Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-07-24
WHERE ISMS THRIVE
The People and Parties Of the Sunhower
State.
Rise and Fall OF the POpulists-Fusion
With the Democrats Ended
Political Proving Ground.

Political Proving Ground.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
LARNED. Kan, July 20, 1894.
Kansas might aptly be called the proving
ground Of political parties. Born of the
greatest political CONFUSION of the age, she
has fed her people upon partisan propa-
ganda and thus nurtured class of extrem-
lists bordering on race distinctions. Kansas
geology dates back to the parting of the
waters, when the dry land appeared and
the saurlan monsters which once dragged
their sluggish length through her tropical
jungles are left in fossil immensely in the
loess of her northern valleys to astound the
world with the richness of her geological
worth. Kansas is spoken of as new" and
yet her history began over three and a half
centuries ago, when Coronado. following his
golden vision, crossed her plains and plant
! ed the cross of the holy faith on her east
ern hills.
1t was in January, 1854, that Senator
Douglass introduced his Kansas-Nebras-
ka bill, which after debate fercer
and more bitter than any that ever
came before or since, passed both houses of
Congress and was signed by the President
Out Of that bill grew the state of Kansas,
2;D miles wide and 400 miles long, with 80 =
incipient commonwealth" Mr.. Ingalls, titled
IL, which lay in the westward path of
empire-the zone within which the great
commanders, orators, philosophers and
prophets OF the world have been born; in
which its savior was crucified; in which its
decisive battles were fought, its victories
over man and nature won, the triumphs Of
humanity anu civilization achieved
The Early Settlers.
This territory was settled by people from
the north and New England states, men
who hated war, and came to pursue peace
full vacations. to pillow and plant, and SOW
the seed of liberty along the borders of the
new-made commonwealth. Unwittingly
they sowei also dragons teeth, and the
crop is-stia growing. The men who made
Kansas were full of energy, religious, pa
triotic and Puritanic. They were men of
small means, accustomed to labor, nurtured
in stern school, skilled artisans, but I'M
schooled in the art of war They were intelli-
gent, yet narrow in judgment, slow TO anger,
but quick to avenge wrongs.
Mr.. Ingalls, asserts ,anl he ought to
know that Kansas has been swept by every
incoherent and fantastic dream of social i'm
provement and reform, every economic de-
fusion that has bev'ildered the foggy brains
Of fanatics, every political fallacy nurtured
by misfortune poverty and failure, rejected
elsewhere. has found in Kansas tolerance
and advocacy. Fiat money, prohibition
free silver and female suffrage. each and
all in turn, have had their day, and just at
the present moment they are all agitating
the political atmosphere.
For period of twenty-six years the state
was governed by men Of the political party
that was born in 1876 at Philadelphia and
who declared in their platform that Kansas
should be admitted to the Union under her
''free state constitution. In 1SS2 Kansas
voters kicked against the one-man power as
exercised by Gov. ST. John, who had been
elected TO that office twice and had secured
the domination for third time as q repub-
ican, and he was oVerw h elminsly defeated
by George W. Click, a delaocrat of the
deepest dye. This gave Kansas her first
democratic administration, but IL was placed
In power by disgruntle1 republicans, and
two years later the state returned to its
first love and elected by a big majority
John a. Martin, since deceased He was re-
elected and followed by four years OF Gov.
Humphrey, and in 1892, after one of the
hardest fought campaigns in the thirty
three years history Of the state, a populist
governor was elected by n Plurality of 1. s32
votes and all the ticket with HIM, though by
pluraiities under his.
Everything Kansas produces is either the
best or worst OF its kind. Everything that
comes 10 he she makes her own and every
thing that is her own she makes superla-
tive, some writer has said Of her. And
there are not lacking those who say that
in the superlative degree, the populist party
is the worst thing that Kansas ever claimed
fer its own-drought aud transformers not
excepted
The dt mocratic rarty as a party, With
party lines strictly drawn, has never had
a moments show in Kansas. 1t did at
one time IN the palriest DAYS of the
states rrosr Gritty, when the credit of the
state was good and the boom" was on
poll about $4,000 Votes. Ii regularly nom
mated a straight democratic ticket and il
poi!et the full strength OF its voting men,
bers. 1t was an empty form, however, for
though the prohibit.onists have about 5000
votes, the republicans have had such enor-
nous matcrities that il was not possible TO
overcome them by ordinary political meth
DDS. ''.n ...- 4.
Boast OF the Populfsts.
The populists boosted that they HAD
broken the backs of both political par
ties, and Informed them that their
assistance was no longer needed, as
there was not enough of either left to make
grease spot in the coming campaign
This was about all that was necessary TO
drive the democrats back to their own
reservation, and they Immediately began
to round things up for rebranding and
reorganiZat ton. The county elections in
Kansas last fall nearly paralyzed the pop-
ulists, for Ii showed that there was a
falling of in its strength. and that the
republicans were once more in the saddle
and riding hard on victory. They carried
almost every precinct In the state, although
the democrats made no effort TO elect ex-
cept In two or three counties. The only
moral mat could be drawn from this was
that the democrats had forsaken the party
The populists have been explaining the
detection ever since the election, but
have not been able TO do away with
the fact that the republicans got their
old-time majcrities, showing that those
who had gone off into the populist
party from them had returned, and that
the democrats were also stampeied and
headed for home.
In convention assembled in Topeka on
the ID of July the democratic state conven-
ton put in nomination straight demo-
cratic ticket, and declared it to be their in
tention to make a straight and clean fight
tc show the populists that they owed their
very life 10 the democratic party. The men
who were nominated would seem 10 show
that these declarations are honest There
is but one nfugwunip on the ticket The
nominee for attorney general, James Nc
k,nstry OF Hutchinson, was the ponulist
nominee or Reno comfy for county attor-
ncy two years ago, and was elected. Ii
was a fusion ticket, SO called, but MIR. Nc
kinstry would not take such a nomination
again IL it were offered him on a silver
saiver-so lie says.
The Democratic Nominees.
The democratic nominee for governor is
David Overmeyer of Topeka. Mr. Over
meyer was born a democrat, but went into
10 hnr,,