The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-02-28
KANSAS EDITOR HERE
WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE BEFORE
THE CONTEMPORARY CLUB.
He Talks About the Carrie Nation Cruz
sade-How He Came to Write
a Famous Editorial.

William Allen White. proprietor and ed
itor OF the Emporia (Kan.) Gazette, came
to Indianapolis yesterday to appear before
the Contemporary Club in the assembly
room Of the University Club last night.
He took an apartment at the Columbia
Club Mr.. Whites contribution to the
programme of the Contemporary Club was
a story Of Western politics, which is short
ly to appear in Scribner's Magazine. Fer
this reason he was compelled to decline to
give out any part of the manuscript Tor
local publication. The story is one OF Sc
ries that Mr.. White has been contributing
to Scribners.
Mr.. White was seen in his room at the
Columbia Club yesterday afternoon by a
Journal man. He is a very young-looking
man. of medium height slightly inclined
to stoutness of figure, and his smooth
shaven face wears a jovial smile almost
continually. He is a fluent. agreeable
talker. Asked for an expression concern
ing the Nation movement In Kansas, Mr..
White said: Mrs. Nation is not crazy.
She is fanatical and probably hysterical
at times She does an immense number OF
very foolish things. So, for that matter,
did John Brown; so did the Apostle Paul,
and so did Peter the Hermit. She is SIM
Fly carrying a large wooden-type banner,
which says In effect what the people are
beginning to believe, that is, that the liquor
traffic is nasty business, and that the
men who engage in 1t do not command the
respect of the community. She simply
stands for an idea. She is lawless and
ought to be punished, and in Kansas the
lawless saloonist ought also to be pun
ished."
terest in the lynch talk" that he heard
in the lobby of the club, concerning the
regro that assaulted Miss Darter. II am
inclined to think" he said, that the new
tangled frills and fortunes and barbara
trimmings that they are putting on these
lynchings are a bad thing. They brutalize
community worse than the crime Itself.
The selling OF human beings toes, for
instance, has just as bad effect when the
fact Is printed in the newspapers of the
community. as does the knowledge of the
course. protect itself by the determination
of human brutes, but society also ought
to protect itself against the brutality of
a mob. The fact that a mad dog is a bad
dog is no reason why he should be publicly
brought into an assemblage of ladies and
gentlemen and roasted to death. If there is
killed by the first person that gets to him,
but to torture the dog and make public
spectacle of the torture scrapes off good
deal of the thin veneer Of civilization and
makes us SayageS.
Mr.. White told in his entertaining style
the true story of how he happened to write
the editorial that first brought him into
public notice, Whats the Matter with
Kansas He said that during the cam
paign of 1896 the Populists of his native
town of Emporia, as In all the other cities
and towns of Kansas, stood about or.
street-corners arguing and wrangling over
political issues with whomsoever they
could entice into the discussion. 81 sup
pose the reason Republicans weren't doing
that sort of thing" said Mr.. White, face
tiously, was that they were too busy to
loaf" One day as he was on his way to
the postoffice with a large bundle of mail
he was accosted by big Populist. who ad-
swered the question and soon found him.
self in the center of quite crowd OF shout
ing, gesticulating Populists They were ex-
tremely intolerant, and whenever he made
a point would laugh and jeer at him un-
mercifully. In desperation he got out OF
the crowd and went back TO his office and
penned the editorial that made him famous.
White, land L sat down and said on paper
all the things l wanted to say before the
crowd, but which they would not let me
say. ii was merely an outburst of temper.
My wife was in Colorado sick, and got on
the train in a few hours and went out
there. leaving that editorial ON the hook
in my Office. When l returned in about
a week 1 found the boys had printed the
piece and l also found number of letters
concerning 1t on my desk. IT had about a
weeks start and had been copied into some
other papers. From that time 1t went the
rounds. Mr.. Hanna afterwards told me
that the Republican national committee
had used that editorial more than any
other one document in the campaign OF