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September 22, 1908

PROHIBITION'S OPENING GUN.

Eugene W. Chafin, Candidate for

President, Will Open Campaign.

The opening gun of the Prohibition party's campaign in Jackson county and Missouri will be fired at the New Casino hall, 1021 Broadway, tomorrow night. Eugene W. Chafin, Prohibition candidate for president, will be here then to deliver one of his campaign speeches on "The Platform of the Prohibition Party."

Mr. Chafin is returning to the East from a tour of the Pacific coast states and the Northwest, where he has been campaigning. Ex-Governor John P. St. John of Kansas and Dr. C. B. Spencer, editor of the Christian Advocate, will preside at the meeting.

Labels: Broadway, politics, prohibition

August 28, 1908

LEE'S SUMMIT TO HAVE SALOON.

Contestants Over License Fight in

Presence of County Court.

There was almost a fight in the county court room yesterday afternoon when W. H. Carr, who represented the protestors in a Lee's Summit license case, struck, Ernest Bennett, who appeared for the applicants. Carr landed a light blow on the face after a lie had been passed, but the men were at once separated. The application for a saloon license was made by S. L. Coley, who had been at once enjoined by protestors. The court granted the license, on a showing there were 239 signatures for the petitioner and 207 for the protestants.

Labels: county court, courtroom, prohibition, saloon, violence

April 20, 1908

BOWDEN WILL STOP

THE 'BOOZE' JOINTS.

CHIEF IS DETERMINED TO DRIVE

THEM OUT OF BUSINESS.

Three Arrests Were Made Yesterday,

and the News Caused Other

Blind Tiger Operators

to Close.

The police of Kansas City, Kas., are prosecuting the crusade against the keepers of "blind tigers," and individual "drunks" vigorously. Between midnight Saturday night and sunup yesterday morning three "blind tigers" were raided, in which the alleged proprietors and eleven patrons were taken into custody and locked up at No. 3 police station. In addition to the arrests made in these raids twenty-six individuals were arrested and locked up at the different police stations on the charge of drunkenness. All of these offenders will be arraigned before Judge J. T. Sims in police court this morning, an it is more than probable that the court will follow out the administration's policy in its efforts to rid the city of this particular class of lawbreakers.

"I propose to make it my personal duty to see to the elimination of all 'blind tigers,' petit gambling games, and the like, which now infest the city," said Chief of Police Bowden last night. "I was out until 1 o'clock yesterday morning with a squad of patrolmen in plain clothes, and I propose to keep the good work up until the town is cleaned up of this class of offenders. Police Judge Sims is tendering material assistance to the department in showing those convicted but little mercy, and we hope to put a stop to the illegal sale of 'booze' on the Kansas side of the state line."

The chief says he will work every night for an indefinite length of time with the plain clothes squad, and visit every section of the city. In the raids made early yesterday morning, Jim Pullum was arrested in his place of business, across Kansas avenue from the Swift Packing Company's plant. Seven male frequenters and two women were taken into custody, the men being taken to jail and the women allowed to go home. Nealie Butler, who conducts a restaurant near Kansas and Packard, was taken in tow along with four frequenters.

The raids of Saturday night and early yesterday morning were noised around the city yesterday, and many of the proprietors of "blind tigers" closed. The crusade, however, is being kept up, so the chief states, and those who shut their doors yesterday figuring that the closing would only be a temporary move, may expect trouble the minute they resume business.

Labels: alcohol, Kansas City Kas, Police Chief Bowden, prohibition, restaurants

April 16, 1908

OLD SOLDIERS WANT

CANTEEN RESTORED.

"PROHIBITION IN THIS CASE A

SERIOUS EVIL."

So Declares Colonel Hunt of the Leav-

enworth Home -- Disreputable

Dives Now Get the

Old Men's Money.

