The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-02-22
"pERHToIoUs LEeIsLATI0Yn

"PERNIoIOUS LEGISLATION"
The readers of the peoples paper of
this city will probably call 10 mind a
suiphnrous Illumination against the
house railroad bill which appeared I'M
der the above caption in that sheet one
day last week. The parent OF the ar
ticle, at the time of ACCOMPLISHMENT, eyi
IDENTIFY labored under the gloomy fore
boiling that the members of the lower
branch Of the Kansas legislature had
laid violent and profane hands upon the
fair form Of personal liberty" and that
her agonizing wall was sounding, IN
the ears of startled world. the death
knell of freedom
1t was not TO he expected that, under
such a tragic apprehension Of the peril
Gus situation, the incorruptible patriot
who has stood for the past twenty five
years. self-constituted, solitary, but i'm
pregnable, defense against the be-
leaguers of our social and political
fabrics, whether in the guise
l0hiOdO
or the minions ot a Centralized
money power, should keep silence and
utter no word Of protest against an I'M
holy measure, which, by an impious vi
olatIon of all The hallowed traditions of
"free Kansas" contemplated not only a
hostile invasion Of the fair coal fields
of Usage county; the remote Businesses
Of the rock quarries of Chase, bat, more
horrible still, degree ofArctic suffering
on our western plains, by virtue of the
embargo on coal, which was set forth as
one OF the chilling sequences of the sue
cess of the house railroad bill, that might
we'll admonish Danenhauer TO cancel all
lecture engagements in Kansas west Of
the sixth principal meridian.
The alarm" which the "communistic,
dictatorial" measure in question was sex
citing in the minds Of thinking citizens
OF all occupations throughout the state"
was set forth In the defamation of ruin
and the rhetoric of despair
with feryor which comported
tremendously with the record of an in
dividual who has been intimately allied
with every movement TO strengthen the
bulwarks which haYe been raised in Lyon
county to protect "thc people" against
any and all infringements Of their sacred
rights. The Yalor and iutrepidity of the
chivalrous Don Quixole in his memora.
bic engagement with the wind m ills
pales Its Intellectual fires in comparison
with the incandescencc fthis onslaught
oil the peoples paper" upon the devoted
solons Of the Kansas house, and il will
scarcely be regarded IN the light Of a
marvel that such notable screed should
have enlisted some measure of popular
attention, even though il was securely
protected from the public eye by CON
spIcuOus location IN the columns OF the
peoples paper" 1t seems, at least, to
have been discovered by Mr..
Rowley, the Topeka correspondent
OF the Kansas City Times, who writes
concerning it to his paper in the follow.
ing pleasant and complimentary style:
The members are. having a large
amount of sport over a column article
which appeared in the EmporIa Repub-
lican OF the 18th, headed "Pcrnicious
Legislation" in which it Iashes the Em
poria member (Mr. ScotD for assisting
IN the passage OF the seventeenth section
Of the house railroad committees sub
stitute and otherwise lashing itself into
fury and reaching away into the future
and predicting the dire calamity that
tal lNy Il 4
what 1t Is pleased To call such "pernic-
ious legislation" The section alluded
to reads as follows:
No officer, director. or managing agent OF
any railroad company shall, unless by writ
ten permission of the board, become interest
Cd dlTeGty or indirectly IN the stock, assets,
mill, elevator. stock ard, coal or other mine,
quarry or smelling works, or 10 any firm,
operating any such mill, elevator or stock
yaru, mine, quarry or smelling works. Nor
| shall any incorporated railroad company be-
come SO interested except such interest be
acquired in satisfaction OF debts previously
contracted In the course of dealings, or by
way wa 49, o. mortgage IN good faith as security
retain such interest for n longer period than
three years; but said railroad company may
acquire land and mine coal thereon for its
own consumption.
This is, indeed, serious charge, but
the truth OF the matter is that when the
section came up for consideration in
committee of the whole ami was read by
the clerk, Mr.. BaSSett, the member from
Ncmaha, arose and moved to strike out
the entire section and Mr.. Scott, of Em-
poria, spoke al considerable length, say.
ing II was an embargo upon brains.
The entire section as above quoted by
the Republican was stricken out and
nothing was substituted in its place.
MIR. Scott says that instead of its being
"pernicious legislation" he should call
1t Journalistic imbecility" A whole
column blood and thunder editorial
against something that never occurred
Is certainly good joke upon somebody,
and II looks as though the Republican
had been fighting a man of straw.
1t may be simple act of justice to
add that the reports of legislative
bodies are not invariably so lucid as to
render them perfectly clear to the casual
reader; but, on the other hand, it must
be confessed that they are always de-
serving of u thorough and careful peru
sal by those who stand upon the watch
towers OF the citadal of personal liber-
ty." However, mistakes will happen in
the best regulated printing offices, and
even the editor of great metropolitan
daily" may occasionally stumble,
though he DC in possession of those valua-
bic helps TO >sure footing which are
vouchsafed by n ring in the nose and
the guiding hand Of an experienced
"bOss."