The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-13
PULLED ON THE CRITICS M xa<SAs
BY THE NEW POPtI,IST
EXECUTIVE.
GOV. LEEDY GROWS cAUsTIc
IN DEFENDING THE sUNFE.OwER
STATE FROM THE GLBEs
AND JEERS
Most Important Part of the Govern
Or's inaugural Devoted to the
Problems of Transportation.

TOPEKA, Kas., Jan. 1.-THE Kansas
legislature met today with the Popu-
lists for the first time in control OF
both branches, as we'll as with an
executive in harmony Herewith. A. u
Street, of Decatur county. was elected
speaker. The message of the governor
caused considerable surprise. in that Il
made no reference to the prohibitorv
law, or a constitutional convention.
GoY. Leedy's message is an exhaus-
tive document Of 10000 words. dealing
infinitely with the workings Of the diff
1erent state departments and brimfuI
OF recommendations. His first utter
ances touch upon the adverse criticisms
on Kansas, made by Eastern states,
and ridiculing that part Of the coun-
try. Gov. Leedy goes on to draw a
parallel of the degree of prosperity in
his state with those of its alleged
maligners. He says:
With profound regret for the misfortunes
of our more pretentious sisters OF the East
l congratulate the state Of Kansas upon the
many simple blessings that have fallen to
US in these adverse times. While those
who clamor for aims in the streets of the
crowded cities are many, those who seek
assistance from our ready public bounty
are few. While, the failure of great CONNER
clal institutions brings sad calamity to the
chlei capitals where fortunes accumulate the
less imposing but quite useful despositor-
les or Kansas savings giving satisfying
evidences of stability. While according to
the press OF the nations most populous
metropolis, her children lnger in the streets
untaught, except in the lore of the pave
ment: unfed, except at the hand Of charity;
unhoused. except in the kennels they dis
pute with creatures scarcely less miserable,
the commonwealth of Kansas rejoicing in
public school system which is the most
grateful heritage we receive from our fathers,
and the best legacy We can leave to our
children, finds ample house room and school
room for every Kansas child and for such
struggling waits as come to us for aid in
Kansas, except those birds of passage which
fit by US, grim reminders of old communities
With a cheerful audacity that almost chal-
lenges admiration Grub street scribblers on
venal press which panderS to the most vicious
instincts Of semi-civilized foreign colonies
like New York city and Chicago, with semi
Darbaric splendor at the apex and semi
barbaric squalor at the base Of their social
life, have offered puny and presumptous
criticism Of those whose shoestring they are
not worthy to unloose. The dogs Of Egypt
have barked at the pyramids unanswered for
fifty centuries. When the accused doge stood
before the Venetian council, he said: My
defense is your accusation. -
Let Grub street rail on. They well know
that Kansas was a pillar of cloud by day
and pillar Of fire by night before an OPP
pressed people in the nations darkest hour
We shall keep those fires alight in our camps,
Till this is indeed a government of the peo-
pie and for the people, and by the people.
A resume of the state finances. which
is first taken up, shows Kansas to have
reduced her state Indebtedness in the
past year from $788, 500 to 1852 900: S449.-
O0c Of which latter are owned by the
permanent school fund. The report
then returns to the educati mat
tiers, and after treating the subject
fully, says:
The percentage of iliteracy is lower and the
average OF general intelligence is higher in
Kansas than in New York and the New
England states, which is most gratifying to
our people. The permanent school fund
amounts to $3.50, s87.
Railroad legislation is by far the
most important topic discussed by the
governor. He attacks the interstate
commerce commission as that subter-
fuge for Justice whose report just
issued after eleven years Of waiting
states that the law under which they
are acting was defective and had been
held by the court of last resort as in
operative and unconstitutional Thus"
continues he, after fifty years of eff
fort in this direction, we find that prac-
tically nothing has been done toward
the control of our corporations; that
the question has been delayed and
avoided as much as possible through
the courts, and finally, at the end, we
Inu the Will or the people thWarted
and the corporations resting upon the
. bosom Of the supreme court with the
same feeling of confidence and secur-
ity that an infant reposes upon the
bosom of a wet nurse"
Gov. Leedy recommends a maximum
freight law and the board of railroad
commissioners be vested with the pow
ers Of a court, and given the power
TO adjust fares and freights within the
state. In an attempt to overcome the
inequalities in interstate commerce,
suffered by the state, he advises the
people of Kansas to seek for justice out
of court. This, he thinks. would be
found in the states west Of the Mis-
sissippi river, building a road Of their
own to tide water by the shortest and
most direct route.
IF the states of Texas and Nebras-
ka," says he. would join us in the
building OF a line to Galveston. the ex-
pense of building a road would be-
merely nominal when compared with
the vast sums of money that would be
saved to the citizens of these states
through the lowering of freight rates"