Believes Prohibition Does Prohibit

IHKL.SEA, 2UICH., f KB. H, 1S. Editok of the Ann Arbor Couiii kk : - In your last issue you ask the follOwinK question : " If prohibition does not proliibit or restrlot and a tax law restrnlns and gOVWM an i-vil, wherein re tlie people to be benelited by casting off the tax law nnd adopting the otlier ?'' In tliis artiele you seein to assuiue that probibition does not prohibit or restriet. Believlng that the urticle It worthy of i respectful reply, and knowing that the Courier iu all probability honestly believes that prohibition is a failure, I would most respectfully submit tlie following taken from the message of Gov. Martin of Kansas, tlie repubfican standard bearer of that state. In bis late message to the legislatuie he snid upon the subject of prohibition as follows : "Three general electlons have been held In K -iiisas slnce the adoptlon of the prohibition amendment to the constltutiou. At each of these electloas the people have re-aftirmed thelr decisión against the manufacture oraale of intoxicattng liquors a8 a üeverage, by electing legislatures pledged to the support of the amendraent. At the electton in November hist tlns whk a paramount Issue, and agaln, by emphatic imijorlty, the soverelgn verdict of the people was pronounced agalnst the saloon. No fair mtoded cllizun eau, no law respectlng citlzen will, refuse u respect this JudgtueDt. "It Is your duty, gentlemen of the Leglslature, U see that laws rimrttM wlm-li s ill give practical effect to the decisión of the people on thls queHtion. I stated In my message a year ago, that whlle the'j law of 1885 embodted some defects, its general resulta had been very favorable. I have Keen no occasion to reverse thU Judgment. A great reform Ims certainly been accompllshed in K ansas. Interaperance steadily and Burely decreastng. In thousands of hornea, where want uriil wrelcheduess and suflering'were once fatnillar guests, plenty, hapiness, and contentment now abide. Thouwands of wivs and children are beller clothed and led than they were when the Haloons absorbed all the earnings of huabands and fathers. The marvelou- material growth of the;state durIhk the pastNixyearN has been accoinpanled by an equally marvelous moral progress, and It can befairlyand truthlully asserled that In no porlluu of the clvlllzed worlil can a mtlllon and a half oí people be found who are more tempérale i Imn are the people of Kansas. "That lntoxlcatlna; liquors are Rolil as a beverage any where wU hm the llmlu of Kansas is not because of faulU In oor laws touching thls question. Those laws, defectivo as they are Iu sorae features, are ampie enough In their dlrectlonN, restrlctlons and peualties to puulsh every person who elther sells or buys licuor for uiilawiiil pur poren. There Is uot a town, city or neighborhood in the state ia whlch an Illegal tralQc Iu llquors cnn be carneil on for n week If the local ofllcers discharge the iluiirs plalnly enjolued upon the;n by law wilh zeal and lldehty. Frovlde the necesHury laws to compel local offloers to ilisclmrge thelr Hworu duties, and to remove them whenever they ueglector refute todoso nnd Uire wlll be no need to make manv otlnr ch auges In our statuteH. On the other hand, no matter whatamend menta are made, nor what provigions are added to the present law, they will be lnetfectual so lung as the municipal authorltles of cltles can nulllfy or dlnregard them without lear of removal or ptlulHhment. "The pnhlic sentiment of Kansas Is overwhelmlngly agalnst the liquor trafflc. Thdusands of men who, a few years Rg, opposed prohlhltlon, or doubting whether It was the best raelhod of dealing wlth the liquor trafflc.have seeu and franKly acknowledged lt.s benetlclent resulta and its practical success. The temptallons wlth whicli the open saloon allured the youth of the land to dlsgrace and dettructlon ; the appetlte lor liquor, bred and nurlured wlthlu ltswalU by the treatliiK pusioin ; llie vlce, crini'), pcw erty, Bufferlngaud and sorrow of which it Is always the fruHIul sonrce- all lhes evll resulis of the open saloon have been abollshed In nearly every town and city In Eaniaa. There Is not an observlng man In the iMta who does not knm that a grcat reform has been accompllxhed In K i-, by prohibition. There Is not a truthful mui in the state who wlll not frankly MkBOWlada thls laat, nu matter what hls oplnions touihlug thepolluy of prohlbltlou may hnve been. And 1 flrinly bellevethat if the amendment U the law I have suggested are made, and If authorilv Is provlded for compelí Ing local office to discharge the duties requlred of them by law wlthtn threê monthn there will not le an' opea MlOon In Kansas, and the salo of InloxlcalliiK liquors as a bererage wlll be pracllcally abolished." Now I tbink the foreffoing article does most emphntically show tb ut In Fvansas prohibition dOM problblt, and Michigan wants souie of tbat kind of prohibition. The former prohibitory law wouid bve been more ell'.-ctive luid it only embodied soine such provisions us Gov. Martin now iisks for. I think an amcndmont to our coDStllatlon will mprove the former wav veiy mach by rendering the principie of prohililtion more abtdlllK. Hivini; unswered the doubt that prohibition if properly executctl, will pnihibit, I need not reply to the other baCMH I am oonrlnoed that the Oouuibr would favor prohlbltlqn if it really bi'lii.vcd it etlecLive. Raanüná-Pnllif Vno