Billard Independent from Topeka, Kansas • 1

Less Justice Biillaro VOL. 1. TOPEKA, KANSAS, OCTOBER 1, 1914 NO. 1. Platform-Personal Liberty Billard for Less Blue Law OPPOSED TO SUMPTUARY LAWS ALSO STANDS FOR SUNDAY RECREATION A Short Sketch of the Life of J.

B. Billard EAMayor of Topeka, and a Candidate for Governor on the Independent Ticket Less Regulation Fewer Laws and More Justice In announcing myself as an Independent candidate for Governor of Kansas, I do so feeling that the paramount issue is still the Kesubmission of the Prohibitory Question. Candidates and legislators have for years dodged the question and the voters of Kansas have been denied the right to express their sentiment at the Polls. Thirty-four years ago, Prohibition was adopted by a majority of only 7,998 of the votes cast on that question, which was 7,168 votes less than half the vote cast for Governor at the same election. So that Prohibition was, in, fact, adopted and placed in our State Constitution by a minority vote.

At that time the people did not understand what Prohibition meant; they voted for prohibition to correct the evils of intemperr ance. Now that they have seen how it works and the conditions it has brought about, they are better able to decide whether it is best to continue or make a change. The laws made to enforce prohibition have been made so stringent as to deprive the people of nearly all their personal rights and liberties, even to the extent of ignoring the Constitutional Reservation that intoxicating liquors could be sold for medical, scientific -and mechanical. purposes. 1 I shall make my campaign on the theory that Kansas is tired of the prohibition farce and tyranny, from a platform upholding and strongly advocating the Resubmission of the question.

After thirty-four years of prohibition, thb people should vote on the question again. The voters of today should decide and not the voters of the past generation. However, I do not believe that resubmission is the only question involved in the approaching campaign. The people of Kansas are clamoring for release from the burdensome taxation which they are now called upon to pay, and I feel that the prohibitory law is the cause of a large per cent of this ever-in-creasing outlay of money. Lower taxation, the initiative and referendum, and a truly effective business administration should perhaps be termed the paramount issues.

This would not conflict with resubmission being my principal plank, as that is merely an application of the initiative and referendum to the prohibitory question. I believe in the principles of individual liberty as enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and further guaranteed by the Constitution- of the United States That all men are endowed with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pur- suit of happiness; to secure these rights, governments are established, and all laws, State and National, should conform to this wise declaration of our I favor the repeal of all sumptuary laws, which are now an infringements on the natural rights of the people. I believe that all innocent amusements should be permitted to run on Sundays, the only day that laboring men can enjoy themselves with their families. "We have too many laws and not enough justice. Our laws should be made so clear and simple that all could understand them; so just that all would be ready to uphold them.

There is no such thing as a sentiment against the enforcement of laws against murder, robbery, arson or kindred crimes, and all are ready to assist the officers in enforcing such laws. Such, however, is not the case where the laws interfere with personal The citizens of Kansas are law-abiding, but have greater respect for justice than for law. Although opposed to prohibition, I want it distinctly understood that I am not in favor of excessive drinking nor the evils which attend it. Nearly thirty-four years ago, I voted for the prohibitory amendment, hoping that it would correct the evils connected with the class of saloons that existed at that time. Experience has long ago convinced me that prohibition has not produced the desired results; on the other hand, "it has produced far greater evils.

It has created a general disregard for all laws, disrespect for public officials, degraded and made perjurers and criminals of many good citizens; this has resulted in a general demoralization far greater than any good it may possibly have aceom- Tells His Reasons for Fight on Dry Legislation, One Being That It Breeds Hypocrites From Wichita Eagle, Sept. 18: Does Kansas want resubmission of the liquor question J. B. Billard, ex-mayor" of Topeka and independent candidate for governor, thinks Kansas voters do and in his campaign visit at Wichita last night, addressing a crowd at the Forum estimated by his supporters at about 700, Air. Billard said he believes that Kansas is burdened with what he terms antiquated liquor laws and with other laws which need overhauling.

Billard men said there were about 100 women in the audience. During Mr. Dillards thirty minute speech he was given considerable cheering. Rufus Cone, a former city commissioner and himself an old-timer, said he never saw so many old-timers and men who brought Wichita with them when they came here, in attendance at this size meeting. Mr.

Billard said he was glad to see a number of women in the audience. He said he hoped that some of the advocates of prohibition were present, as he had been misrepresented and wished to state where he stands on prohibition. I want you to understand that I dont stand for whisky, drunkenness and disorderly conduct, said Mr. Billard, but I do stand as an advocate of temperance and I want you to understand that there is a difference between temperance and prohibition. Temperance makes us honorable men and women.

We can be intemperate in eating and in the use of tobacco as Avell as in the use of liquor. I think it is probably true that there -are more people who injure themselves from over-eating than; from over indulgenceTn intoxicating liquor. I am in favor of morality; I am in favor of anything that will elevate us, anything that will make us better men and women. I advocate resubmission because I think it is a step in the right direction. We have tried prohibition for thirty-four years and I think it is time to give the people of Kansas an opportunity to express themselves on this question.

