The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1891-03-11
FARMERS AS LEGISLATORS.

FARMERS AS LEGISLATORS.
| Tho Kansas Legislature CritlciaedLThe
Farmers Tried, Now What Trade Shall
Next Try Legislation:-The Body Con-
trOlled BY Two Men-whereia the Alli-
ance Failed.
The experience of Kansas proves the
! truth of the maxim, uttered BY one Of
the wisest men of his age. 1.-The world
| is governed too much" The trainers of
the constitution of Kansas thought It
needful that the legislature should meet
| every year, but after few years of trial
the people amended the constitution so
as to provide for biennial sessions and
| without increasing the length of the
sessions, and Kansas has been quite as
we'll governed as before. Kansas would
not suffer for laws if the legislature met
7uadrennially.
Every legislature has character of
its own. dependent on surroundings and
leadership. Legislatures upon which
| have devolved the election of United
States senators have ussually had some
marked characteristics They have
usually contained more professional
politicians, more political soldiers of
fortune, more ''hired men," and yet
have taken rank in what in Kansas is
called ability" Then there have
been legislatures distinguished by a
certain meanness and crankiness; others
by Indifference and idleness. Others,
still, by the general good character of
the membership, and. if not by positive
work for good, at least by abstention
from evil.
The legislature whose record is soon
to be made mp and made a part of the
history of the state, has differed in sew
eral important respects from any other
that has ever assembled in Kansas.
1t is the first in which the political
complexion Of the house differed from
the senate. Gov. Click as a democrat
was at variance with both branches of
the legislature, but Gov. Humphrey is
the first chief magistrate of the state to
the other. 1t may be said that no par
ticular Inconvenience has resulted in
either Gov. Clicks or Gov. Humphreys
case from these differences. 1t really
would not appear to make much differ
ence about the politics of the governors
of Kansas.
The experience of the present legisla-
ture has shown the advantage of hav-
ing ''hold-over" body in the senate.
1t sounds very we'll to talk about a
legislative body as ''fresh from the
people," but it occasionally happens
that the people are too fresh" In
that case it is we'll to have an authority
at hand representing the public senti-
ment ''as it was" ''Philip drunk" in
the house may well be counterbalanced
by "Philip sober" in the senate. What
ever railing may be INDUCED in at pres
ent, six months from now large ma
jority of the people of Kansas will be
very glad that in the Legislature of 1891
there was conservative senate as op-
posed to a radical and reforming"
house.
The legislature of 1891 will be men,
orable in Kansas annals as witnessing
the experiment of an attempt at legis-
lation by a secret society and trades
union ACKNOWLEDGMENT which had
its great run within the recollection Of
middle-aged Americans, was an effort
at controlling governments through a
secret society. KnOw-nothingism swept
the deck of the "old parties in Massa-
chusetts. and elected state admins
tration and legislature that nobody
who was alive then has forgotten. but
the know-nothings admitted into their
ranks men of all trades, callings and
professions. The Kansas legislature.
or one branch of it, has tried the en-
ers of one particular calling. and so has
made itself an object of interest.
If the state of Kansas is to be gov
erned by trade, then il is of the ut
most Importance to decide what partic-
ular trade is to be installed as the reign
ing craft. There may be a choice as be-
tween printers and blacksmiths, car
penters and bricklayers, timers and
matters. In Kansas we have tested the
capacity Of farmers, alone and the re-
suits of the experiment are matters of
public discussion.
1t is the conviction of the writer, as
one citizen of Kansas, and entitled like
each and every other citizen to his own
opinion and its expression. that so far
as what may be called agricultural
government goes, it has not been tri-
umphantly successful in the Kansas
house of representatives.
In the first place, the body supposed
to be composed of farmers and repre-
senting farmers without regard to the
rest of the community resigned itself at
once to the control of men not farmers,
but politicians of an old and peculiarly
hardened type. No Kansas house was
ever more completely worked than
the one which will soon happily be dis
tributed over the prairies of Kansas.
In the face Of the natural superiority
claimed for farmers, the handful of
lawyers in the body, though belonging
to the minority, assumed a prominence
and leadership altogether out of pro-
portion to their numbers. Had there