The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-01-30
Ross1NeToN's MAIDEN SPEECH
Brilliant Topeka Lawyers First APP
pearance as q Republican.

There was considerable interest in
the speech of Colonel w. H. Rossing-
ton, who was scheduled to talk about
Party Realty" Colonel Rossington
has been for many years an old-nne
Democrat until the rise of fusion. He
would not espouse the Populistic IDEAS IDEAS
party, and two years ago announced
himself Republican.
In his address he told how the Ike
publican party gained the ascendency
in Kansas ain the early history or the
state, and how even Democrats VINO
came to the state turned Republicans
because, in the language of Chef Thom-
as. there was more of EN-" He told
how the power of the Republicans was
so great that 1T was commonly SAID
1.-THE Republicans might nominate and
elect a yellow dog upon their ticket,
and the powerless but cheerful Demo-
cratic minority were wont to say that
this conviction was born of frequent
and successful experiments. Colonel
Rossington told of the rise of factions
and how party principles were relegated
to the rear and the party organization
looked upon as a sort of gift enterprise
in which the most active land impoT-
tunate got the rewards. Colonel Ross
ington continued.
1.-THE beginning of the end was in
1891. The Republican party seeming to
be the only power under heaven in the
state, is it altogether incredible that
there should be laid to it's door by many
the failure of the early and the later
rain and the want of money to pay the
mortgage on the farm? But the vote
which chastened the Republican party
was not wholly made up of those cred
ulous ones who were persuaded that
they We're aiding in the coming of n
socialist millennium and who believed in
the regeneratlng efncacy OF absurd Pop
ulist ideas. For years the leaders of
Republican factions had unstintedly
abused and slandered each other. They
washed their party linen without re.
serve in the presence OF an opponent
whose weakness they deSpiSed; and the
everyday voter came to believe these
scandals, and shall we say that their
belief in them was wholly unwarranted?
Beyond doubt a large number of the
1900 ma jority that chose Harrison cleo
tors in 1888 helped to give Weaver a
majority in 1892, and Bryan larger one
in 1896. Nor though it was tried, could
this wholesale detection be stayed by
placating the Farmers Alliance and af-
fecting to fall in with PopuliSt theories
in Republican platforms. The Republi-
can congressional convention that NOM
mated Halloweil for congress to run
against Jerry Simpson adopted a plat
form of principles compared with which
the Ocala address was coldly conserva-
tive. and the platform at Omaha, draft
ed by Ignatius Donnelly, was pattern
of moderation. 1 forbear to do more
than allude to that unfortunate speech
in the United States senate, after the
first Populist victory that filled the
mouths of Populist orators with preg-
nant texts during the remainder of the
existence of that party.
Il am not here to signalize the privi-
lege of speaking in this honorable com
pany by making myself disagreeable; 1.
only allude to these unpleasant Incl
dents to point my moral a little later on.
About this time was born scheme
or device, named by it's promoters as
fusion which bears the same relation
to decent party politics that bunco-
steering and the purveying of gold
bricks do to legitimate and honest bust
ness. From 1891 to 1885, during which
this constituencies device was success
full, men of my way of thinking, who
had been allied with the Democratic
party and who believed in the largest
measure of local self government con-
sistent with the constitutional exercise
of federal authority 40 were opposed
to all schemes of governmental pater-
nalism, the party of honest money to
be honestly collected and economically
expended for public purposes, the party
of Seymour, Tilden and Cleveland, were
disfranchised in the state of Kansas
They had the choice of voting either the
Republican or the Populist ticket. There
was no Democratic ticket named and
rendered to their SURFACES. This was
the result of what was called fusion,
which had for its avowed purposes the
success of PopuliSm in Kansas and its
incidental Indictment, the procurement
of few offices for the so-called Demo-
cratic partners in the enterprise"
Colonel Rossington said much of the
credit for the downfall of Populism and
the Republican majority in Kansas in
1900 was due to the Gold Democrats He
continued:
Some effort was made after the cleo
ton in 1900 to reorganize the Democratic
party The true leaders of that party
had been discredited and retired. Mr..
Bryan insisted that no reorganization
was necessary or could be had. That
as to Democrats like myself, who had
opposed the Chicago platform and ma
tional Populist fusion, we might be per-
mitted to return if we came in on our
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