The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-01-27
A NEW NOTE.
Sounded By Senator Harris To
day In His Election Speech.
The Cry of Want Must No Long
er Go Cnheeded.
LEGISLATION NEEDED
And Not Charity to Remedy the
Evils
LEGISLATION NEEDED
Of Unequal Distribution of
Wealth and Property.

W. A. Harris was formally elected
United States senator from Kansas to-
day at the joint session of the house
and senate. The election was without
incident. Senator Harris was escorted
into the presence of the joint assem-
bIage, and said:
Mr.. President and Gentlemen of the
Kansas Legislature: When 1 consider
the high honor that you have conferred
upon me, when L think of the conf
dence reposed in me as one of the rep
resentatives in the senate of the United
States of this great state, I feel that
any words of thanks that 1 may utter
will seem utterly stale fiat and INSULT
cient. However, desire to say that, deep
", profoundly and gratefully, from the
bottom of my heart, L thank you.
am not ashamed to say, also, that when
consider the vast responsibilities rest
ing upon me to adequately represent
the interests of this great state and to
maintain her place one of the bright
est stars in the galaxy of the Union,
and to retain your generous confidence,
/ am not without fear and miSgiving-
If it were possible for you to find com
bined in one man the magnificent elo-
quence of Ingalls,, the tremendous en-
ergy and industry of the iamented
Plumb and the absolute faith fulness
and integrity of PETER. then, indeed,
you might have representative worthy
cerned, all my tastes have lain in the
direction of the plain, simple, frank
manners and methods of the country
According ely, you will not expect of me
any brilliant rhetoric or skillful politi-
cal maneuVering in the discharge of my
duty I shall endeaVOr, in a simple,
unaffected, practical and manly way TO
maintain the cause entrusted to me-
I'm the consideration Of the great
problems that are before US, it must be
considered that there has been no lack
in this great country of ours in the pro-
duction of all things that constitute ma
teriaI wealth Our ability to produce
all that is brought from the bowels OF
the earth, or that is reaped from the
fields, or that is produced by the skill
of the artist zand-of the mechanic is the
most wonderful story ofhuaan achieve
mentS. We may, Therefore, wonder why,
with this fabulous store Of wealth sur
rounding US on every hand, there is
not that general diffusion of prosperity
and contentment and happiness that
might fairly be expected Certainly
the want, or the evil, or the weakness,
must lie chiefly in the methods by
which this vast wealth is, or should be,
distributed among the people
In the great work of distribution,
the two factors which are of the great
est Importance are finance and trans
portatiOn. 1t is not strange. therefore,
that the public mind everywhere should
be concentrated upon these two ques.
lions as of prime importance ana vital
interest.
when we come to solve the ques-
lions pertaining to these, we ma, nrst
that the use of great corporate power
is absolutely essential No great work
requiring the concentrated effortS Oh
many men and requiring time, vastly IN
excess of the duration of any human
life can be affected without the aid or
these artificial creations 1t is abso-
lutely necessary that we should nave
corpora tons, and it is, therefore, not
against corporations in themselves that
any reasonable or legitimate objection
can be made. 1t is equally and unqueS-
tionably true that the abuse OF coIpor-
ate power. its extension beyond its
proper legal sphere and its encroach-
ment upon the field of individual action,
has attracted the attention OF the aplest
minds of the country. regardless OF
party: and it is. therefore.I think in the
direction of the correction of these
abuses that practical, reasonable and
legitimate effort must be directed
From the time of the Dartmouth
college decision down to today, there
seems to have been mapped out field
exclusively occupied by corporations,
which to the average private citizen
seems strange and mysterious They
have been endowed with rights which
are wholly different from those which
are exercised by the natural citizen
They have been given powers vastly in
excess of his, and without limitation or
restriction, are permitted to go in
many directions altogether and entirely
beyond the rights accorded to natural
citizens. 1t seems to me that the same
rules of equity and justice which are
observed by all mankind in their nat
ural relations with each other should
not be made of no effect, and should APP
oily with the same infallible and auto
matte strictness to the opera ton of cor
porations.
IF the private citizen can not claim
that his debts or the interest on his
d,4bts constitute a part of his capital to
be regarded as essential to be provided
for before he can be charged with the
amos1nt of his income, then it seems to
me equally true that a corporation
right IF it is true that an individual is
limited III his ability to escape liability
and is herd rigidly to the performance
of contracts, then it should be equally
true that the. artificial citizen created
by legislative enactment should be con-
fined even, more rigidly, because of its
great power, to the same honest per-
Torrance of duty
In the matter of financial policy,
while an Individual is deprived of the
right to circulate rs money his notes
then there is TO rea son why an aggre-
cation of individuals should be endowed
with the power to a bSolutely contract
| and determine the tot al volume of that
| which is usually called money and to
uSurp the functions of sovereign power
If it is true, as we hive been taught
/ for ages, that the automatic theory OF
the supply by nature of the two prec-
ious metals should be tn only means
| of and the only RESTRICT On upon the
volume of the basic money, and that Ia
Dor, as applied to the produ elton of the
two precious metals, cOnSl flutes the
most certain and unwavering measure
| of values, then it is equally true that
| the supply of the precious me tails thus
| obtained should not be interfelsed with
| in behalf of any class or special inter
| est. The whole automatic theory is de-