The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-03-15

would be entitled to the unqualified
thanks of the people. But, there Is an
other side to the score, wnicn
every earnest Republican IN the state
ought to consider. Not even the wlio
vagaries of the Alliance shouters can
excuse the apparently determined lano
certainly successfully effort OF the ruling
CLIQUE in the senate to crush out every
particle of reform legislation sent TO
them through the efforts OF the Kepub-
licans in the house. / shall give three
or four illustrations only OF SUCH oliis
neglected by the senate.
Two years ago the legislative scandais
brought to public notice the face that
there was no law in Kansas to punish
public officer or legislator Tor receiving
BRIDE The governor and the attorney
general both called attention 20 TINS
discreditable defect in our law ana
urged that it be remedied. l lntro-
duced house bill No. l. prescribing
penalties for the acceptance OK orloes.
After long and stormy history 1t passed
the house only to find peaceful eno1ng
and quiet grave in the senate.
So, after a long and persistent hight
in the house, / also secured the passage
of house bill No. 2 ''To prohibit the cor
rupt use of money and corrupt prac;
tees at elections" which, when 1t came
to an actual roll call. received every vote
cast in the house but one. 1t was a Dill
to abolish the disgraceful and growing
Doodle system now prevailing at every
election in every important city IN TINS
state. 1t stood on the senate calendar
for weeks; and many of the best men IN
that body earnestly desired its passage,
and it would be humiliating to reclte the
number of efforts / personally made to
secure action on it in that body; yet IL
was smothered to death by the OPPOSE
ton of few men who call themselves
Republicans!
So also the house passed the bill pre-
pared by Mr.. Rice, Of Fort Scott-one
of the straightest and ablest men IN
either house or senate-to suppress the
operations of the rotten lottery that has
its headquarters in Kansas City, Kan.
But this bill-like every other Republican
measurer from the house, framed in the
interest of public morality and cleanness
in public life-was also smothered appar-
entity by the same men who have posed
as leaders of the Republican party In the
senate.
The house also passed bill
prepared mainly by Judge Webb vastly
improving, simplifying and cheapenlng
many features of the Civil procedure
act. The bill if passed would have con-
ferred benefits upon the people IN every
comfy in Kansas. Yet during part OF
the time, when the senate had agreed to
consider, or should have considered,
house bills, hour after hour was squan-
dered in long recesses, in cracking jokes
or singing songs, instead OF acting upon
such measures as these!
The fact is that while there are some
of the best and truest men in public life
in the senate there are also IN the same
body few of the worst pot house pol
iticians in the state; and in some respects
this minority seemed to have absolutely
the upper hand in regulating the order
of business in that body. But the mere
circumstance that some very bad Alll-
ance financial measures were sent
from the house to the senate
affords no shadow of excuse
for smothering measures originating
with Republicans and supported by all
parties in the house, and which every
consideration of sound policy required
the senate to act upon.
Among the minor measures which i
succeeded in getting passed by the house
early in the session was bill to abolish
the costs now incident to the "continu-
ance" of cases from term to term in dis
trict courts, which in the last three years
have probably averaged $4,000 to $40, 600
a year in Sedgwick county alone. The bill
was about six lines long, and could have
been passed in the senate in half as many
minutes, but it died in that body for
want of somebody to make motion to
place it on third reading. So the need
less and harrassing multiplication of
these utterly useless costs will still go on.
l introduced the first
WORLDS FAIR BILL
in the house, where it was promptly re-
ported. 1t seemed to me that the prOpo-
sition that the state shonld be repre-
scented on that occasion at Chicago, was
business proposition, rising far above
petty political squabbles. Yet, in the
final windup, the senate bill on the same
subject, which had been passed by the
house with some amendments which
wrote myself, was killed by wrangle
over the question whether one OF the
five commissioners should or should not
be Democrat So Kansans may hang
| their heads on that grand occasion, and
all because g. few small-fry politicians
disagreed over a question OF patronage
involving an appointment to position
paying So day!
| mention this as single illustration
of the difficulties under which member
Of either house labors who believes, as
do, that the legislature IS a place for
business and not for buncombe, and that
the less politics utter iected into its daily
proceedings the better. Acting upon this
theory labored to carry out'every pledge
| made to the people of Wichita and for
what | understood to be the best inter
ests of the state; and for doing so some
of the newspapers and politicians who
| value partisan wrangiing and shouting
above all the moral or material interests
| of the people, have persistently, and
maliciously misrepresented what l have
| said and done. But l merely want the
people who honored me to know that !
made the fight in behalf of retrenchment
and reform. at every point, for honest
elections and for the complete uprooting
/ of the Doodle business alike In state and
| local politics, and after long contests,
carried or helped to carry the necessary
measures in the house Of which l was a
member That they failed elsewhere
| was no fault of mine. But l believe
! this fight will still go On and
/ that the time viii come
when each branch of the legis-
lature will have enough Republicans
/ in it who believe in these principles 10
place on the statute book OF the state
some of the good measures which for
MANY reasons (but for no good reason)