The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-10-14
WHAT ANS KANSAS. ANYHOW.
The State Blishted by the Calamity Pop
utisfs

uiisfs.
The State Gazette of Emporia, Kansas,
throws light on the conditions that pre-
vail in Kansas and some of the other
Western States. 1t is the blight of cal
amity Populism that is cursing that state.
as the State Gazette well says, in the fol-
lowing words:
To-day the Kansas Department of Ag-
riculture sent out statement which in
dicates that Kansas has gained less than
1000 people in the last year. There are
about l25.o00 families in the state, aud
there were about 10000 babies born In
Kansas. and yet so many people have
left the state that the natural increase Is
cut down 10 less than 1000 net. This has
been going on for eight years
If there had been a high brick wall
around the state eight years ago, and not
soul had been admitted or permitted to
leave. Kansas would he half a million
souls better of than she i to-day. And
vet the nation has increased ia popuia-
ton. In five years l0.0Do9)) people have
been added to the national population,
yet instead of gaining share of this-say
500 Oo0-Kansas has apparently been a
plague spot. and in the very garden of
the world ha- lost population oy the ten
thousands every year.
Not only mas she iOst population nut
she has lost wealth Every moneyed
man in the state who could get out with
out great loss has gone. Every month in
every community sees someone who has
little money pick up and leave the
state. This has been going on for eight
years Money is being drained out all
the time. In towns where ten years ago
there were three or foar or a half dozen
money lending concerns stimulating IN
dustry by furnishing capital there are
none or one or two that are looking after
the interest and principal already out
standing.
Whats the matter with Kansas?
We all know; yet here we are at 1t
again. We have an old moss back jack
sonian, who snorts and howls because
we are running that old jay for governor.
We have another shabby, wild-eyed, rat
tle-brained fanatic who has said openly
in dozen speeches that ''the rights OF
the user are paramount to the rights of
the owner;' we are running him for
chief justice, so that capital will come
tumbling over Itself TO get into the state.
We have raked the ash heap of human
failure in the state, aud have found an
old boopslzirt of man who has failed "a
a business man, who has failed as an edi-
tor, who has failed as preacher, and we
are running him for congressman
large. He will help the looks of the
Kansas delegation in Washington. Then
we discovered kid without a law prac-
tice, and have decided to vote for him for
attorney general Then for fear some hint
that the state had become respectable
might percolate through the civilized
portions of the nation, we have decided
10 send three or four harpies out lectur-
ing, telling the people that Kansas Is
raising hell and letting corn go TO weeds,
Oh, this is a state TO he proud of. We
are a people who can hold up our heads.
What we need here is less money, less
capital, fewer white shirts and brains.
fewer men with business judgment, and
more of those fellows who boast that they
are '.just ordinary old lod-hoppers, but
that they know more in minute about
finance than John sherman" We need
more men who are posted who can
below about the crime of '73, who hate
posterity, and who think that because a
man believes in national honor that he is
a tool OF Wall street.
man the dickens. Legislate the thriflless
into ease; whack the stufiing out of the
creditors and tell the debtor who borrow
ed money five years ago, when the mon
ey in circulation was more general than
il is now, that the contraction of the cur
rency gives him a right to repudiate.
oh, yes, Kansas is great state. Here
are people fleeing from it by the score
every day, capital going ont Of the state
by tie hundreds of dollars, and every in
dustry except farming pa=alyzed, and
that crippled because lis products have
10 60 across the ocean before they can
find ls.boring man at work who can
afford To buy them. Let's don't stop
this year. Let's drive all the decent,
self-respecting men out of the state.
Let's keep the old elod-hoppers who
know it all. Let's encourage the man
who is posted lie can talk, aud what
we need is not mill hands 10 eat our
meat, nor factory hands to eat cur wheat,
nor cities to oppress the farmer by con-
sGming his butter and eggs and chickens
aud producer what Kansas needs is men
who can talk, who have large leisure TO
argue the currency question while their
wives wait at home for that nickle's
worth Of blueing.