Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1898-01-04
KANSAS POPS TO HOLD A MEETING
IN LEEDY'S INTERESTS.
ONLY HIS FRIENDS INVITED.
SOME WHO ARE NOT HIS FRIENDS
WILL ATTEND, HOWEVER.
Latter Are Indignant Mt the Attempt
to Shut Them Out of n POpulist
MeetinS-Friends of Sen.
atOr Harris Were
Sighted.

Topeka, kas., Jan. S.-(Special.) The Pop-
| ulist state central committee and a few
other invited guests will meet here
| Wednesday and Thursday for the purpose
| of outlining a policy that will assist Gov
| ernor Leedy in securing n denomination.
1t promises to be the l~iveliest seance ever
held by the disciples of despair in this
| state, not even excepting some of those in
| which Annie Diggs and Mary E.. Lease
participated and tried to get at each
other"
There is an air of mystery surrounding
! the whole affair. For some reason, Chair
man Riddle issued Il call for a committee
meeting and attempted to keep 1t out of
the papers. A member of the committee.
Grant Harrington, let the story out, how
ever. At first it was intended to have only
the members of the committee present, but
later Riddle changed his mind and decided
to have a few select friends of the admin
istration. Then he broadened it to take
in the chairmen of the Pop county commit
tees who We're favorable to the administra-
ton. So 1t finally developed that 1t was
not a meeting to talk over party policy.
but solely to devise plans to help Lcedy
out.
Outside of the members of the commit
tee, no Pop has been invited who is not
known to be a Leedy man. A few state
senators have been invited, but the ma
jority of them have been sighted. Sem
ator Fields. of Reno, who is under the
control of w. l.. Brown. who is Leedy's
right bower, is one of the senators invit-
ed. Four county chairmen We're here to-
DAY, and not one of them said he had re-
Ceived an invitation, but it is known posi-
lively that several chairmen have been
urgently requested to come. George Easter
wood, chairman of the Wyandotte county
committee, says he has been sighted, and
that he will not come here and force HIM
self on the meeting. although he believes
he has about as much right to be consulted
about party policy as any other county
chairman. He is not an enthusiastic
Leedy man. however, and this explains
why his presence has not been urged.
Some of the county chairmen and Pop
senator's and representatives who have not
been invited intend to show up anyhow
and attend the conference or force Chair
man Riddle to bar them out. They are in
dignant over the manner in which the
chairman is running things. However.
they do not blame Riddle particularly.
They claim that he is nothing more than
the 'servile tool of Governor Leedy, and
that when Leedy pulls the string Riddle
must jump.
1t also developed to-day that Riddle has
ShoASo oi VI Ahc lllSllu VI
Senator w. A. Harris. some of whom are
the most influential Pops in the state. and
who were fighting for reform when Riddle
was one of their arch enemies.
With all this precaution to have none
but Leedy men on guard, Riddle will find
himself unable to control things and make
the meeting a harmonious affair. Some
fellows intend to speak their pieces. They
intend to tell how Leedy has Disseminated
In his appointments. TIT Third congress
sional district. which gave him more than
half his majority. will be heard from That
entire district got less good offices than
kinsman county, which gave but a couple
of hundred Pop majority. Several things
of this kind will come up. and before the
meeting is over there will be "a hot time
in old town."
Other Pop state chairmen long ago learn
ed not to get such a crowd of Pops togeth-
er at one time. They found out by past
experience that about twenty Pops are all
that can get along tremendously at one
sitting. They usually hold these seances
by congressional districts. Sometimes it
was all they could do then to hold the
Pops down. Riddle imagines tina he is
bigger than his predecessor and can con-
troll the crowd better. but he will find out
after 1t is over that he is mot so much
after all.