The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-08-06
WICHITA ANARCHY.

who from their patent-inSide perches
| are filling the land with waiting over
| the reign of anarchy in Wichita. We
are aweary their whine. We are
tired of their howl. In claiming to be
men Of convictions and principles, de-
Tending the truth and the right. they
are but mere cur-coyotes discordantly
yelping at the beck of their bosses.
We have yet to learn that rule of
the majority is anarchy. We have
yet to be convinced that a minority
may not protest, or in the name of the
right even rebel.
About the same number Of people
that now live in Wichita, at one time,
in the name of liberty and of individual
freedom, ignored the law Of this ma
ton. and defed its administration
They were hunted down and jailed by
the supreme authority of the land; they
were prosecuted for conscience sake,
and prosecuted for crimes they never
committed. When they became num-
erous enough to organize govern
ment, their legislature was dispersed
by the army of the United States.
They were held to be outlaws and were
called Anarchists. The writer Of this
was with a crowd of them that after
having knocked over an officer and
knocked down a Jail which contained
q number Of these outlaws and An
archistS, released them. almost naked
we all would doubtless have gone
straight to the penitentiary. But we
were not caught. The end OF this
anarchistic rule was a free state and
its name is Kansas. If its destinies
had been in the hands of the men who
are bowling anarchy" at Wichita the
name of the commonwealth would
have been ''pants," and the whole his
tory of the United States would not
have been what it is, the destiny Of the
nation itself would have been different
There is no ANARCHY" in Wichita,
and anarchists are not carrying
everything here in a high hand. We
spit upon the accusation and defy the
tools who make the charge. The in
dividuals who have been tearing their
shirts and frothing at the mouth are a
minority, who in failing to rule by that
power and spirit which failed to crush
Kansas in the first place, would crush
the majority and ruin that which
would have been q city ere this but
for the limitations Of their enforced in
tolerance.
The battle hymn Of the Republic was
inspired by the acts of one to whose
name the people Of Kansas are wont
to sing peans Of praise. All that John
Brown asked was that the majority
who stood for personal freedom should
be permitted to make Kansas 4 free
state. Goaded to insanity by the muir
der Of his sons and friends by the law
and order" authorities, in the name Of
his cause he carried his war single
handed Unto Africa" and reversed the
history Of the nation.
The fanatical and intolerant spirit
which holds to the saving of men by
the enforcement Of penal laws, in con-
traventiOn of individual rights, that
spirit which burned men at the stake
to save their souls from perdition, and
which in our own country, at one time,
destroyed pure, sweet, innocent, but
helpless women as witches, that in
giving them taste of hell here they
might escape the fury of the one here
after, has been insinuated 10y the ma
chinatiOnS of extremists, through the
cowardice Of political leaders, into the
laws and institutions Of Kansas. Had
the Prohibitory law ever been for
single year, or single month, or a
single day, in truth, effectually and
honestly enforced. in all the fourteen
years of its existence, there might be
found some excuse for calling the peo-
pie Of Wichita anarchists" for their
Independent attempt as a municipal
government, intact, sole and complete.
TO regulate and by regulating curtail
the drink traffic.
The constitution of the state of Kan
sas prohibits in the most definite
terms possible, all special legislation.
In the face of this solemn prohibition"
the legislature. the law-makins power
under the constitution, in violation Of
their OathS, enact special laws at every
session where general laws could be
and should be made to apply. The
police commission law of this state is
intently a special enactment in spirit
and in letter. But says one, the su-
preme court holds different. Our re-
ply is the supreme court is made ND
of individual human beings. of poll
ticianS, with their ears ever open for
the dictates of the power that main
tains them in office, and that supreme
court decisions are in nine cases out Of
ten based on precedent and technical
ity. and not on common horse sense.
Their supremeness inheres in the fact
that they have the last say" The
Supremest Of supreme courts Of this
fell all over itself less
than three months ago, riding down the
mandate of the national concreSS and