THE TEMPERANCE SOCIETY OF . THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH

(Kansas - Prohibition - Temperance) McCain, Harry G. DRY LIFE IN A LAND OF DROUGHT. No. 61. The Temperance Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 1914.

McCain introduces the topic with “The state of Kansas is naturally a “Land of Drought”. It has been cursed with hot winds, sand storms, grasshoppers, and dry seasons. But the Jayhawkers wanted it drier; so they induced an artificial drought; in 1882 they amended their state constitution making it illegal to manufacture or sell alcoholic beverages. That law has thus been in force for thirty-two years.

The brewers’ crowd claims that it has worked harm to the state. In the present campaign they are shoveling fake statistics out to the voter by the bushel. So the purpose of this story is to tell you the truth about prohibition in Kansas.” He

admits that there is some liquor drunk in Kansas, but not like the volume of its neighboring states, and goes on to give statistics that support his position. He claims that in Kansas, “There are thousands of boys and girls who have never seen an open saloon, nor even a drunk man. Criminality, insanity, pauperism and degeneracy of all sorts have decreased greatly under prohibition. The people are prosperous… The Sunflower state is still burdened with some of the victims manufactured in the old license days.

But she is gradually sifting these elements out of her civilization and ere long the alcohol scars will be effaced. Even now Kansas can show the world a social order in which humanity is the supreme asset – a social order in which every man, woman and child is guaranteed the inalienable rights of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

3 pg pullout, wrinkled but scarce.