The absurd history behind 68 years of prohibition in Kansas By Erik Johnson, Jayplay wri
When a group of journalism students took over the Lawrence Daily Journal one day in 1908, Lawrence residents opened the paper to receive what was a shock to very few: Lawrence was still wet. Former student Harry Kemp, in perfect prose, tells how the "evidence" was accumulated:
One night I went with several friends to see The Bottoms and their gay activity.
First we went to a house of better style; We drank some beer and lingered for awhile. Then forth we passed into the lowest place In which a white man dared to show his face. A little joint it was, unpapered, bare Possessed of a stove, a table and a chair. But on inquiry careful, even here A dusky woman furnished us with beer. We killed a quart or so, and to a man Our cheeks grew flushed, our tongues more glibly ran. We then proceeded down the street, and came Where reputation never had a name. Here in a stuffy room, with finger snaps And exhortations, Negro lads shot craps. Nor did we tarry long, and even here Between us we killed another quart of beer.
Source: Across the years on Mount Oread 1866...1941 by Dr. Robert Taft.
It's 9 p.m. on a Friday night. Having showered and readied yourselves for another all-too-short weekend of swirling stale brews and vainly hitting on that newest crush, you set out to the closest liquor store - the one where the clerk knows your name and politely greets you with each visit.
with each visit.
But, in this story at least, that liquor store doesn't exist. In fact, every purveyor of potent potables in Lawrence has long since been shut down, either boarded up or sold to another more "legitimate" business.
to another more legitimate.
Confused and frustrated, but determined to get your fix, your friend in the back seat whips up his phone to make a call. A short conversation of muffled voices and uncomfortable whispers ensues.
Something about "moonshine" and "we're totally desperate, man," is barely discernable over the mumbled chatter. A minute later, he hangs up: "I got it, boys. Head downtown."
Head downtown.
Your buddy directs your car to an alley behind Mass., takes your last twenty-spot and discretely walks up to an unmarked metal door. After short series of knocks, a small window slides open and your friend slips the $20 inside. A moment later, two small bottles of bootlegged whiskey are handed back. It's a silent exchange of illegal goods guaranteed to finally get the night officially started.
officially started. What may now sound like an oddly distorted dream was a reality for nearly 70 years during the Kansas prohibition era. As the first state to ban the manufacture or sale of alcohol in 1880-40 years before the
national prohibition began - the story behind Kansas' prohibition years begins with the influence of a young bride over her new husband, continues with ardent conservatism and ends with inevitable public outcry.
outcry. The first National Temperance Movement to ban alcohol began work on a dry bill in 1878 in Lawrence, and by January 1879, after enough public support was gathered, a roll-call bill was brought before Captain George Grever and the rest of the Kansas Legislature. Grever, a democratic lobbyist in favor of keeping Kansas wet, voted a
strong "no," to the immediate disdain of his new bride, Jennie Newland Greever. When votes were tallied, the "no's" won by a single vote.
Whether Greever was truly moved by his wife's plea or just afraid of sleeping alone on their upcoming honeymoon, no one will
THE IDEA WAS THAT IF THEY COULD LIMIT THE VISUAL ASPECT OF PUBLIC DRINKING IT WOULD LIMIT THE DESIRABILITY OF ALCOHOL. CLEARLY THIS WASN'TWORKING.
honeymoon, no i do ever know. But this is clear: After only a few short minutes of his wife squabbling, Greever switched his vote, and the bill passed.
OWNER OF FREE STATE BREWERY.
CHUCK MEGELR
voted dry. Owner of the first legal brewery in Kansas, Free State Brewery owner Chuck Magerl says the thought behind the ban was that outlawing saloons would keep
passed. The bill was taken to the public and, miraculously, passed. In the words of Pulitzer Prize winning author William Allen White, "Kansas staggered to the polls and voted dry."
people from being seen drinking in public. "The idea was that if they could limit the visual aspect of public drinking it would limit the desirability of alcohol. Clearly this wasn't working."
wasn't working.
By 1880 Kansas was legally dry but as wet as ever. Open saloons existed in nearly every city for another 10 years, the only difference being they no longer had to pay for a license. A December 1978 issue of *Kanhistique* on Kansas Prohibition notes the offensiveness of some Lawrence saloons: "Respectable women crossed the street rather than pass [the saloon's] doors. This is not so much because
was not so much because of their moral depravity, but more often, especially in the mornings before the street cleaners had done their work, the board sidewalks were spattered with the remains of what some drunks had thrown up the night before."
University of Kansas
girls even took part in forcing Kansas dry when in 1899 they engaged in a "lips-that touch-liquor-sshall-never-touch-mine" campaign. But even the efforts of Carry A. Nation, a crazed dry purporter who smashed saloons for years with a bible in one hand and an axe in the other, couldn't stop growing towns like Lawrence from getting drunk.
getting drunk.
When, in 1908, the Lawrence Daily Journal (now the Lawrence Journal World) allowed the KU journalism class to assume responsibility of the April $25^{\mathrm{th}}$ issue, residents of Lawrence received what may not have been the shocker the students had hoped: Lawrence was as wet as it ever had been. The students detailed their adventure drinking at an underground joint, even giving a precise location where liquor could be bought.
could be bought.
The student's not-so-investigative report paid off, but not in the way they had intended. Lawrence received its biggest liquor overhaul that year, and only a year later the Legislature outlawed all in-state liquor sales, effectively shutting down pharmacists who had actually been prescribing alcoholic cures for ailments ranging from asthma to malaria.
Lawrence and the rest of Kansas remained officially dry another 39 years. Students and residents desperate for a drink - and there continued to be many dealt secretly with bootleggers and risky, homemade moonshine drinks. State officials went as far as to refuse to christen the U.S. Kansas with wine before World War I. Only after sailors refused to man the vessel did the ship's captain smash a bottle of champagne over the bow, to the anger of then Gov. Hoch.
then Gov. Hoch. Fifteen years after the $21^{\mathrm{st}}$ Amendment repealed prohibition nationwide, Kansas officials finally came to their senses. Under the pressure of returning WWII fighters, the state prohibition was finally repealed in 1948. It would be still another 40 years until current liquor laws would take effect, but Kansans were once again free to partake in all the acts of moral depravity and debauchery we've come to enjoy so much. Cheers.
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Jayplay 9.9.04