The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-07
5BEN f. M LEAN
: is ATTACKED
lnsinuations Made Against His
Personal Honesty.
CALLED A PUPPET TOO
DisgracefuI Methods Used to
Defeat Him.
DODGERS FLOOD THE TOWN
Eleventh Hour Outrage Calls
fOrsRebuke.

The candidate, or party, or 5vI7mittee
that issues a circular the last day of a
political campaign has got TO learn that
1t Is the most dangerous thing that can
De done The people are prejudiced
againts such methods. If candidate, or
party, or a committee has anything to
say, he or it should say it early. The
rule was proven yesterday when a man
named Ratliffe, in the interest Of the
Citizens ticket, and signing himself
president of the Ross Committee"
issued a dodger and thereby lost his par
ty many votes by his attack on Ben Nc
Lean.
Who is Ratline? Rumor has it that he
runs an incubator or two on the edge Of
town and raises patent chickens" for
the market. Outside Of a few Sumner
county people-there is where he came
from-c Comparatively few know him 1t
h. said, however. that he is well known
taere-aIso in Kingman county in the
vicinity OF Charley Mannings ranch. He
is not generally known here but he seems
to be getting ready to be known by but
ting into city politics. He has taken the
so-called reform end OF things like all
men who court hasty prominence. His
name is not familiar on subscription lists
framed to secure industries for the town.
There are not very many bricks in the
bold packing house representing the
sweat OF his brow. He is not generally
known TO the men who worked so hard to
get the Orient railroad, or any other
enterprise.
M. Ratliffe creates the impression that
he is a business man suffering horrible
burdens under tho Mclean administra
ton. He is no business man at all. II
he were. he would not waste in a little
exi0 eleventh-hour campaign dodger.
enough hot air. to run fifty incubatOrs
for six months. How many unborn
-'chicks" are wasted in that dodger no
mathematician about the Eagle Office !
pretends TO know, for none of them have |
been so lucky as To have learned from !
lar Ratliffe when ne was school teach |
ing in Sumner county.
Mr. Ratliffe insnuatingly calls Ben Nc |
Lean puppet-aye, a ''puppet in the |
hands of official subordinates. Nice |
thing to call a man who has labored in /
season and out Of season for the upbuild- /
ing of Wichita man who spends more |
money In charity every year than the en- /
tire annual product of Ratliffes incubat-
ors amount to- What do legitimate bust I
ness men think of that? This gentle
also refers to Ben Mclean as a plastic. |
weak or wavering Official He does not /
stop there but clamors for q man who |
will hold the welfare of the whole people |
as paramount to personal aggrandiZe- |
ment." This is an insinuation that Ben |
Mclean has been personally aggrandiz-
ing himself at the expense of the people /
since he has been mayor of Wichita. Does |
any decent man in Wichita believe it? |
Then why not rebu1e vicious attacks
on a decent fellow business man?
Ben Mclean won his way to a high |
place among the business men of Wich-
fta. He has earned well the confidence |
of the people. He has raised himself
from a poor boy who slept on the bare
floor of a lumber office to the highest
social and political station in the city Of
wichita. To be sure, he is a public of
fcer, but that is no reason why he should
be a target for every political adven-
turer who drifts into Wichita, butts into
politics and catches on to the tail of the
first kite he sees.
F. Nighswonger, chairman of the Citi-
gems central committee lends his name
to the disreputa bic document. In appear
ance, he does, for his name is there, but
IL would he safe 10 say that Mr.. Nigh
swonger never signed II. To be sure he
is against Ben Mclean for mayor, as he
always heretofore was against Mr.. Ross
for mayor. but his friends Indignantly
deny that he entered into co-partnership
with the gentleman from Sumner and
Kirgman in the issuance of yesterdays
dodger ITO the Voters of Wichita"
While Mr. Nighswonger sees great polit-
ical advantage in splitting the Republi-
can party. or trying TO split it. in favor
OF Populism. nobody believes that he
would seek TO accomplish that result by
attacking the character of so good a man
as Ben Mclean. The result of todays
election viii prove whether Wichita
stands for decency as against unwarrant-
ed abuse in politics.