Old soldiers are alarmed over talk in Washington of another anti-canteen rider going on the appropriation bill for the homes. The last time an appropriation was made for the homes Congressman Bowersock of Kansas, since retired, managed to tack onto the bill a provision that no liquor be sold on the grounds of homes. In this condition the bill went through, affecting every home in the United States. Immediately there was a protest, but the provision was carried and the canteens were abolished. Then the blind tigers flourished and they are still flourishing. There is no law against canteens at soldiers' and sailors' homes. The only prohibition was caused by the Bowersock amendment. The amendment died with the appropriation bill, so that as it now stands, liquors may be sold on the home grounds, always under the management of the national home officials.

"And we want no more Bowersock amendments if the good of the homes is to be considered," said Colonel R. H. Hunt, quartermaster of the Leavenworth home yesterday. "We never sold anything but weak beer. The Bowersock amendment closed the beer canteen, and that compelled the veteran to go outside for his drink. He went where he could get whisky, and to the capacity of his purse, so that drunkenness increased amazingly and the evil effects by comparison were shocking. It takes nothing of a savant to realize that a man can be kept better by limiting him to beer when watching his own offices than by turning him loose in the 'Klondike,' as they call the contraband places near our home in Leavenworth, to be filled with 'forty rod' and permitted to get as drunk as his money will permit."

Colonel Hunt said that there were no figures to show the effects of the home canteen, where beer only was sold, and the non-superintended dives where the veterans drink are beyond control.

"In the absence of figures you must take the word of of the officers of the home. At the Leavenworth home every officer has but to favor the restoration of the canteen, one of those most anxious to get the canteen back being the Catholic clergymen at the post. He sees the effect more directly than any of us by reason of the individual attention he gives so many of the inmates. It is a hard matter to teach old dogs new tricks. No one congressman and no one congress can change the habits of a man of 60 years. The veteran who for ten or forty years has been accustomed to his glass of beer once in a while cannot be changed from it now without locking him up or taking all his money away from him.

"At the national homes we served nothing to the veterans but 4 per cent beer. We not only limited him to that, but we sold him none before breakfast, none after supper and none during meal hours. The veteran was always within his own grounds, surrounded by his friends and those responsible for his good conduct, and so was always entirely in hand. As it is now, under the operation of the Bowersock amendment, he is out of bounds, where we do not see him till the divekeeper has got his good money out of him and his bad whiskey into him, and the veteran suffers from both causes its consequence."

Labels: alcohol, Leavenworth, prohibition, veterans

March 13, 1908

SENTENCES ILLEGAL VOTER.

Two Years for Veteran Who Voted

Twice in Independence.

Stephen H. Powell, a veteran of the civil war, charged with voting illegally at the recent local option election in Independence, pleaded guilty before Judge W. H. Wallace yesterday in the criminal court and was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary. Powell will probably be paroled on account of his age and the conditions under which he violated the law.

He tells his story to the Prosecuting Attorney I. B. Kimbrell very frankly:

"I was drunk on election day," Powell says. "I don't remember whether I voted once or a dozen times If anybody saw me vote twice, I can't deny it, because I don't know what I did."

"Which way did you vote, for or against the local option" asked Kimbrell.

"I started out to vote 'wet,' but can't say what I did do."

Labels: alcohol, Civil War, criminal court, Independence, Judge Wallace, prohibition, Prosecutor Kimbrell, veterans

February 18, 1908

LOOKS DARK FOR WALLACE.

In the Eleventh Hour He Is Being

Deserted by Reform Element.

ST. LOUIS, Feb. 17 --(Special.) The Missouri Anti-Saloon League has passed word along to its organization in every part of the state to oppose Judge Wallace of Kansas City for the Democratic nomination for governor, and support Judge J. L. Fort. A league leader said today that Wallace may defeat the cause unless Republicans nominate H. M. Beardsley of Kansas City or some other man upon whom they can unite.

The league is further agitated by the report from Charles E. Stokes of Kansas City, chairman of the state prohibition committee, that the Prohibitionists mean to put a state ticket, from governor down, into the field.

Labels: Judge Wallace, Mayor Beardsley, politics, prohibition

February 16, 1908

TO NAME A "DRY" TICKET.

Missouri Prohibitionists Will Be in

the Field Next August.

