Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1893-05-11
THE SITUATION IN KANSAS.

shape the deStlnleS or the Kansas
democracy it will not be long before
the republicans re sumo control in the
sunfower state. What objections
have the "stalwarts" to tic result of
last years fusion? Would they prefer
high tariff republican to John Martin
as the representative of Kansas in the
United States senate? Would they
substitute high tariff congressman for
the populists now representing Kansas
in the lower house? Would they re-
habilitate George Peck and the Santa
Fe railroad company with the func-
tions of the state government which
they so long exercised? What is the
matter with the "stalwarts" anyhow?
What do they want? Who are they?
On whose payroll do they figure?
Whose interests do they represent in
the courts and in business affairs?
That these "stalwarts," themselves
indirectly in the employment of rail
road corporations, should be enthus1as-
tIcally endorsed by the republican rail-
road lawyers. who were relieved of
supremacy in politics by the populist
victory, is significant. The success of
the fusionists seems to have impressed
gentlemen of similar training and en-
ployment, whether democrats or repub-
licans, in about the same manner. To
defeat John Martin, a Straight-out, un-
terrified democrat, the ''stalwarts" were
willing to install a protectionist in
Plumb's seat in the senate. Animated
by similar generosity, the republican
leaders stood ready to vote for a DEM
ocratic free trader, OF the devil. or any
one of his imps, or any other man, if
only they could compass the defeat of
the true representative of the demo-
Gratis of Kansas who, in spite of fraud
and conspiracy, was elected by the pop
ulist legislature.
One thing is certain: If to the rank
and file of the democratic party in
Kansas, the alternative of marching
under the leadership of the sO-called
''stalwarts" or going over to the pOpu-
1919 OOo4lJ 10 PAOoChSCo, thCJ "AiA 81 w
the populists without hesitation. In no
state in the union will the democratic
masses consent to the undisguised lead
ership of corporation lawyers. 1t makes
no difference that the stalwarts are
gentlemen of the highest respecJability
and learning. They can not two
masters. They can not earn fat sala-
ries by fighting to maintain the estab-
in the way of the will of the people.
Subsidized newspapers may lecture the
voters of Kansas and Missouri upon
the necessity of maintaining the public
do is to submit uncomplainingly to the
perpetuation of lobby rule and cOrpO-
ration government. The attorneys of
the great railroad companies and their
sympathizers may set up shop at the
national capital, and talk in the same
vein to newspaper reporters, but the
movement for the reformation of
abuses practiced by the Bill Phelpses
decades been supervisors of the politics
of the western states is too formidable
to be arrested. The rule of the lobby
must cease. The ''stalwarts" are
wrestling with the inexorable. They
are trying to dam up Niagara with a
mole hill-to bind down the ocean with
pack thread.
The pretense that the credit of Kan
sas is being ruined by the populists is
absurd. Bad crops, exorbitant freight
rates, reckless issues of municipal
bonds, restricted markets and machine
politicians are the causes of business
depression in Kansas. Alleged demo-
Gratis who pretend to regard the deliv-
erance of Kansas out of the hands of
the republicans as a calamity will have
a hard time convincing anybody that
things were not at their worst when
the uprising of the populists banished
republican machine politicians from
authority and placed the people in COM
maud. The only course left open to the
Kansas ''stalwarts' is to abide by the
decisions of majority of the party, as
expressed in convention, or get out of
it. The result of last years election
conclusively proves that the will of the
democrats of Kansas found faithful ex-
preston in the fusion movement.
What right had these so-called ''stal-
warts" to go back and revise the action
of convention which determined upon
a fusion with the populists? What
right had they to question the wisdom
of movement which took Kansas out
of the republican column and which
under slightly changed conditions
would have decided the great contest
in favor of the democracy?
The devotion Of the ''stalwarts" to
s'ideal democracy" and their adherence
OF "bad government" are of recent
growth. With few exceptions they have
grown rich at the same feshpots at
which the republicans have been feed
ing. 1t was not until after the party