Liquor-loathers battle bottle 135 years
By PAUL WORTH
Staff Renarter
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is the second in a series of stories on酒 by the drink in Lawrence笔记集. This is a very enjoyable read.
Carry Nation, the liquor-loathing terror who wreaked havoc on Kansas saloons with her hatchet at the turn of the century, would pick up her weapon again if she were around today.
Kansas has been inching its way toward the "open saolon": the "evi thing" which took the life of Carrie Nation's husband and began her crusade of saloon destruction.
Year-in and year-out, the Kansas Legislature battles over the liquor by the drink question. It appears that the 'wets,' supporters of liberalizing state laws, are making headway, on July 1, liquor by the drink will be available in private clubs for the first time.
SINCE THE CIVIL WAR, Kawansha have battled physically, mental and morally to take action at the
The first real attempt at regulation of liquor sales was put into effect in 1855. The "drammonth law"
But the temperance movement gained support during the territorial period. Foreerunners of Carry Nation showed their muscle by spilling barrels of whiskey during the whiskey rebellion in Tupelo in 1856 and 1857.
provided for local option and operated for only four years.
In 1878, a great temperance revival swept across Kansas. The Women's Christian Temperance Union was organized at a huge national camp meeting in Bismarck Grove in the fall of that year.
IN A ROUSING speech, Gov. John St. John urged the 1873 legislature to rohribht in the state.
Kansas saloons, along with their tobacco-spitting, hard-drinking, card-playing clientele, could not hold a grip on the crowd.
"Could we but dry up this one great evil that consumes annually so much wealth and destroys the physical, moral and mental usefulness of its victims," St. John said in his closing statement to the agreeing legislators, "we would hardly need prisons, no porousouses or police."
Prohibition passed unanimously in the Kansas Senate in 1879. In But the house, a roll call vote, taken
During the final vote, long after midnight on March 5, a woman charged to the floor of the House. She pleaded with her husband, George W. Greewer, a county councillor who had voted against the amendments.
after hours of debate, left the amendment one "yes"
vote short of the required two-thirds majority.
"PLEASE, MY DEAR HUMAN, for my sake, for God's sake, enhance your vote." Mrs. Greene wrote.
He did. Several other representatives changed their votes. Kansas became a dry state, as dry as a Kansas Creek in an August drought. At least that's what the "dry" hoped.
Within months after the legislation was put into effect, saloons were closed throughout the state, except in Dodge City. Several residents of Dodge City, the "Gunsmoke" town, claimed the community wasn't even in Kansas and saloons there remained open for nearly 20 years.
The collapse of the last vestiges of rough, tough Kansas saloons came during the reign of Carry Nation. The state had survived Jesse James, the Daltons and Belle Star. But its marsals, its judges
and its rough-and-ready citizens had never dealt with anyone like "stand up and fight" 'Carry Nation.
ROBERT LEWIS TAYLOR, author of "Vessel of Wrath," National's biography, reported that a poet had depicted the life of the temperance crusader in verse: "Ammunition she found handy. On a pool table—sixteen balls. On the greeal floor at the garden brady. Bottles in shelves upon the walls. The bartender, retreating, ran Directly in the line of fire Of one swift-flying ball. The man Collapsed before he could retire." Whether Nation threw pool balls at saloonkeepers is subject to question, but the fact remains she was a
THE REV. CHARLES M. Sheldon, a famous grympharian and author, reaffirmed the belief in 1910 that a great war would end.
"Constitutional prohibition has done more than any other thing to make Kansas the garden spot, morally, of the universe," he said. "Prohibition in Kansas is not a question mark but a permanent fact."
The saloon and all that goes with it in Kansas is deader than Pharah's Armv."
Despite Sheldon's optimism, moonshining had occurred in Kansas since prohibition started. The whiskey sake of hillyburst fame were a reality in Kansas. During the national prohibition of the 1920s and 1930s, moonshining and bootlegging were big businesses in the state.
In 1837, the national republic of prohibition, the Kansas legislature voted to allow the sale and con-
KANSAN SEEMED content to drink 3.2 beer and booble winkley until the end of World War II. Then, thousands of young men who had fought around the globe returned to Kansas, asking why they couldn't
Before the 1946 elections, both democrats and republicans adopted party platforms calling for resubmission of a constitutional amendment legalizing liquor in Kansas.
THE SUMMER SESSION
The “wets” managed to legalize package liquor surrenders in 1948, but the “drys” added a passage to the legislation, which prohibited possession.
See LIQUOR page six
KANSAN
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Monday, June 18, 1979
Vol.89,No.152
KC rally short in Milwaukee
See story page seven
U.S. 59 accidents kill Ottawa man, injure two others
An Ottawa man was killed and a Lawrence man and woman were injured last night in separate accidents which on U.S. Highway 99 south of Lawrence.
John Redick, 28, of Ottawa, was killed when the motorcycle he was driving left the road and struck a pickup truck eight and a half miles south of Lawrence on U.S. Highway 59.
Sam Grammer of Baldwin, who was driving the truck, sustained injuries to his left arm and shoulder. He was not hospitalized. State Trooper Bo Leahaw said that Grammer's vehicle was stopped at the intersection of the highway and county road 464 facing west. Leahaw read Redick's report, saying he had hit 59 when it left the east side of the highway and traveled 161 feet until it hit the left side of the pickup.
One witness, Alice Lyman of Ottawa, said Redick passed her just before the collision and he was traveling at 80 to 90 miles per hour.
Saheib said he did not know what speed the motorcycle was going when it hit the pickle.
There was some disagreement whether the handlebars came off of the motorcycle just before the collision. Don Schwartz of the Douglas County Sheriff's office said that a Rodder's motorcycle handlebars had come off just before the accident occurred.
