=Prohibition in Kansas.= Temperance was a live topic in Kansas from the beginning; even in Territorial days laws were passed that tended to regulate, in some degree, the liquor traffic. During the first eighteen years of statehood there was a constant increase in sentiment favorable to prohibition, and, in 1880, during the administration of Governor John P. St. John, the people voted to adopt the following amendment to the Constitution: “The manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors shall be forever prohibited in this State, except for medical, scientific, and mechanical purposes.” The law has been strengthened from time to time, and more attention has been given to its enforcement, until to-day Kansas is one of the strictest prohibition states, and the popular sentiment against the use of liquor is stronger here, perhaps, than anywhere else in the United States. For many years Kansas stood almost alone as a prohibition state, but in recent years the number of prohibition states has increased rapidly, and in 1918 a prohibition amendment to the National Constitution was offered by Congress, and in 1919 it had been ratified by the necessary two-thirds of the states. Kansas was among the number. It is a matter of pride in Kansas that ours was a pioneer state in this great movement.
=Woman Suffrage.= Kansas has been one of the most liberal of the states in its laws concerning the rights of women, but it is only in recent years that Kansas women have had full political rights. In 1861 women were given the right to vote in district school elections, and in 1887 in city elections. The question of complete woman suffrage was voted upon and defeated in 1867, and again in 1894, but in 1912 it carried by a large majority. Only six states, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Washington, and California, preceded Kansas in granting to women the right of suffrage. A number of other states have followed Kansas, and now (1919) Congress has offered to the states for ratification a woman suffrage amendment to the National Constitution.
=Kansas in the World War.= The period from the opening of the twentieth century to the beginning of the World War was, on the whole, one of peace and prosperity in Kansas. No great destructive force, such as famine or panic, left the people struggling for existence, nor did anything occur to stir their deeper emotions. Their chief interests were in building up their homes and their businesses and in developing their State. But suddenly, in 1914, like the people of the rest of the United States, they began to give more thought to the affairs of other countries, and when on April 6, 1917, the United States entered the war, the people of Kansas were ready to carry their share of the burdens.