The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-02-20
OUT GOES ROSS.
Senate Adopts Elections Report
by a Party Vote.


The Republicans threw out Senator
Ross last night and seated Robert Find
lay in his stead It took three hours of
talk before the matter was put to a vote.
The vote stood "a to 8. being a strictly
party vote. The report of the committee
had been changed in order to keep the
Republicans in line and it had It's effect
for none Of them voted against the report
as made by the majority of the commit
tee The committee had made a report
throwing out nine townships IN the dis
trict but because a number of senators
objected to this high handed method the
committee made the change although
the report stated that the nine town
ships could have been thrown out and
the committee took great credit to itself
that it did not do so.
The minority report was fled by Sena-
tor Wright and with the report was filed
a transcript of the evidence in regard to
the township which the committee had
thrown out In some mysterious way
this part of Senator Wright's report
could not be found and was not read It
was the reading of this testimony filed
by Senator Wright that the minority
members depended upon making theig
showing. It contained the testimony of
the Republican judge in which he said
that there was no fraud in the township,
and this was the reason the testimony
was lost. Senator King and Senator
Wright both asked to have the teSti-
nony filed by Senator Wright read but
Senator PeStana and Senator Fitzpat-
rick, both members of the committee.
objected at Hrst pretending TO think the
minority members wanted to hear all of
the testimony brought before the COM
nittee which was manifestly impossible.
They consumed some time under this
pretense and when they were finally
made to understand that the testimony
called for to be read would not occupy
half an hour they again objected on the
grounds that If it was to be read it
IN
report.
In making his report Senator Wright
called the scnate's attention to the fact
that in the township which had beer
thrown out there was no complaint that
anything was wrong, but that in order
to get some one to make the complaint
they had got q man nomed Casey, an r.
ishman, who lived 10 miles away to
make the charge Casey admitted that
he could not understand German, but his
testimony was taken as to what the
judges and voters had said to each other
in the German language He also called
attention to the fact that the figures as
presented by the majority report did not
tally with that as taken from the ste
nOgrapher's copy when it was made.
The debate over the matter got heated
and Senator Cubbison was the only mar.
on the Republican side to admit that the
unseating of Ross was political matter
and was to be looked at in that light
only. He referred to the methods adopt
ed by the Populists when they were in
power and favored running the Dand
wagon over the minority side just as the
minority had run it over the majority
when their cases were reversed He de-
voted his speech for a time to Senator
Householder and did a. 1emarkable job
of roasting. Senator Householder got
the floor and called Cubbison down for
misstatement of facts for which an
apology was at once made
Senator King made his first speech of
the session and he charged that the Re
publicans were simply taking seat that
honestly belonged to Senator Ross He
wanted to hear the evidence from Chey-
enne township read because he thought
it. no more than fair that the senators
should learn for themselves how the
committee had arrived at the conclusion
that there was fraud.
Senator Fitzpatrick spoke for almost
an hour explaining how the committee
had worked and what they had discover
ed. He objected to any testimony being
read as he considered the work Of the
committee sufficient. He wanted to know
what use g. committee was unless its re
port would be accepted without invcsti-
cation by the senate. He limited that the
ballot box il. Cheyenne township had
been stuffed although he did not make