Leahew said the handlebars were attached to the motorcycle when the bike hit the pickup.
In the other accident, Jamie L. Moore, 21, 510 Fireside Drive, was injured when the car she was driving was struck by a car that Jo M. N. Neubauer, 30, 255 N. Michigan St.
Neubauer was treated for minor injuries at Lawrence Memorial Hospital and released last night. Moore was transferred to the University of Kansas Medical Center last night and was admitted for observation after seeing her condition. She is listed in satisfactory condition.
A state trooper for the Kansas Highway Patrol said Moore's car was northbound on Highway 59, when she lost control of the car, crossed the median and was struck by the Neubauer car which was going south. The Moore car then jumped the curve, plowed down a wire fence and crashed into a wooden fence.
Neubauer said Moore was driving north in the left lane at a high speed and attempting to pass a car on the right when she lost control of her lowered sideways and crossed the median.
"I hit the brakes and she clipped me across the front of my car and kept going," he said. "If I hadn't been able to hit the brakes, I'd be dead."
The trooper said charges probably would be brought against Moore later, but would not clobarate on what action would be taken. The police would be filed against Neuberau, the trooper said.
Crash victim
Ambulance attendants take a blood pressure reading and prepare to transport Jamie L. Moore, 21, 510 Fireside Drive, who was seriously injured in a two-car accident last night
on U.S. Highway 59 just south of Lawrence, Moore was taken to Lawrence Memorial Hospital and later transferred to the University of Kansas Medical Center and admitted as a new resident.
Staff photo by MICHAEL PATTERSON
Bridging the gap
The Massachusetts Street bridge, as seen beneath the Vermont Street bridge, has become the center of a controversy between the Anderson Construction Co. and a developer who built it.
Bridge completion date uncertain; opinions differ about work days
By JIM BLOOM
Staff Renorter
As the completion deadline for the Massachusetts Street bridge across the Kansas River approaches, a conflict between the bridge contractor and Douglas County's consulting engineers continues.
Differing interpretations of what constitutes a working day are causing the construction Co. Holton, and Douglas County's consulting engineering firm, Finney and Turnipseed, Topeka, Mike County public works director, said Saturday.
For county building projects it is normal practice to have a consulting engineer at a construction site to keep track of the amount of work done each day and to report this progress each week to Dooley's office.
"Throughout the history of the project, the contractor has filed several written protests against the engineer's weekly reports," he said.
"We have requested the county to recognize what a working day is," Anderson said. "It is defined in the contract, and businessmen interpret it differently than we do."
RON ANDERSON, a vice president of the construction company, said working days had been charged to the company that should not have been.
According to the most recent engineers'
report, released by the county Thursday, 48 working days had been charged to the project as of June 9. The contract calls for the bridge to be completed within 500 working days. After that deadline, the county will allocate $420 a day until the bridge is done.
DOLEY SAID he would learn whether the company had exceeded the time requirements when he received the report Wednesday or Thursday from the county's consulting engineers, Finney and Turnpike.
"We don't receive the consulting engineers' report until after the middle of a quarter."
He said the work contract clearly defined what constituted a working day. Neither he nor Anderson would give the specific definition.
Doiley said, "In general terms, it means that the contractor had #0 percent of his work force working part of the time throughout the day."
Anderson said working days were "those days when ongoing critical work on a project could be completed."
SO FAR, THE county had the final say on the number of days charged on the project. At this time, Dooley said, he helped move the files to another party to need the differences.
Anderson said he met with the county during the first week in June to discuss the project and the differing opinions.
"We last met with them about three
weeks ago, . Anderson said, "They were very receptive to our presentation, and I feel satisfied that they are considering our position fairly." He said he hoped the problems would be resolved within the next two weeks.
Anderson would not project a completion date for the bridge. He did say, however, that if there were no further problems, he would be done being done in the river within three weeks.
THE PROJECT HAS been plagued with set-backs since it was started in the spring of 1976.
The first one, Anderson said, threw the entire time schedule out of whack. Structured steel for the Vernorm Street building was installed a year ago, was late arriving. The steel, which was supposed to be delivered during a three-month period, took seven months to build.
That cost the company an entire working season, he said.
THE MOST RECENT set-back occurred this spring, when a dirt and rock causeway which leads to a pier in the river washed over the causeway. In an extra two weeks to rebuild the causeway.
Also, the past two winters have been more severe than Anderson had expected when he bid for the job. The company is not charged, however, for 'days it cannot work on the project because of cold weather or high water.
Water tank ignites fire
A fire in a trailer home at 101 N. Michigan St., Lot 89, yesterday caused $6,000 damage to the trailer and $3,000 damage to its contents, according to Lawrence Fire Captain Don Knight. No injuries were reported.
Lawrence Fire Chief Jim McSwain said the fire apparently was caused by a malfunction in a hot water tank that blew part of the trailer's wall and started the fire.
The trailer owner, George Wright, said he was awakened by the sound of an explosion, but thought the noise was a lawn mower and had moved. "I heard, a man had been moving the grass nearby."
Wright said he did not act until a few minutes later when he smelled smoke. He immediately called the fire department and his wife. His wife was not home at the time of the fire.
Because of the malfunction, McWaish said, a gas built-up caught fire and ignited the structural components of the trailer. He added that a leak in the exterior access door to the tank to blow off.
There was extensive smoke damage and because the heat was so intense inside the trailer, almost everything in the upper half of the trailer was melted, McSwain said.
The alarm was received at the fire station at 12:56 p.m. and firemen were on the scene within four minutes, McSwain said. The fire fighters under control within 10 to 13 minutes.