People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1898-08-18
Harbaugh and the High Schools.


calities, that l had something to do
with the smuggling Of the High School
bill through the last legislature.
Nothing is further from the facts, l
had nothing to do, either directly or
indirectly with any attempt to spirit
that bill through: neither did ! know
at that time, that there was any at
tempt by anyone else TO get the bin
through in that way.
A number of my frisnds have asked
me to write true statement OF tie
matter for publication in the VOICE
and have concluded to comply with
their request.
The first knowledge l had of such
a bill was when Mr.. Carver, the au-
thor of the bill, came to me with 1t
and explained its provisions and ask
ed me what thought Of it. told
him that if he would change the bill
so as TO leave its adoption TO the vote
Of the people Of the county l would
then have no objection to the bill,
but If left in its present form | would
have nothing to do with it. | find
upon examination Of the record that
this bill was introduced in the house
on February 18th or abOnt the middle
Of the session. About this time |
met the editor of the VOICE in the
hall of house at Topeka and said 10
him that entertained some doubt
whether the people Of our country
wanted such bill to pass or not, and
asked that he publish the bill or the
principal features Of it, in the VOICE,
and ask those interested in the mat
Ter to write or petition me as to what
they wished done with the bill. Mr..
Naugle agreed to do this but claims
that he afterward forgot to keep his
promise as was explained in the VOICE
some time afterwards. Failing to
get the desired information from this
source | mentioned this bill in my
letters to my constituents and asked
then to write me with regard to the
sentiment In their neighborhOOd. |
received several replies, some OF
which / still have in my possession,
and to my surprise all were favorable
to the bill except one from the vicin'
ity Of Oxford in which the writer eX-
pressed some doubt with regard tC
the matter, but had no time TO fully
investigate. / had also received quite
a number of unsolicited letters all
urging me to support the bill. This
was the evidence l had when the bill
came up for consideration in the COM
mittee Of the whole house. That was
the proper time to offer objections To
the bill if there were any. Much as
l had tried to ascertain the sentiment
Of the people, / found myself without
any positive evidence that a single
person in Sumner county was opposed
to the bill. | had nothing to base an
objection on, yet in order to leave
our county commissioners free to act
as the people might direct in the
matter, / asked that the bill be
amended by striking out the word
".shall" and inserting the word may
when it says "the commissioner:
shall enter into an agreement Will
the board Of education, etc, but the
party who had the bill in charge re-
fused to accept any such change.
then handed the bill back to hin
feeling that | had done my whole
duty in the matter.
Now comes the question, "Why die
you vote for the bill on its final pas
sage?" And this is a very proper
question, too, especially from anyone
who does not understand how loca
bills are passed. When local bill
come up for final consideration al
are grouped together that have beer
agreed to and passed under one rol
call. In this case eighty odd bill
were passed at one time-One OF then
being a bill ! had introduced. Had
voted against this bill would hav
had to have voted against my OWL
bill and some eighty others. No on
is expected to vote against batch o
local bills on their final passage.
In this explanation do not wis
to cast any reflections upon tn
: MERITS or demeritts Of the High
School. 1t is the way in which tn
=, bill passed that wish to make plair
Yours Very Respectfully.
q. +. HARBAU0H.
L Concord. Kansas, August Is, 1895.