The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-02-05
IS MORRILL, DEMENTEDP

century, or longer, as a more than al
ordinarily successful business man, a.
one who possessed the mental capacity
and the physical stamina to at once
manage, with diScreetnesS the affairs
of two great banking institutions, and
at the same time creditably represent
a district in congress, and who in all
his numerous relations, public and pri'
vate, acquitted himself with honorable
| distinction, are at a loss to account fo1
his strange talks and peculiar attitudes
of late. A prominent citizen of Kan
saS, who is by profession physician,
for years a warm friend of His Excel
lency, was but yesterday deploring the
possible, if not probable, dementia of
| the Chief Magistrate of the state
This is sad. When his long public
| services are recalled, his kindness Of
heart remembered, regret is unfeigned.
Notwithstanding he had been in public
| life filling places of trust, profit and
! power continuously for more than thirty
/ years. in the meantime amassing a for
/
tune that was munific, still his ambi-
| ton was wanting of satisfaction. His
desire was so oyermaStering to round
out his proud career with the greatest
honor that the state can beStow, that
he counted past rewards as nothing,
and crowded men, who had served the
people and party all their lives, back
and down, that he, himself, might wear
the crown. His second effort was sig
nailed by bays and laurel. This vic
tory was hailed as one assuring a
united people, a harmonious party, and
renewing Of prosperity.
What followed it is unnecessary TO
recall. After all it may be that the
present discouraging condition of party
affairs should be remembered more in
sorrow than in anger. Under the same
law we have the city of AtchisOn turn
ing into her treasury last month, from
collected licenses, over and above all
expenses, one thousand dollars. Kansas
City reporting seventy-twO joints max
Wichita levying a grievious occupation
tax. and her leading ministers prepar-
ing to leave because of the unsdTisfac-
tory conditions pertaining to their sal
aries. He cannot claim that his only
desire was to close the joints in Wich
tia, because after six months of eX
penSe and prosecution, of distress and
trouble, which have driven many good
people from our city, the tool of his
tool, Tiger Bin, standing himself I'M
der a charge of crOOkedneSS, acknowl-
edges that the joints are not. nor never
have been closed, as everybody knew
and knows.
That such a result of maladminiStra-
ton might be attributed TO ill-Will or
TO a conspiracy rather than to insanity,
is admitted; but here are Il score Of in
descretions, of unaccOuntable acts and
of queer talks, upon the part of Gov
ernor Morrill,, which cannot be so eX-
planned away. A profeSSed believer in
prohibition he declares it an impOSsi-
biIity; as a temperance man and Il
teetotaler, he advocates the Gothen-
burg system of cheap drinks for every
body served out by officials, and as an
acknowledged free-thinker he ties his
policy to a fOul-mouthed states at
tOrney, his faith to Il tramp, who left
the pulpit and took to politics because
he can't preach. He has earnestly and
oft assured representative citizens that
the men composing his original board
of police commissioners for this city
were, as citizens, superior and more
satisfactory and representative in
every way than the present board, but
when asked why then he removed them
in the face Of a protest of nearly four
thousand voters, his reply has been
that nine hundred women, children and
men. including Bill Campbell, Dolph
Hatfield. Geo. Douglass and Hi Lewis,
and their ministers, had demanded il.
Several times, within three months, he
has sent for delegations Of representa-
tive citizens. desiring them To name a
new commission for Wichita. and when
they have done so he has refused upon
one protest or another TO make the APP
pointmentS. Claiming to be liberal and
charitable minded, he has favored
some communities and Disseminated
against others. Protesting that it was
his desire TO exalt the public service,
and to unity the Republican party of
the state. he has heSjtated and vacillat-
ed in the selection of his appointeeS,
needed only perfu ctory petitions, ig-
nored the services and claims of good
men and tied himself To the machine.
As man Of great wealth and the preSi-
dent OF two national banks, he asked
the state to pay bill for clerk services
performed for him while yet u private
citizen.
As nobody who has known Major
Morrill, as army commiSSary. as state
senator and As congressman, for a
quarter Of a century can be persuaded
that he Is dishonest or that he is Il
hypocrite, there remains but the sad
conclusion that il is dementia. The
wear and tear Of life, an unusual num-
Der OF responsibilities private and pub
lie. together with age and ambitions.
have all conSpired 10 weaken and de
Stroy his mental equilibrium. To these
must be added the preSSureS and prom
iSeS of the younger and more vigorous
designing men who have surrounded
him, and the deteriorating and malign