Enforce the statute and thousands of officials in Kansas would soon be behind prison bars.  When the officiary administrative of any government become corrupt, it is on the highway to disruption and ruin.  Greece and Rome are notable examples.  The sworn government report is that nearly eighteen gallons of liquor to every man, woman and child, is consumed by Uncle Sam’s subjects every twelve months.  This republic cannot long survive half sober and half drunk.  The immortal Abraham Lincoln in a speech at Springfield, Ill., Feb. 22nd, 1842 said:  “Turn now to the temperance revolution.  In it we shall find a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed—­in it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged.  By it, no orphans starving, no widows weeping; by it, none wounded in feeling, none injured in interest.  And what a noble ally this to the cause of political freedom!  With such an aid, its march cannot fail to be on and on, until every son of earth shall drink in rich fruition the sorrow-quenching draughts of perfect liberty!  And when the victory shall be complete—­ when there shall be neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth—­how proud the title of that land which may truly claim to be the birthplace of and the cradle of both those revolutions that shall have ended in that victory!  How nobly distinguished that people who shall have planted and nurtured to maturity both the political and moral freedom of their species!”

William Windom, when Secretary of the U. S. Treasury under the Arthur administration, said:  “Considered socially, financially, politically or morally, the licensed liquor traffic is, or ought to be, the overshadowing issue in American politics, and the destruction of this iniquity stands first on the calendar of the world’s progress.”

By Bible authority and by the common law of our land I have proved to the satisfaction of all who will see the right, that I am a loyal American, a loving Home Defender, doing the will of Him whom I serve and whose I am.

CHAPTER XI.

MY TRIAL FOR DIVORCE.—­THE LICENSED RUM TRAFFIC THE CAUSE OF SO MANY DIVORCES.—­DIFFERENT TIMES AND PLACES I HAVE BEEN IN JAIL.—­AT THE CAPITAL OF CALIFORNIA.—­WIDE OPEN TREASON.—­AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS.—­WOOLLEY CLUB AT ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN.—­CATHOLIC PRIEST AND CIGARETTES.

Mr. Nation brought suit for divorce against me while I was in jail.  I was very much astonished at it, for I never thought that our disagreement would result in his desiring a divorce.  We had lived together twenty-four years, and while we could not agree, I never wanted a divorce.  His petition stated the reason for this was “extreme cruelty and desertion.”  He sued for all the property and wanted the court to have me pay for the cost of the trial.  I shall always believe he was induced to do this by the republicans, thinking to hinder my work.