The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1898-04-01
CoBURN FOR KANSAS CITY.

The Leavenworth Times scores Co
burn, the secretary Of the state board
of agriculture, and most justly, for
furnishing his monthly reports to the
Kansas City, Missouri, papers before
the same reports are given to the Kan
sas dailies outside of Topeka, or which
amounts to the same thing, Coburn
issues and mails his reports at such
hours as precludes their reaching any
Kansas morning paper outside of To-
peka until a day after their appearance
in the Missouri papers. The result is a
grave injustice to the Kansas papers
named, wrong to thousands of Kan
cams who contribute to the support of
Mr.. Coburn's Office, that is: 1t is
wrong if the reports are to be consider
ed important or valuable. Alfred Gray,
who set the pace for that department,
and who rendered it such a distinctive
value to the state, adhered to the rule
followed by national and state officials,
who through the medium of the Asso
ciated Press, serve all papers alike, and
at the same hour, whether by wire or
mail. Coburn discriminates in the in
terest Of the Missouri papers, and
against the press of HIS own state. As
a Kansas official he seems-like too
many other men, interests, officials and
institutions of Topeka and of eastern
Kansas-to be dominated by that Mis-
souri, town which as a municipality has
grown powerful, and where corpora
tons and combines have grown rich,
by robbing Kansas. Nothing of eastern
Kansas escapes entirely the controlling
influence of Kansas City, Missouri, not
even Kansas railways. The Santa Fe
Is now being employed to run a fast
mail in the interest of these Kansas
City daiIies, which papers are accord
ed a further advantage over Kansas
papers by Mr.. Coburn, one of the evil
dent aims being that the people of
southwest Kansas shall thereby be in
weighed into supporting Kansas City
papers, and thus be induced, like east
ern Kansas people, to patronize the
Missouri town to the hurt of their own,
thus through the discourag cement Of
local capital and enterprise force this
section to also become tributary to the
merchants, dealers and interests of
Kansas City. The Eagle has more
readers in this section than all the
morning papers Of Kansas City COM
bined. These Kansas readers are
placed at a disadvantage so far as Mr..
Coburn's reports go. The same mails
which convey these reports to the
Leavenworth Times, to the Wichita
Eagle and TO the st. Joseph papers,
also carry the Kansas City papers con-
tanning the said report printed in full
1t Is a clear waste of postage by MIR
Coburn 10 thus mail his reports to the
Kansas papers, and the editor of the
Eagle. in a personal letter to that Off
cial some months since not only clearly
pointed out these facts. but emphasiz-
ed others. Coburn's reply was to the
effect that these reports, made at the
instance, in the interest Of, and at the
expense Of the people Of Kansas, were
sent to all the papers simultaneously.
That is not the point. They should be
delivered TO all the papers simultaue-
ously, or so sent as TO be released all
at the same hour by wire, as is the rule
of the Associated Press.
Colonel Anthony in a letter to Co.
burn, yesterday. says:
You seem to Systematically and
purposely time the completion Of your
report that the hour of completion shall
be between the hours Of 1 o'clock and
o'clock p. III. You can readily see
that your report mailed to me is worth
less, and as I have frequently written
you before. the Leavenworth Times.
Wichita Eagle and other morning pa
pers within one or two hundred miles
of Topeka could have this report. pro-
viding il was mailed on the p N. mail
train. and they could publish the same
simultaneously with the Kansas City
Times and Journal This could be done
by you If you were DESTROYS Of being
fair and honest toward the newspaper
press in Kansas; but as you still con-