GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



In regard to Kansas, I clip from the 

 American Issue for May 27 the following: 



PROSPERITY STATISTICS. 



Missouri Kansas 



Age of states (years) 95 65 



Population 3,300,000 1,690,000 



Saloons 4,000 



Per capita expenditure for liquor | 24.00 $ 1.48 

 Criminals to 3000 population. 10 1 



Bank deposits per capita $ 20.00 $ 140.00 



Assessed property valuation 



per capita $300.00 $ 1700.00 



Automobiles to every 100 



farmers 1 20 



In Kansas there are 131 towns of 1000 population 

 vf^hich own electric-light plants, water and eewer 

 systems, splendid sidewalks and public schools, with- 

 out a single cent of revenue from the liquor traffic. 

 In Missouri there are scores of towns of from 1000 

 to 4000 population with open saloons paying a high 

 license, where they have no electric-light plants, no 

 water or sewerage, and poor sidewalks. 



In the panic of 1907, Missouri, with all her big 

 banks, was unable to send one penny to the East. 

 Kansas banks sent $50,000,000. 



Kansas spends $38,000,000 less per year for in- 

 toxicants than does Missouri. This explains the 

 prosperity of Kansas. 



Please notice in Missouri there is only 

 one farmer out of a hundred who has an 

 automobile, while in Kansas one farmer out 

 of five has one ; and I think that, if you will 

 look into their homes and over their farms, 

 you will find everything in proportion. 



Now, our good brother who writes the 

 letter at the opening of this article wants 

 to know tvho tells the truth. And this 

 brings up something that I have long want- 

 ed to talk about. Who are most likely to 

 tell the truth* — the liquor party who have 

 no other motive in this fight than to increase 

 their sales, and make more money? Does 

 not the text I have chosen from Isaiah fit 

 them pretty cloesly if not exactly? 



We have made lies our refuge, and under false- 

 hood have we hid ourselves. 



They make a feeble pretense of wanting 

 to benefit humanity. As the temperance 

 papers have had much to say in regard to 

 the suffering wives of intemperate men, the 

 liquor party gives a letter that purports to 

 come from a suffering wife. She does not 

 exactly say that prohibition brought about 

 all her troubles and destitution, but they try 

 to make it appear that way. Here is the 

 wife's (?) letter: 



* Let us pause right here, friends, and take a 

 square look at the matter. Shall we believe these 

 weekly sheets sent out by the liquor party — a party 

 that made and kept Ohio wet simply because the 

 slum voters of the great city of Cincinnati over- 

 whelmed us? Shall we let them rule the whole state 

 of Ohio m opposition to the schools and churches 

 and the Christian people? Shall this slum element 

 perhaps half drunk when they vote, be believed, and 

 their words be accepted as truth in opposition to the 

 devout Christians who make it their daily prayer as 

 given in that beautiful Psalm, " Search me O God 

 and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts' 

 and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead 

 me in the way everlasting " t 



A wipe's plea. 



The entire state of Tennessee is " dry " — that is, 

 unadulterated liquor cannot be sold openly. But 

 bad whisky and other injurious substitutes may be 

 obtained in " blind tigers." 



The following is a letter from a heartbroken wife 

 to the Memphis Press : 



Editor the Press: — Why don't the administration 

 close the dives in the city? Why don't they stop the 

 sales of whisky ? You can get it in restaurants, all 

 you want. Gambling is going on in every corner, 

 and the police know it. The chief knows it. 



My home is wrecked, and my life is ruined. My 

 husband has drunk until he has lost his mind and 

 left his home and wife without one bite to eat, or 

 one cent to buy anything with — running after those 

 gambling-hells and rotten whisky. 



Will the good people of this town stand for it? 

 My husband was one of the best men in the world 

 until this blind-tiger business started. 



For God's sake, close these gambling-hells and 

 blind tigers. 



From a wife who has suffered and is today with- 

 out a dollar. 



Here is a clipping, also from the Ameri- 

 can Issue that bears on the subject: 



making it hot for the criminal liquor 

 interests. 



Last week special deputies acting under direction 

 of the Attorney General, raided places in Girard, 

 Ala., where liquor had been stored by bootleggers 

 with a view to distributing it thruout Alabama and 

 neighboring states. Girard is just across the river 

 from Columbus, Ga., and offered natural advantages 

 for the importation of contraband whisky. 



The first day's raid netted the officers' liquor 

 seizures to the value of $265,000; the second day 

 $109,000, and the third day $100,000. 



The Governor of the state sent a company of 

 militia from Opelika to guard the liquor which the 

 officers put in storehouses for safe keeping. An at- 

 tempt was made by the liquor interests to enjoin the 

 state from removing the liquor, but Chancellor Lewis 

 refused the injunction. 



Just think of it, friends — toward half a 

 million dollars' worth of liquors confiscated ! 

 No wonder it requires the militia to protect 

 it ; and the question comes up as to what is 

 going to be done with all this confiscated 

 liquor. Won't we be obliged to get it in 

 shape so we can use it in our automobiles 

 in place of gasoline, which is now going up 

 so fast? 



Now, in closing let me illustrate the point 

 I am trying to make by an incident that 

 happened years ago. 



A beekeepers' convention was held some- 

 where in the West in conjunction with a 

 state fair. Our good friend E. Whitcomb, 

 of Nebraska, was one of the managers of 

 the state fair. Back in those old days they 

 had booths for selling beer, running in full 

 blast at the state fair. Kegs of beer were 

 exposed right out in daylight with great 

 bloclis of melting ice resting on them so as 

 to give the multitude a " cool drink." As 

 Mr. Whitcomb was one of the managers I 

 went to him and remonstrated. He replied 

 something as follows, so far as I can re- 

 member : 



" Mr. Root, we try tu be fair, and take a 



