The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-01-20
V defina BILE since the election ane.

" deflna bic since the eIect1On anu
visible in every Kansan's spoken - =
tinent that now if never before man
was to be governor of Kansas who was
to at last deserve the admiration and
support of his fellow citizens. The fu-
ture has been opening rosily for him.
The well-to-dO men of Kansas as well
as the less worldly blessed have looked
upward with smiling and expectant
faces hoping and in many cases be-
Heving that a leader had arisen who
was to be just to all, cringing to none
and while pushing forward great re-
forms with a firm but gentle hand, was
not to plunge the state into factlonal
wars or bring unnecessary hardship on
those who had prOfited by the faults of
o1lr social system or by the unjust dis
tribution of the material benefits of this
world. VIII the army OF selL-seekers
and office grabbers drag him from the
npdestaI on which the people have vol
unfairly placed him? This is the criti-
cal hour Party strife is Gained. The
ADVERSE ies of the new doctrines have
ceased their jeers and Outcries; the vast
audience is listening tip-toe. What Will
he the utterance that the leader of
mighty human force will give them?
VIII there be applause, or VIII there pc
cursing? One false note, one badly
weighed expression of sentiment, one
eouivocaI sentence, one solitary effort
at deception will undo him. All Will
at once become hubbub, execratlon, de-
nunciation again. He will be dragged
from his high seat as soon as conSu-
tutional provisions will permit and the
people will seek elsewhere for a leader
America is af1oat on boundless sea
The people are bound for distant
port but they cannot forSee clearly
what it is Only the coming century
can unfold to them where they shall
land Kansas is only a little IN ad-
vance of the fleet; all the rest of the
American commonwealths are coming
swiftly on.
souls Will Governor 1eedy sink weak
p,Iseless and defeated as his predeces-
sors lacking in the divine hre that
makes men strong and heroic. rms Is
no mere common change of offices that
we see in Kansas. The wrestling noisy
mob that has come up to the capital
looking for 'salaried places totally mis-
takes the cause of the ground swell
that has stirred Kansas for the past SIX
years The grim wrinkied and sun
burnt farmer who clincheS his fists and
sets his teeth together heavily at the
injustice and poverty that IS ms lot,
the coal miner that struggles to suS-
tain life for his family on rs cents
day. the stOrekeeper forced to the wall
by the absolute inability of his former
customers to buy; the home builder OF
the city robbed of his cottage after nav
ing two-thirds paid for it, the workman,
clerk and artisan out of work for month
after month who must pe-tOrce take
aims though kindly cloaked in some
softer sounding words by chafltaDle
aSSOcia lions, all-eVery one OF them-VO-
ted for the new movement because 1t
held up the promise that there We're
better things in store for them, their
wives and children; better things if
they could only act together to change
unjust laws and commercial customs
They did not cast their votes to proX1de
a lot of squa billing politicians with Uni
ted States senatOrshipS; they were not
reading, talking and thinking all last
summer that country political heelers
should have places on the board OF
charities or the board of public works
or the state penitentiary board; or that
some cheap, stump talker should zeal
out flour to the imbecileS at WlnneId or
that his wife or daughter-ln-laW Should
scrub diShpanS at the insane asylum.
This was not what the election was for.
Yet to judge by the noise made by the
lean and hungry thrOng that now pay
board bills at the hotels Cor beat them)
or make din at the railroad offices de-
handing Transportation" one would
imagine that 100000 people in Kansas
were put in violent agitation for six
months last summer for that very pur-
pose. There is something more imposing
than this and more profound in the up
rising that has marked recent political
events in Kansas. Since creation the
human race has advanced steadily
toward a higher plane. Starting in the
more intelligent communities these pill
grima geS out of the old into the new
have marked the toilsome upward ad-
vance as the centuries have passed on.
Kansas is far in the lead in one of these
pilgrimages. 1t is not always that men
and women are to live on crusts or ac-
cept charity in a land of plenty, that
children are to go barefooted and rag
ged, where the supply of clothing can
be made limitless, that 14O0 little ones
in Topeka must go to a charity Christ
mas tree because their parents can't
afford to give them presents at home,
that men are to toll from daylight I'M
til dark with no time to read or enjoy
the companiOnship of their families, that
farmers are to be denied most of the
comforts of Ife.> that the sick die be-
cause they can not afford suitable med
icines or dare not cease their body
killing work long enough to give nature
chance to recuperate. These things
must end some day. This is going to
be a better world. This was the high
ideal that got the votes.
And to think the hotels of
Topeka are full of creatures
who think that it was all to pro-
vide them with officel 1t is time for
John w. Leedy, if he is the man the
people. of Kansas took him for when
they elected him, TO undecsiVe them.