The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-05-11
WILL WRITE MAKES A STIR

William Allen White is in disgrace.
The brilliant Emporia editor and author
may be said to be ''off the reservation"
The particular offense which has
startled the people and especially the
Republican politicians was an editorial
printed in the Emporia Gazette in which
some plain things were said about Pres
ident Mckinley. An ordinary every day
citizen might have said the same things
and no one would have paid any atten-
ton to them A reform editor might
have written them and the statements
would have been forgotten as soon as
they were read but when VIII White,
the gifted author and a part Of the
Kansas Republican machine gives utter
ance to such sentiments it is sufficient
excuse for the free use of the harpoon.
1t would have been all right for Mr.
White to have his own opinion Of the
president but being a Republican he
should have not expressed it though he
is really not expected to hold adverse
opinions Of any one belonging to his
party and least Of all it's leader and the
head Of the government.
But Mr.. White has a. way of doing or
iginal things. He is not held by the linn
itations that restrain the average editor
and that is why he has made a name for
himself; that is why he is not common
place. The man who does things forever
in the ordinary way is never heard FROM
Editor White said Of President Nc
Kinley:
Mckinley never had an idea in his
head He is essentially not a thinker.
He is in no sense a scholar. He has not
kept anywhere abreast of the economic
faf IF INIT
Of SO he was insure about finance. He
has uttered no sentiment in all his four
years of official speaking and writing
that has lived 30 minutes after it was
put on paper. Twenty men in Marion
county can make as good speech as
Mckinley and the editor Of the Record
can make a better speech than McKin-
ley ever dreamed Of. No man who
doesn't read can have much to say. You
can't draw water from an empty cistern
Mckinley is only a man-just a COM
mon, ordinary man. with two legs and
the usual number of feet and eyes and
brains and teeth and vertebrae. A man
doesn't have to know much to be presi-
dent of the United States The average
president of the United States stripped
of his fame and power would not be
eligible to membership in a mans lit
erary club in a country town There
have been three exceptions to this rule
in 40 years"
Republican editors doesn't like Whites
editorial and he takes the following shot
at him with one of his 16-inch batteries:
Mr.. White says that Mckinley has
not kept abreast of the economic
thought Of his time. That is a high
sounding phrase and it seems to be
based on the assumption that William
White knows what the economic
thought Of the time is. Now, viii
Whites friends and acquaintance are
aware that he has no more idea Of
economic science than -tom-eat has Of
the doctrine of the atonement He
wouldn't know an economic thought
if he were to meet it in the middle OF
the road And vet he assumes to criti-
else the president of the United States
The gall of some men passeth under
standing"
MeNeal is probably as far wrong as
White for the Emporia editor is recog-
nized as thinker and he can discuss
economies quite as well as NIcNeal, him
self but even if he could not that is no
reason why he should not criticise Nc
Kinley
After the storm subsidies Mr. White
viii probably be received back to the
fold because he is needed. It is easy
enough to get along without the people
who never make a stir but Mr.. White
is not one OF those