The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-09-10
Is John Martin, Roosevelt or
Webb McNaIl
IN GOVERNORS CHAIR.
One Who VIII Enforce the Law
and Isn't Afraid.
As For Mr.. st. John He Will
Vote For PETER.


candidate for governor this year. In
discussing his stand he says:
1t is notorious fact that in all the
cities Of the first class in Kansas, a lot
of habitual criminals openly and def
antly sell Intoxicating liquors in viola
ton of the constitution and laws of the
state.
The fact is equally notorious, that not
withstanding the duty imposed upon
the governor to ''see that the laws are
faithfully executed and notwithstand-
ing the law clothes him with ample
power, through the appointment of
proper police commissioners to suppress
this reign Of lawlessness, ard notwith-
standing his solemn oath to support the
constitution and faithfully discharge
his official duties, he has never made
an earnest, loyal effort to enforce this
law or punish its ViolatOrs. I can not
consistently endorse Governor Leedy
now, IN pursuing a policy for which l
condemned Ex-Governor Morrill, two
years ago. My opposition to Governor
Leedy is not based upon the fact that
he is an anti-prohibitionist, for would
rather see a brewer who would respect
the obligation of his official OATH and
his duty to ''see that the laws are faith
fully executed in the gubernatorial
chair, than to have a Sunday school
superintendent occupy that position who
would try to carry a Joint" on one
shoulder and a church deacon on the
other
The people of Kansas have not for
gotten Judge John Martin away back in
the eighties. He was not only a strong
nti-prOhibitionist then, but the paid
attorney for the liquor sellers of To-
peka, Governor Click appointed him
to the position of district judge. It was
soon demonstrated that John Martin,
the paid attorney for the liquor sellers,
and John Martin the sworn judge, whose
F1e 11rrr
two distinct characters. As an attorney,
he knew only the interests of his
clients. AS a judge, he knew only the
constitution and laws, which he had
taken a solemn oath to obey, and he
was true to that oath and accomplished
more toward enforcing the prOhibitory
law than any man in Kansas. 1t is
no excuse to say that the law "can not
be enforced for such a statement is
absolutely false; besides it is an insult
to every true Kansan to thus intimate
that our people lack the loyalty and
courage to compel an obedience to the
constitution and laws of the state.
The fault is not in the law, but lies
at the doors of gang of unfa1thtul
officials Teddy Roosevelt, when
president of the board of New York
city police commissioners, closed every
one Of the 10000 saloons in that great
city on Sunday, and declared that II
the law authorized it, he could keep
them closed every day in the week NOT
because he believed in prohibition, for
he did not, but because he believed it to
be the duty of an officer to enforce the
law, whether it suited him or not.
What Kansas needs today in dealing
with the liquor question, is a ROose-
welt, John Martin, or Webb McNan in
the gubernatoriaI chair.
1 think it is safe to say that at least
so per cent of the voters in the PeO-
pies party are in favor of prohibition,
but they are in the country, running
their farms, while the other 20 per cent
party's politics. This fact probably ac-
counts for the demand in the party
platform for the immediate abolition
of the metropolitan police system, and
also the demand for a constitutional
convention, both of which were no doubt
inserted for the express purpose OF
soldifying the liquor vote for Leedy-
not stopping to think that for every
vote thus secured from the liquor men
and their friends, ten would be lost
from the ranks of the sober law biding
electors of the state. Every needed
change in our present constitution can
be secured at comparatively small cost,
by amending that instrument instead
of subjecting the taxpayers to the
enormous expense and trouble of a con-
StitutiOnal convention. A proposition
to call such a convention was submit
ted to a vote of the people only a few
years ago, and it lacked about 10000
votes of carrying; while here in john
son county it was voted down by nearly
1000 majority. The truth is, the poll
ticians who manipulated the convention
did not dare to declare directly for re-
submission, so attempted to bring it
about through the indirect and decep-
tive way of a. constitutional convention.
The abolition of the metropolitan po-
lice system" means the surrender of
prohibition in the cities of the first class
and the lying down of the governor and
allowing the rebels, who have trampled
the prohibitory law under foot for the
past seventeen years, to walk rough
shod over the will of the people.
While I am opposed to robbery by
the stock yards, railroads and insurance
corporate and trusts, and heartily
commend Governor Leedy for his
efforts to suppress their practice of
plundering the public, I am also op-
posed to the Illicit liquor traffic robbing
the wife of her husband, and the moth
er of her boy. And any officer who fails
to use all the power that the conStitu-
ton and law gives him, to protect the
homes, motherhood and childhood of
bers, should never be honored with a
second election
Will Stanley do any better if elected?
I answer emphatically, No. But we
are told he has been Sunday school
superintendent for the past twenty
five years. That is just what was said
about Morrill, to catch the temperance
vote. The result was that Morrill, got
the vote, and the temperance dupes
got the experience. And a sad one 1t
was, too. Everyone of the 240, 900 liquor
dealers in the United States, including
all the ''joints'' in Kansas, has per-
init to engage in the business of des-
trOying homes and manhood under
law passed by the Republican party.
Even the old soldiers homes are cursed
with these dens of iniquity. Nearly
every regiment that went to the front
during our war with Spain had one of