"I am being frequently asked by persons representing all parties as to the probable action of the Prohibition party of Missouri in reference to nominating a state ticket, since some of the candidates of other parties have declared for the submission of a prohibition constitutional amendment," said Charles E. Stokes, chairman of the Prohibition state central committee, yesterday. "In reply to all such inquiries I would say most emphatically that the Prohibitionists of Missouri will place a complete state ticket before the voters at the August primary. Candidates will also be named on the primary ballot in every political division of the state where it is possible to have them under the new primary law. There are seventy counties, eleven senatorial districts and eight congressional districts where nominations can be made and the opportunity will be improved."

Labels: alcohol, politics, prohibition

February 10, 1907

LEAGUE IS MAKING STATE DRY.

Bushnell Tells How It Carries On Its

Prohibition Work.

In an address before the congregation at the Hyde Park Christian church, Westport avenue and Main street, yesterday morning, Rev. A. Bushnell, superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League, told how Missouri was going dry. He said in part: "Members of the Anti-Saloon League have gone from place to place, making a thorough canvass of the state. That they have accomplished much is shown from the fact that sixty-eight counties of the eighty-one which held local option elections have gone dry. Of the cities fifteen out of twenty-seven have voted dry. This is very encouraging.

"It may be seen from this that our fight is a good one. Our weapon is the local option election. It is after all the strongest implement of warfare which we could use, for it shows what the people, not the people's representatives want. The local option victory is only a beginning of the real work. We want the people everywhere to organize for the enforcement of laws and to get the men into office who will stand true fo rthe work of the anti-saloon principles everywhere and always."

Labels: alcohol, churches, Hyde Park, Main street, ministers, politics, prohibition, saloon, Westport

November 30, 1907

THEY WILL WORK FOR SALOONS.

Mayor of Independence and Citizens

Organize for the Fight.

An attempt to defeat local option in independence at the election to be held December 3, more than seventy-five business men and prominent citizens, including Mayor J. R. Prewitt of Independence, held a meeting in the court house there last night and organized for the purpose of fighting the local option movement.

Committees composed of twenty-five voters were appointed for each of the four wards. Mayor Prewitt was chairman of the meeting, and in a brief speech said he thought local option in Independence at the present time would be a blow to business and would be very impractical. He expressed the belief that the population of Independence in general is heartily in favor of the saloon.

Labels: alcohol, Independence, politics, prohibition, saloon

October 9, 1907

IN FAVOR OF LOCAL OPTION.

Independence Mass Meeting Calls for

a Special Election.

Citizens of Independence packed the city hall last night to debate the question of local option. The Law and Order League, which called the meeting, is advocating a special election to vote on a "wet or a dry" town, under the local option law. It was the sense of the gathering that the election should be held.

James Mack Chaney, chairman, was instructed to appoint a committee of three to formulate plans for the election. A petition will have to be circulated and presented to the mayor and council. If it passes, the election wil be called.

Among the speakers last night, in addition to Attorney Chaney, were Rev. L. J. Marshall of the Christian church, and Albert Bushnell of the Anti-Saloon League in Kansas City.

There were nine saloons in Indeependence, and they have been having hard sledding lately. Recently the city council passed an ordinance raising their city licenses from $700 a year to $1,500. The total which each saloon must pay annually now, city license, county license, governmetn tax and incidental fees for filing applications, is $2,300 a year.

Twenty years ago Independence went "dry."

Labels: alcohol, churches, Independence, Independence city council, ministers, prohibition, saloon

July 6, 1907

ANTI-SALOONISTS ABSENT.

Nine Licenses Granted by the

Independence Council.

The Anti-Saloon League was not represented last night at the Independence city council meeting, and nine applications for saloon licenses were granted.

The council announced the tax levy for 1907, as follows: General revenue, 1/2 mills; electric light extension, 1/2 mill; sewer extension, 1/2 mill; interest and principal on electric plant, 1 mill; water works judgement, 2 mills; hydrant rentals, 1 mill.

Labels: Independence, Independence city council, prohibition, saloon