increase of new/business they have had in any equal period in the bank’s history. He says that their bank holds the accounts of more than 50 per cent of the business houses of the city and that mer- < chants say that business has been better than they have ever known it before. He says further that during his residence of nearly seventeen years conditions were never so good as they are today. Crime i has been greatly decreased, business in every legitimate line Is better than it ever was, and although at tbe beginning of the movement for law enforce- > merit many of the business men were opposed to it because they thought it would hurt the city financially, there has been a wonderful change of sent!- ’ 1 ■ ment there, and under no consideration would ths • eitlzeug go back to the old conditions.

GOVERNOR. In considering Governor Hoch’s letter about the Kansas situation, the fact -Should be borne in mind that Kansas, in the state’s constitution, prohibits the sale of intoxicating liquor as a beverage. The sgloons which were maintained at Kansas City, Kansas, therefore, had no legal existence at any time; they were run in flagrant violation of the law and the constitution of the state of Kansas. They were^permitted because similar forces to those that now are trying to establish the rule of the breweries in Indiana dominated the politics of Kansas City, Kansas. The breweries controlled the politics of this Kansas town, and the saloons were run in defiance of law and without regard to public sentiment Finally an attorney general of tbe state who had oourags and honesty came on the scene and broke the power of the Kansas City ring and drove the illicit saloons from that place. Thia brave officer simply brought into play tbe law that the breweries had derided and spat upon, just as they have ignored and abused the law tn every other atate in the Union that Bought to restrain the traffic in the interest of tbe public peace and welfare. The brewery oombine at Kansas City bad neither respect for the law nor for public opinion; tbe same in true of the brewery combine In the state of Indiana. The tamper ance question would not be in the politics'of Indiana this day but for the greed and the rapaciousness of the Indiana brewers and their contempt for the wholesome sentiment that demands laws in regulation of the liquor trains that may abate its evils.