The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-14
People at Last to Have Some
thing to Say About 1t.
CLOUDS GATHERING.
Campaign Against A. ID. Walker
Is Fairly Started.
Mr.. Morse Also Has a Glimpse of
Breakers Ahead.

udllOIi VI Tic Three Cd1NidotCS III AN~--
road commissioner. 1t will be the first
time railroad commissioners will ever
have been nominated which will war
rant a free-for-all contest.
The present incumbents will all
doubtless be candidates for nomination,
and the fact that they already have the
jobs ought to give them some prestige
in securing the nomination. but it will
not necessarily head off a fight on them.
So far as fractional differences are con-
cerned, the board is pretty evenly di-
vided. A D. Walker is an extreme
Curtis man and hence bitterly opposed
to Cyrus Leland and his friends. J. c.
Q. Morse is just the opposite. He was
one of Senator Longs close advisors
in the senatorial fight last winter. and
hence an opponent of Curtis. George
W. Wheatley is about half and half.
although his election on the railroad
board was brought about by a deal
among the Burton members of the ex-
ecutive council.
Both Walker and Morse may have
contests in their home counties before
they get to the state convention
Walker aSSuredly will, and probabl
Morse also. Walker will have a hard
fight in Jackson county with w. A.
Thompson, the present county treas
urer. who announced his candidacy for
railroad commissioner several weeks
ago. Thompson is said to have the
Republican club of HOltOn, where both
live, solidly behind his candidacy, which
would seem to give him a little adj
vantage to start with, but Walker is
an adroit politician and may be able
to counterfeit this influence. If Walker
is defeated at home it will, of course
remove him from the fight in the state
convention, but this would by no means
give Thompson walkaway there. The
job of railroad commissioner is consid-
ere -le of the best Dlums in the state
gov -lment. 1t pays $500 a year SAL
airy, the railroad companies are COM
PEELED by law to give the commissioners
passes and there is comparatively lit
tie to do. This makes it an exceedingly
attractive position, and there will be
plenty of candidates for each of the
three nominations to be made by the
state convention.
Morse will have no other candidate
for railroad commissioner to fight in his
| home county, Reno, but there is a pos
sibility that he will have a clash with
L. L. Dayhoff, superintendent of pub
lie instruction. AS he will have to
night for nomination Morse will want
Reno county delegation which he can
control in his personal interest If a
| fight should develop on the state ticket
Dayhof will want a Reno county dele
cation which he can control and in this
event their interests will probably clash,
as it is doubtful if two candidates on the
state ticket can be nominated from the
same county. So in case of a general
fight, If Dayhoff is nominated Morse
probably will not be. and Dayhoff's Of
| flee will come first in the list of norai-
nations. If there should no fight develop
on the state ticket a renomina ton for
superintendent Of public instruction
would doubtless be conceded to Dayhoff
and he could then afford to allow Morse
doll ion hut
otherwise Morse might have to fight for
| 1t, and if he should fail to get it he
would be nearly as bad off as Walker
If he fails to carry Jackson county.
| George w. Wheatley has no home
| fight ahead of him, and he is probably
as satisfactory to both factions of the
party as any man in the state, so that
unless too bitter a factionaI fight comes
up in the state convention he may be
| able to steer his way to a denomination
with comparatively little difficulty. This
does not mean, however, that there will
! be no candidates against him, for there
undoubtedly will be.
Walker and Wheatley will quite like
ly have the Fifth district almost solid
ly against them. One of the conditions
of the deal among the Burton members
of the executive council by which
Wheatley was elected on the railroad
commission, was that W. H Smith of
Marysville should be let out as secre-
\ tary of the board and Cy Anderson of
Rawlins county, elected in his place.
Smith is a power in the Fifth district
and consequently he will do all he can
against Wheatley and Walker who en-
tered into the deal To aid him he will
have the fact that the Fifth district is
pretty solid against anything that
SavorS of Burton, so that 1t is not at all
unlikely that the Fifth district will be
against these two candidates with the
exception of Clay and Dickinson coun-
ties, where Attorney General Coleman
and Senator Burton live. On the other
hand Oy Anderson, the present secre-
tary of the board, will doubtless do all
he can to renominate both Walker and
Wheatley, and as he has considerable
influence up in the northwest he may
be able to counterfeit the Fifth district
situation unless local candidates uE
there should complicate the situation.
The business interests of the state
will probably take a hand in the nom
lination of railroad commissioners. The
millers and some other shipping in
terests appeared before the executive
council a the time the railroad com
missioner was elected last spring. buf
in the fight for factional supremacy the
business interests of the state were los
sight of. Notice was given at that tim'
that the shipping interests of the state
proposed to see that good men wer'
nominated for railroad commissioner:
next year regardless of politics, anC
the various organizations of millers
grain dealers, cattlemen, wholesale
merchants and other business Interest,"
will probably, take hand in politics t.
this extent
This possibility was source of worr.
in the recent cattle rate hearing befor
the railroad board, and it was doubles
great relief to the commissioner
when the railroads laid down and con
coded the demands of the cattle ship
pers The railroads have also listene
to the protests against other propose
= freight advances and no case has re
quired a decision from the board. Tn
cattle rate hearing especially. placed tn
railroad board in a serious predicamen'
: If they had believed the railroads wer
: right in their contention it would hav
: srrayed the cattle men solidly agains
them. and the cattle men who appeare
! before the railroad board were the one