-I want the people of Kansas to have a chance to say wyh ether they want national prohibition or not, said he. I want the people of the United States to know there is a feeling against this tyranny. You know the results of thirty-four years of prohibition in Kansas. Have we now less crime than we had before we got prohibition? The prohibitionists take the credit for all of our prosperity and for several things which we have not got. We owe our prosperity to the energy, pluck, persistency and determination of our people, to our productive soil, our oil wells and our mines.

Mr. Billard said he had been a resident of Kansas since 1854 and has as a pioneer shared the hardships and vicissitudes of the early settlers. He said he journeyed over the territory north of Wichita in 1860, when it was inhabited by buffalo and Indians. He said that during the three years he was mayor of Topeka he enforced the prohibitory law as well as, if not better than, it is enforced today and he did so without employing spotters and that he did not put the tax-pay'ers to an extra dollar of expense in enforcing this law. He said that during his service as mayor of Topeka there were violations of the prohibitory law and always will be.

He claims that sometimes-when persons sign affidavits pertaining to the buying of liquor they know they are disregarding the law and that the affidavits are only partly true. Mr. Billard said another evil of the prohibitory law is the increasing of taxes; that notwithstanding the fact that Governor Hodges during his campaign for office promised the taxpayers a 25 per cent reduction in taxes, the burdens of taxation have increased. IJe also declared that the people of Kansas have a hatred for prohibition. He referred to a citizen of Bonner Springs who was shot down in his own home on the charge of being a bootlegger and declared that the persons who killed the man before his wifes eyes are still at large.

Mr. Billard' said he stands for a business administration, conducted on business principles. He said there are state employes (Continued on Pjige Two) Jules B. Billard received his education in the public schools of Topeka and Washburn college. He was in the second class to graduate from that institution, when it had its home in the small stone structure that stood for so long at the corner of Tenth and Jackson streets.

Few, if any, of his successes have been easily won. Most of them, and especially those of his earlier years, were fought out through difficulties that would have been insurmountable to one less stout of heart and firm of purpose. His almost inherent determination to succeed, no matter what the task and regardless of the odds, is well illustrated by an incident in his boyhood. It concerns the first money he earned and why it was necessary for him to earn it. The winter of 55-56 was a hard one for the pioneer farmers in Kansas.

It was particularly severe on the Billard family, because the head of it was suffering from an illness that confined him to his bed. At that time Jules Billard was not yet ten years old. It-was a cold winter too. Fires were needed badly in the Billard home to keep it warm for the invalid father. Mrs.

Billard was a frail little woman. Upon Jules shoulders rested the re- sponsibility of providing the fuel. His fathers big and heavy ax'e was the only agency at his hands. It was so ponderous that the youngster, who was excedingly diminutive for his years, could scarcely lift it. But he did.

And by dint of perserverence and unusual effort, he managed to cut a whole cord of wood beyond what was needed for the house. A kindly disposed neighbor hauled it to town for him. It was sold for what in the vernacular of today would be called a song. The proceeds were just enough for the boy to purchase a small axe that he could handle more easily. He trudged home with this prize over his shoulder.

The fuel problem in the Billarcf household for that winter was solved. But blood will tell. And in Jules Billard veins there coursed the blood of a patriot of France. In the late forties, his father was one of the well-to-do farmers in that land. His farm was near St.

Leon, in the department of Allier. At one time, the elder Billard had been mayor of the commune in which he lived. So history has no more than repeated itself in this respect in the Billard family. When in 1854, the bill passed congress open-(Continued on Page Three) Two years ago my political opponents misrepresented my position toward organized labor. They made it appear that I was opposed to organized labor.

Such is not the case. I am a friend of organized labor and labor organizations. I believe the action of the last Legislature in abolishing the Labor Department, as it existed, was wrong. I believe the Labor Commissioner and Mine Inspector should be appointed by organized labor. I consider myself one of the laboring class, was brought up in poverty, endured all the hardships of the early Kansas pioneers, and spent half my life in doing all kinds of manual labor.

My sympathies always have been with the laboring class and the poor. I believe every State, county and city should furnish work to the unemployed, and help to secure homes for the homeless. I believe the Governor of a State is as much the servant of the people as any lower official, and that his time belongs to the public. If elected Governor of this Great State, I will devote my time to the faithful performance of the duties of the office to the best of my knowledge and ability. J.

B. BILLARD. plished. The citizenship of Kansas has not become better, vnor more sober, on account of this law. The' only remedy for excessive drinking and the connected evils is proper education and development of self-control.

I agree with the advocates of temperance and prohibition as to the ends to be attained, but differ from them as to the means to be used in attaining those ends. I would gladly co-operate with them in any course which in reality would tend toward the elevation of good citizenship, morally and intellectually, or that would make better men, better women, and better communities in which to live. I believe that such ends can only be accomplished by proper education and the individual development of self-control. Teach the growing generation the advantages of temperance, the evils of intemperance, and self-control, and you will not need prohibitory laws. I favor a four-year term for all State and county officers, but not subject to re-election.

This would secure better servjee to the public, as now nearly half of the first term is spent by officeholders in canvassing to secure re-election. It would also dispense with half the primaries and regular elections, which would save abdut $100,000 to the taxpayers each time..