10. THE ALCOHOL PROBLEM 
and no kind of compensation was paid, whether for 
breweries, distilleries, or saloons. 
It is important to realise that the prohibition move- 
ment in America was of gradual growth, and was not 
thrust on the country suddenly, in a wave of war-time 
excitement. It had been tried in many States, most 
of them agricultural, and had been found to improve 
the material conditions of life and the happiness of the 
people. The story of Kansas, which went dry in 1880, 
is well told by William Allen White, her leading 
journalist.* “ For two decades the prohibition prob- 
lem engaged Kansas. It was a hard fight, but it 
never wavered. The Puritans won. The Law and 
Order League in every town and county worked day 
and night. It required laws which permitted search 
and seizure, which prohibited doctors from prescrib- 
ing liquor, and druggists from keeping it in stock, 
laws which permitted the confiscation of liquor- 
running automobiles, and which made the second 
offence of the liquor-seller a felony, sending him to the 
penitentiary for it—but in the end prohibition won.” 
"The material condition of Kansas, which, it must be 
admitted, was partly due to other causes than pro- 
hibition, is thus described by Mr. White. “Ten 
years ago the figures indicated that the county in the 
United States with the largest assessed valuation was 
Marion County, Kansas, a county in Central Kansas, 
not materially different from any other county. Marion 
County happened to have a larger per capita of bank 
deposits than any other American County. Its 
average of per capita wealth and per capita bank 
deposits was not much higher than the Kansas average. 
* Cf. The Times, June 30, 1923. + Ibid.