Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1896-02-21
GARNETT, KANSAS, FEBRUARY 21, 1896.
ST. John AT TOPEKA.

Ex-Governor st. John spoke III the lnlr
Presbyterian church of Topeka, last Sunda
night, to a crowded house Following is til
report given by the State Journal (Rep.):
"We have become partisan slaves. am ro
going to make a partisan speech from this pul
pit. may make a political speech. Th
Lords prayer is the most terrible arraign1nen
of the politics of to-day that there could be
''Thy kingdom come; as though the kingdom
could come to Topeka so long as there is
single liquor joint in the city. 'Thy will b'
done with ESQ, 900 saloons i'll the country!
eve hear a great deal of the cruelty in Ar
nena and we feel sorry for the Armenians
We should rise and demand that the Armenian
Christian be protected but there is great
deal of red tape and diplomacy to go through
and the murders go on.
'Rieht here i'll our own country, we have
had five or six instances of Gods own people
being chained to the stake and burned, and
while they writhed, their eyes were punched
out with red-hot irons; and none of the per-
petrators of these outrages are brought to liist-
ice, nor any effort made toward that end 1. 1t
is terrible.
"Right on Kansas soil, a man who fought
nobly for her freedom-Col. Sam Wood--was
brutaly shot down. and not one single thing
was ever done toward furnishing his murderers.
And yet, we call this the land OF liberty and
freedom.
"Here in this state, we, by vote of the peo-
pie, the highest power i'll the state, declared
that the grog-shops should be closed, and from
that day to this, i'll the larger cities, there has
been all open and unpunished rebellion against
the will of the people; and yet every two
wears, the people of Kansas have endorsed their
decision in not allowing the liquor men to secure
more than IS or 80 votes in the state legisla-
ture And here, cities are taking revenue i'll
league openly, with these perpetrators of
crime.
"Give us Jackson to say, The constitu-
tional law must and shall be preserved, even
though it takes the military power of the state
to do it, Think how humiliating to allow
900 criminals to trample OH our laws and run
the state Where is this spirit of anarchy
going to end?
eve need that man who has backbone and
courage and 6ares to do right because it is
right May the Lord pity the angleworm-
backboned, putty politician who doesn't dare
give expression on the enforcement of law.
81 am free to speak, for | am not a candi
date for any office, and never shall be-
"We can suppress the joints if we will.
Don't talk to me and say that 300, 900 voters
can't suppress 1000 joints. What namby
pamby, chalk -and-water principle to say that
public sentiment is against the enforcement of
the law, and we can't do it, What if Grant
when he went south to crush the rebellion, had
returned and said to Lincoln, Il find that pub
lie sentiment there is against us, and we can't
do it,
''In every Fourth-of-July speech ever made,
we have delighted to talk about this being
government of the people, by the people and
for the people 1t is no such thing, nor will
it be till we give to the wives and mothers the
same power to save their men and boys that we
give the Joints to destroy them. Applause
zone time I spoke in penitentiary to
crowd of I 900 persons There were oo1 men
and 9 women 1t was the only place you would
have found it that way. In few nights at
tended prayer-meeting, at which there were
81 women and S men. Those oo1 men were
of those that have the running
of the country.
eff Kansas would give woman the right to