Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1897-02-06
A LETTER.
To School Officers, Teachers and Patrons.

gent consideration of a statement
from me regarding my relation to the
schools of the county: l made my
humble beginning as a teacher more
than twenty years ago. and have been
engaged in school work every year
since. L have tried to keep abreast of
the times and reasonably wcli-in-
formed of the progress of educational
labor. For the past ten years l have
been connected with the schools of
this county and, as most of Won know,
during the last four years | have had
what l consider to be the important
and responsible position of county
superintendent. In that capacity l
spared neither time nor money to
make my work a success and to adj
vance the schools under my SuperYi-
sion | spent each year from fifty to
one hundreds days more than required
by law and without pay for the same.
Each year | paid in expenses nearly
one-third of my meagre salary, which
is much smaller than many people
suppose. / mention all these things
now only in support of the claim that
/ have been and am now interested
consideration.
Although working hard for salary
which netted scarcely more than COM
mon day labor and often placed in
trying and perpleXing situations, |
have taken much pleasure in my work
and the results in most respects have
been gratifying to me. That my
labors have given general satisfaction
L believe, inaSmuch as L was urged
by voters of all parties to become IL
candidate for reelection in 1896.
These unsolicited offers of support
were more general and more generous
than ever given me before. Accord
ingiy, without effort on my part. |
became the candidate of the Republic
can party of this county by unanimous
nomination. / was nominated by the
Republicans. not because | believe the
Office political position. but because
l have always belonged and still adj
here to that party and despite the
fact that L was more than once urged
and advised to become the candidate
of different party and run upon
different platform. This | could not
do, and l have never regretted my
fidelity to principle.
L conducted a campaign with re-
spect for myself and my supporters,
and with due regard for the position
j held and sought to retain. / en-
gagged in no personalities against nv
opponent. | made no attack upon his
character. / neither advised nor per-
mitted such to he done. That | did
not receive the same consderate
treatment at the hands of at least
part of the opposition is a notorious
fact. | do not charge Mr.. Balcom as
being responsible for these disrepu-
table methods, but L have not seen or
heard word from him in condemna-
ton of them. | am certain that
f1lc I0ty
his supporters was sufficient to change
the result, which was close, and he
has since then evinced considerable
avidity in accepting the fruit of dis
honor.
The official canvass of the vote
November showed that Mr.. Balloon
received 299 votes and that l had 297.
/ believed then and am now positive
that several mistakes in the original
count had been made in favor of Mr..
b., not for the purpose of defrauding
me. but as natural result of the
haSty count of large number of cum
berSome ballots in crowded, noisy
rooms and by insufficient light. Six
hundred and eleven ballots were cast.
On each of these 35 ~" marks were
permissible. and each of the 35 marks
could be lawfully placed in any one of
16 different squares" To say that
no mistake was made in scrutiniZing
these 3i2, 40 squares is to argue that
election boards are infallible. If linn
tied to TIE one office of superin-
tendent, there were still 9,716 squares
to be read, and mistakes were quite
probable
l think l may be pardoned for say
ing that l take some pride in the fact
that | ran several votes ahead of my
ticket, which / regard as further
endorsement of my public service
That / was not elected by Il consider
able majority was due, | think. to the
intense feeling regarding national
issues, which caused voters to disre-
gard important local matters. and to
oyer-contidence on the part.ef many
opposition voters who expected me to
be elected, and who would have voted
for me had they known how close the
result was to be. Several votes were
east for my opponent by mistake, as
reported to me in person by the indi-
yidualS so voting. As they are men
of good repute and members of the
opposition party, L must believe them
sincere and truthful. The number
was more than sufficient to change
the result.
The official census of the county,
taken by the assessors last March,
showed but $40 voters In the county.
Careful polls of the county were made
by the managers of the different part
les just prior to the election The
most liberal of these did not estimate
the probable vote at more than SIS,
and yet the vote was GIL This large
1lsFease CT TG. e. svUuid Indicate,
according to the usual rule in making
up such statistics, an Increase of $50
in the population of the county No
one can believe there was any such
increase. OF this large vote / re-
ceiyed more than was given me in
1894. / infer that received the usual
support of the old residents of the
comfy and the later dDVfhf flli and