The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-11-20
THE INCUBATOR OF CRANKs.
A Few Sane Men Who May Succeed I'm
Saving Kansas.
New York Sun.


New York Sun.
The dismal and pathetic spectacle which
Kansas now presents to her sisters in the
Union of States is relieved TO some extent
headed individuals p like sep the editor of the
Emporia Gazette. This truly great journal
list, whose remarkable article entitled
ore of the features of the recent campaign,
is Moses in the widernes IS, sane man in
tie very middle of the violent ward. The
Emporia Gazette returns to the subject of
Kansas predicament with quite as much
energy as and considerably more cheerful
ness than il manifested before election.
Mr.. White admits that the work before
linn and the other sane men of Kansas.
that is to say. the redemption of the State
from the control of lunatics. is tough
enough job and that ii is hard to know
where to begin. He traces the trouble back
to peculiarities of the original Puritan Pill
grimS. emphasized by present conditions
affecting their descendants in Kansas:
ITO begin to get at the foundation of
this structure of evil it Is necessary to go
back for forty years in Kansas history and
tackle the State as an expanse of blue
stem and buffalo wallow. For ever since
that time Kansas has been an incubator
of cranks. For the most part they were
honest, but of late years they have let
their crankiness get the better of their
honesty. their business Judgment and their
horse sense.
ut is always said of early Kansans that
They crossed the prairies as of old
Their fathers crossed the sea-
We'll. their. fathers who C ossed the
sea- were probably the most ornate and
picturesque lot of cranks that ever trod
the earth. Kansas gets her blood honestly
enough. She is the acknowledged child of
Plymouth Rock. There are no foreigners
here to speak of. We are Americans. in
the average Kansas township you will hear
the dialect of Hosea Bigelow, pure and un-
defiled.
It's born in the blood to be restless. We
are the children, here in Kansas. of a race
of pioneers. Our fathers pioneered Ohio and
o.
neered western New York and Vermont:
our great-grandfathers fought Indians and
excitement, and their fathers and great
grandfathers plowed the wilderness and
crossed the sea- and quenched the fire of
restlessness within them.
To-day all the battles are fought, all
the wildernesses subdUed, all the seas are
crossed. Kansas has the energy Of the
weStward-rOving AryanS, and finds no 9TH
er outlet than that which comes in what
Sister. Lease appropriately calls raising
In other American communities, accord
ing to this eminent authority, the vent for
energy is found in-the construction Of great
cities in the operation OF giant enterprises.
He continues:
But in Kansas the chief pursuit is agri-
culture; a quiet and uninteresting one. The
possibilities of getting up in the world. of
CHANGE in other words, are not great.
The race spirit rebels and the devil is to
pay The note seems to be overdue and
prot ested just now.
Some way or another Kansas got off on
this sOcialstic track. The people have got
the idea that the government could do
things for them. Statesmen taught this
idea. Lane was a demagogue; he taught
II; i1meroy was scaiawag, AZ, ne 5augnt IT IL
others, of smaller caliber and less impor-
lance.
up, the boom and its excitement fed the
fever. But when the boom fell eight years
ago, the hunger for excitement turned to
politics."
The result we have already described 1t
is one of the most extraordinary phenome-
ma of modern times. A great common
and peoped chiefly by the children of Ply
mouth Rock. is now differed by crazy men
and given over to the ruinous cult which
feated Bryan. A Republican plurality of
$4,000 for Harrison only eight years ago is
replaced rep by Mp Populist plurality OF 1000 in
proceeds with his fearless and searching re-
marks on the deplorable situation:
guyed and jeered and reviled in Kansas in
1883 is the same party which elected Leedy
last week Its principles have not changed,
turned from love of what the world calls
best to hatred of it. They, who once
sought capital, who courted syndicates,
who met the representatives Of corpora
tions looking for investments at the depot
with band. are now CARRYING banners on
ish poverty Hang Shylock, Goldbugs
are worse than chinch bugs and other
equally stirring legends. There has been a
revolution of opinion i'm Kansas. We have
decided against the old order. We have Sc
ceded from the commercial union which
binds civilization together. We have
crossed the sea- We out here on these
fertile prairies, where, by training with the
best thought of our Nation and race, We
might be wealthy and prosperous. We are
losing wealth. We are losing population.
We are losing standing. We are lighting
capital and the fates are against us"
Yet the sane men of Kansas, Republic
ans like White of the Emporia Gazette,
and Democrats uninfected by the prevail
ing disease. ara going to take hold and lift
up this noble but PROSTATE State and set
her on her legs again. We don't doubt it.
The job is half done when you have on
the ground fellows like the editor whose
words we have been quoting. The Emporia
Gazette will lead the way for Kansas back
to civilization. progress and prosperity.
We outsiders can ali help them along with
our sympathy if not with our advice IL
is "a difficult and perhaps a delicate matter
to offer suggestions at this distance. but
| if Mr.. White is right in attributing the
trouble to too much of the old Puritan
stock, the ceanest blood OH earth, as he
says. but, have seen, quite capable
of disastrous perverson, how would it do
to encourage diversified immigration?