Omaha daily bee., 1891-01-11
TO CONTEND WITH LOBBIES.
The Hard Task Which Confronts the Kansas
Granger Legislature
large CORRUPTION FUNDS IN SIGHT.
Ehe school Book Trust, the County
Officers and the Railroads Have
Lots of Money to- Spend
on Legislators.

lDfEkA Nan, Jan. lU-IDDeCldl UO lHE
BEEl- legislature which convenes in
this city Tuesday next will have TO deal with
the most determined lobbies which ever con-
frontcd granger legislature. There will be
promises for some and Doodle for others
The combination will furnish test of the
integrity Of the new reformers, which will
either result in giving them a greater
strength or destroy them altogether. This is
not the first granger legislature which the
state has seen, but it is the first in which a
majority of the members nave declared that
both the old parties are hopelcssly corrupt
and that the welfare of the state demand
new government in which neither must have
voice.
In the lower house seventy of the 125 mem
bers are small farmers, whose homesteads for
the most part are heavily encunbered with
mortgages. They will come to Topeka de-
termincd to legislate against corporations of
all kinds and strike a death blow to trusts
1t has been the history of such legislatures
In the past that corporations have Jared well
at their hands. There will be three large
corruption funds for distribution, two Of
which are already apparent. The alliance
has attempted to anticipate any effort which
may be made by the lobbyists to gain control
oil the legislature, and in so doing has orga-
nized fourth lobby, which will be more
dangerous than all the rest. Prominent
alliance men from every county In the state
will be sent to Topeka to watch the legis-
lators, and it is through these alliance repre-
sentatiyes tnat the lobbyists will hope TO
operate.
The big publishing houses have pooled to
prevent the establishment of n state school
book publishing house. The report OF the
revision committee appointed at the last ses'
sion of the legislature drafted a bill which
provides for the free distribution of school
books, leaving the manner of their purchase
to be determined by the legislature. 1t is
known that the agents of the large publish
4 ing concerns have approached prominent
"A school teachers, whom they thought might
have influence with the legislature, with Of
fers and as the free distribution of books
from u state publishing house would mean
the loss of thousands of dollars annually, it
Is certain that the money will be forthcom
ing
The county offcerselect, whose salaries
have all been recommended to be reduced to
starvation wages by the revision committee,
have organized to defeat the bill which has
been drafted. County offices in this state
have heretofore been the most lucrative of
! any state in the union, and both money and
y promises of appointment will be used 10 de-
feat the revision committee bill. The re
vision committee has also seen fit to abolish
v than score of boards which it plo-
pN,es a useless expense to the state, and
emembers of them will Join with the
.ty officials in a fight for a living
y, idded to this is the railroad lobby. The
\ lrQld~SdfnpSrnies do not know what to eX-
%a the legisStare Heretofore Sto the
~ control, but the political revolu-
tion has upset all previous calcu-
!ations. If the Iowa railroad laws are pat
termed after and maximum rates established
the railway people assert that it will be ruin
prds to the four great railway systems which
traverse this state. The Atchison, Topeka x
Santa Fe railway company has always been
prominent factor in Kansas politics, but it
has operated solely through the republican
party. The Union Pacific, the Missouri Pa
citic and the Chicago, Rock Island Il Pacific
will have to join hands with the Santa Fe
and none of them have any influence outside
of the usual courtesies. The board of rail
road commissioners will be certainly abol-
ished as it now exists and the positions on it
made elective. If the legislation stops here
the companies will be satisfied.
Those who expect to dictate legislation will
have representatives in the citizens alliance
and operate through them.
~ 1t is significant fact that the citizens al
lance will hold its state convention in this
city Tuesday, when steps will be taken for
calling national convention for the purpose
of forming rational citizens alliance. The
citizens alliance is political organization
formed in cities and towns in Kansas for the
purpose og cooperating with the farmers
alliance. When organized last summer it
was as non-secret body, but 1t is pro-
Nlseu to make it a secret order, upon the
same plan as the farmers alliance. Its
growth in Kansas has been remarkable over
four hundred sub-alliances being now in eX-
istence IN this state alone and about three
hundred more are located in nineteen other
Astates. In the recent campaign it was pow
%erlul ally of the farmers alliance and cou-
trbuted largely to the success of that organ
izaton at the polls. The men who have
pushed the movement so vigorously are Of all
shade of political belief. There are democrats
and republicans, greenbackers, and union
laboritcs, men with hobbie and men with
grievances, all have united as alliance men.
Not being eligible to membership
In the farmers alliance, they have
sought power and influence with
their country friends by organizing and ten
dering their services to that body. Disap-
pointed republican Office seekers, men old in
the service of the old parties, who having
outgrown their usefulness have been thrown
over to make room for younger and more vlg-
Gus campagners, democrats willing to go into
my movement which promises defeat to the
republican party, have been lifted into power
md office through its agency. Notwithstand-
Ing the multiplicity of elements which have
contributed to it, the citizens alliance has
furnished all the strength which the peo-
pe's party mustered outside of the rural dis
tricts in the last campaign, and its success
has had the effect of giving it great impetus
since. That class of men who invariably
east their political fortunes with the strong
est party have fiocked to it since they have
bcen how effective it has proved ana what
rich rewards have been gained by those who
entered it early. The convention Tuesday
will be large one for already the creden-
Aials of over three hundred delegates have
been sent out.
THE BAR ASSOCIATION.