The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-07-09
ABOUT TOPEKA.
Milwaukee Newspaper Man Dis
cusses Kansas.
Writes an Interesting Letter
on City and State.
PLEASED WITH PEOPLE
Makes Political and Other
Studies Of West.
Personal Incidents and GOss ip
About Kansans.
PLEASED WITH PEOPLE

E4liiS 3. OSHefs VINO was sent 10 NAN
sas by the Milwaukee Journal, has
published his first letter. 1t is largely
about Topeka and is as follows:
Almost anyone who keeps informed
as to political movements in this coun-
try would turn to the state of Kansas,
as / did, the other day, if he wanted
to study the genesis of Populism- Pos
sibly a wiser man than I might have
chosen another season of the year, and
one with more ability to see into futur-
ity would surely have avoided the most
phenomenally hot June in the history
of this section. Ny consolation, that
have been here at a time when the
mercury was soaring above 80, day and
night lies in the fact that the weather
reports tell me that there are others,
and 4 grovel In the ungenerous conscious
ness that misery gets from company
have the advantage of excellent
letters of Introduction and the conse-
quent acquaintance and hospitality of
a clever and cordial coterie of Tope-
ka's men of prominence. at the Topeka
club. Fred Vandegrift, the Topeka COR
respondent of the Kansas City Star, a
man who. his friends all tell me. in
confidence, is the best posted newspa-
per man in Kansas, ran a grind" on
me yesterday by calling attention, in
a loud and vociferous manner to the
anomaly of the situation that-"Usher
is down here studying Populism at the
Topeka club" But as Mr.. Vandegrift
says of himself, that he is an IAN &c
lectic in politics." I enjoyed some OPP
portunities to study him and get the
benefit of his catholic spirit and infor-
nation One of the first questions he
asked me was:
THE TRUTH ABOUT POPULISM.
Are you after the truth? If you are
not here merely to bolster up preeon-
ceived notions. you can learn some
thing. and you want to see Annie
Diggs. She's the smartest woman i'll
Kansas today, and she can tell you
anything you need to know She has
been in the Populist movement ever
since it started. She is honest. She
believes in it. and she knows every
body worth knowing, that had any
thing to do with it,
Inquiry discovered that AIrs.Annie L.
Diggs is the present state hbrarian.an
that she and the chief justice of the
and the state comptroller. Mr.. Breiden-
thai, are all there is left in state Office
of the ten years reign of Populism in
this state. Everyone speaks in the
highest terms Of Judge Doster and
members Of the bar who have no SYM
pathy with his political views, admit
his honesty. his learning and his high
rank as a jurist. If I may judge from
remarks heard since I have been here.
Judge Doster would be reelected, with
politics in a Kansas judicial election as
there is in Wisconsin But the justices
Of the supreme court have to run the
gauntlet of political conventions here
in Kansas.
KANSAS KEEPS MOVING.
Everybody in Kansas. like the inces-
SAINT Winds is moving. Activity of the
restless sort came to Kansas with her
earliest emigrants, and if I We're to
diagnose the political pecuIiarities that
have given Kansas notoriety. if not
fame,I should go back to the beginning
of her settlement bleeding Kansas
attracted to her borders the Yankee
from New England and his descendant
from the western reserve of Ohio. and
the native of the south, who was an
other example of AngIo-Saxon earnest
ness and force. But the Yankee is the
man wldo won and he and his children
have put their impress upon everything
to be found here.
The New England Yankee brought
anti-slavery, prohibition. public schools
and all the elements of intellectual
restlessness that makes New England
fallOw ground for all new theories from
those Of Joe Miller to those of Mrs
Eddy.
Topeka IS a New England citS. IN
looking at the signs over the doors Of
business houses along Kansas avenue,
the principal business street. I might
easily have imagined myself in some
interior city of New England I no.
tfced but two German names and one
Scandinavian name. There are more
than this, of course. but not many
was moved by noticing the signs to
look in the directory and here are q
lot of names took Off at random, that
viii suggest what I mean better than
I can tell it:
Adams. Coffin, Hatch. Bliss. Holmes.
Crosby, Hixon, Howell, Bryant. Whit
tier. Bradford, Ripley
KANSAS POPULATED BY NATIVE
AMERICANS.
On the census of 1S90-the last census
is not yet in print-Kansas had a
population, 1894 per cent. of which were
native born, and the same year Maine
which leads the list of New England
states, was below Kansas with $685.
while Massachusetts followed far be-
hind. with only 1855 per cent of native
born inhabitants. less than Wisconsin,
which had 1896 per cent
1t viii be seen that if Kansas has !
had any freakishness in politics or so
ciaI questions, it is not because her |
ideas have been imported from foreign /
lsnds. Her population is not only /
largely native born, more so than any
but some Of the southern states but |
it is a population that has in il all the /
elements Of inherited pride Of birth and I
tradition, SO far as American instftu-
tons are concerned It is>a population /
of more than average intelligence as to 1
ideas, because this sort of knowledge is
bred in the bone and has come down
from the seventh OF eighth generation.
Herein may be a cause rather than a
safeguard from theorizing and vagary.
Here. too. may be an explanation for
what seems an entire recovery IN so
short time from Populistic dominance /
in Kansas politics.
THE SPIRIT OF POPULISM
A gentleman told me, yesterday, of
an incident in bis own experience. He
had been a soldier OF the civil war
Kansas is full of them-and one dav
when he was driving in the country.
overtaking farmers wagon that had
stopped in the road he recognized the