Kansas City daily journal., 1897-02-04
A Word In Defense of Kansns.

Word In Defense of Kansns.
From the Boston Advertiser
| To the Editor:-In recent issue of your
| paper there was an article taken from an
| exchange. referring to Kansas as the
! Fool state.
1t is quite the fashion at the present
time TO sneer at the old battle-ground for
| freedom, and her misfortunes are counted
against her in way that recalls the story
| of the under dog.
| She has had-she still has-her peculiar
trlals. and. being down. it is the right and
privilege of every man to strike her a blow
How many of the writers who favor the
| press with statements of Kansas imbecili-
ty and impoverishment have ever lived
| within her borders and know whereof they
| speak? l am interested because a distin-
! gulshed Boston physician once attending a
member of my family who was ill., said in
response to the patients inquiry as to diet:
don't suppose YOU relish Cruel be-
| cause you came from Kansas, where they
have to live on cornmeal."
asked whether he was familiar with
| the West, whereupon he replied: NO, oh
| no: have never been west of Buffalo"
Then. 1 answered please do not make
such statements, for l never lived any
where that I found it so easy to supply a
bountiful table"
The next day he asked a great many
questions regarding the Sunfiower state,
that would have done credit to a foreign
school boy. So it is. Seeing is believing"
put since 1t is not possible to restrict pen
pictures to actual observers, it is we'll to
remember certain historical facts.
The time is not long passed since Massa-
chusetts was Familiarity called the home of
the Retormers. and what were reform
erS but the cranks of that day?
large portion of the liberal religionists
ana the social agitators wore their hair
long If men: short. if women, and dated
their letters from Boston,
The anti-slavery agitators were deemed
peculiar people, whose hobby could never
be ridden to victory, and are there not to-
day certain advocates of the single tax
and the Atkinson oven, the mention of
whom in conservative quarters provokes Il
smile?
The author of that we'll read editorial
mats the Matter With Kansas" would
De the very last man to hand the good
name OF his state over to her revilcrs \
bit OF satire sometimes is more telling than
plain rebuke Mr.. White used it, as he
proposes to use all his influence, to purify
the moral atmosphere.
How much more is the remedy needed in
New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania?
There is no desire on the part of the
true friend of Kansas TO hide her short
comings. Let her rouse herself to action
and shake off the incubus beneath which
she Is groaning. But this weight is not
by any means altogether of her choosing.
VINO were the men that made up the great
Investment companies? Largely Eastern
men.
Who were their dupes? Largely Eastern
men and women
have recently had in my hands a paper
purporting to be a first mortgage on a
section of fertile bottom land. issued to an
Intelligent investor by Boston agent"
about whom nothing in Kansas was ever
known.
Yet Kansas has the credit of cheating
the honest New Englanders right and left,
and because some few hot headed country
politicians suggested that free silver
could he used OF lessen the sum of their
Indebtedness there arose a great cry that
kansas" wanted repudiation.
L nave never yet heard the name even
OF reputable farmer there who intended
to defraud the person holding a mortgage
on his lands.
We may differ from Governor Lecdy on
the subject of his literary style, but we
cannot do other than admire his strong
plea for education and justice toward the
unfortunate.
Whether Prohibition" prohibits or not.
it has made a peculiarly clean state of
Kansas. The absence of intoxicated men
on the streets. the record of crime: which
shows remarkably small percentage of
criminals, the education statistics, giving
an increasing intellect in their schools and
colleges, making a sum total of the phys
ical. mental and moral conditions in great
distinction to the picture drawn by alarm
lists. and the dupes of their own race and
region.
That Kansas is peopled by New England
ers must not be forgotten, and although it
has become an adage that transplanted
New Englander is the cream of our civili-
Zation we must not look for social perfec-
tion. Kansas is splenddly endowed by ma
ture with both grain and W eeds So. too.
she has a noble population, but there is al
ways chaff with the wheat G.